It sounds to me as if you are suggesting the primary purpose of the
catalog is to help catalogers... create catalog records... for the
catalog... which exists to help catalogers create catalog records for
the catalog.
I assume this is not in fact what you meant?
It to me seems obvious that the catalog MUST be focused on meeting the
needs of those other than catalogers, to justify it's existence at all.
(And let me make it clear that I think the catalog is, or ought to be, a
very important tool in providing the services we provide to users; I
would not be happy to dispense with it). Even an argument that the
catalog should be targetted to reference librarians rather than
patrons/users makes more sense to me (although I don't agree with it)
than an argument that the catalog should be targetted to catalogers!
Jonathan
Ralph Papakhian wrote:
> hi,
> one must not forget that catalogers just happen to be one of the
> principal and heaviest "users" or "patrons" of library catalogs.
> why not cater to their needs?
>
> --ralph p.
>
> On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:20:55 +0000, Kathy Glennan <kathyglennan_at_COMCAST.NET>
> wrote:
>
>
>> Please do not generalize for all catalogers based on your experiences. For
>>
> many of us, cataloging is the ultimate public service -- we provide the
> metadata that enables resource discovery. As a cataloger, I am especially
> interested in how my institution's cataloging records are used by our
> patrons, and I have made suggestions for improvements in OPAC displays and
> search options in the two university libraries in which I have worked.
>
>> Kathy Glennan
>> Music Cataloger
>> University of Maryland
>> kglennan_at_umd.edu
>>
>> -------------- Original message ----------------------
>> From: Deb Bergeron <bergeron_at_MACALESTER.EDU>
>>
>>> Deb,
>>>
>>> To add a little spice to this, from my point of view, that is not the
>>> case. They are involved in changes, but want to make only changes that
>>> are good for them, not the patron or other users. They think in terms
>>>
> ..........
>
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Mon Sep 17 2007 - 09:22:26 EDT