I would think that it might have something to do with issues like
licensing, "sliding windows" of holdings availability, the replication
of journal titles within multiple databases, the movement of various
iterations of full-text in and out of aggregator packages & databases,
synchronization of bib data, holdings, and/or URLs in multiple locations
(A-Z lists, e-records vs. print records in OPACs, SFX, ERMS, etc.),
authentication, proxying, and various other complicating matters.
While there are some parallels with serials (licensing, packages,
synchronization/maintenance, authentication) I don't see monographs ever
becoming as complicated to manage as journals. E-monographs are more
stable, don't tend to change title, get abridged or added to databases
(conference pubs notwithstanding), are not "continuing" (constantly
added to), and are more amenable to provision of subject access. Many
of us have already been dealing with monograph file maintenance issues
for much longer than we have serials maintenance, what with major
microform sets, GPO SLS/SLM records, e-books, ETDs, superseded editions,
version control, and so on. What more can they throw at us?
Charley
Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
> I'm curious to hear from a serials cataloger what the "enormous wave of
> change that passed through serials librarianship in the last ten years"
> is. Apparently it involved "bringing new automated techniques for record
> creation and maintenance and demanding new job descriptions, skill sets
> and tools," writes Calhoun. So, I guess she's saying a similar thing is
> going to happen with monographic cataloging, but we'd need to know what
> happened with serials cataloging to know what she's saying exactly.
>
> Jonathan
>
> Ted P Gemberling wrote:
>> Karen Calhoun's talk today at the Future of Bibliographic Control
>> symposium is available as a pdf,
>>
>> http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/meetings/LC_WG_Bibliographic_Con
>> trol_Briefing-Calhoun_1.pdf
>>
>> and I wanted to throw out some questions about two passages.
>>
>>
>>
>> Budgets
>>
>> "Pressure on technical services staffing budgets is occurring at the
>> same time as ARL materials expenditures continue undiminished. This is
>> an important point, because technical services staffing is declining
>> while the number of materials needing processing is not. Furthermore,
>> the manpower for processing physical resources (books, serials,
>> audiovisual materials) continues to demand a large share of technical
>> services' salaries and wages; ARL libraries continue to acquire tens of
>> thousands of printed books each year; and 85% of WorldCat is still books
>> (e-books account for less than 1% of this number).
>>
>> "My intuition suggests that some sort of tipping point is coming. The
>> large expenditures on e-resource aggregations (and the necessity of
>> making them accessible to users) have already had a dramatic impact on
>> the practice of serials librarianship, bringing new automated techniques
>> for record creation and maintenance and demanding new job descriptions,
>> skill sets and tools. The enormous wave of change that passed through
>> serials librarianship in the last ten years has not yet reached
>> monographs cataloging in any significant way, but I believe it will."
>>
>> What is Calhoun saying here? I doubt that she's suggesting libraries are
>> going to stop buying print books and start buying e-books. She seems to
>> be referring to a work-flow adjustment of some sort. Does anyone have a
>> rough idea of what kind of change she contemplates?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Demographics
>>
>>
>>
>> "For years Stanley Wilder, University of Rochester River Campus
>> Libraries, has been studying the demographics and hiring patterns of ARL
>> librarians ... In the fifteen years leading up to the year 2000, while
>> the hiring of "functional specialists" (new types of jobs in libraries,
>> often technology-based) rose dramatically, new hires to cataloging
>> positions fell 45%. During that same fifteen years, the hiring of
>> newly-degreed librarians to cataloging positions fell 64% ...
>>
>>
>>
>> "The retirement wave for a generation of bibliographic control experts
>> is expected to build to full strength starting in 2010. After the exodus
>> that is coming, it seems to me unlikely that the role of librarians in
>> technical services departments will continue in the same way,
>> considering the competing pressures on the salaries and wages budget and
>> new hiring patterns described previously. I fear that research libraries
>> will be unable to sustain the traditional practices and staffing
>> patterns of bibliographic control, whether they wish to or not."
>>
>> She may be right, but isn't that something of a self-fulfilling
>> prophecy? Isn't the drop in staffing largely a result of people saying
>> for years that cataloging will be unnecessary in the future, or mainly
>> automated?
>>
>>
>>
>> Ted Gemberling, UAB Lister Hill Library
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> Jonathan Rochkind
> Sr. Programmer/Analyst
> The Sheridan Libraries
> Johns Hopkins University
> 410.516.8886
> rochkind (at) jhu.edu
--
__________________________________ __________________________________
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Charley Pennell mailto:cpennell_at_unity.ncsu.edu
Principal Cataloger for Metadata voice: (919)515-2743
Metadata and Cataloging Department fax: (919)515-7292
NCSU Libraries, Box 7111
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
Adjunct Librarian, Memorial University of Newfoundland
World Wide Web: http://www.ibiblio.org/hillwilliam/chuckhome.html
__________________________________ __________________________________
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Received on Tue Jul 10 2007 - 14:02:40 EDT