Yes. No.
Speaking as someone who works part-time at a reference desk, where
most of the inquiries start, "I can't find this book....." I do value
what catalogers do. I do wish that the location information for a
particular book could be more fine-grained. We have separate areas for
New Fiction, New Non-Fiction, and New Biographies, but they're not
listed that way. I don't think that's a cataloging problem as much as
it is the fact that no one wants to have to update the records when
new books get moved to the main collection.
On a larger scale, the issues of whether and how to open up the
library catalog to the rest of the Web is not just up to the
catalogers.
Sharon M. Foster, 91.7% Librarian
Speaker-to-Computers
http://www.vsa-software.com/mlsportfolio/
On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 3:11 PM, Shirley Lincicum
<shirley.lincicum_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> I just got out of a really frustrating meeting with the director of my
> library. I'm left wondering, does anybody out there (other than
> catalogers) value anything that catalogers do? Or are catalogers the
> main thing holding libraries back in this day and age?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Shirley
>
Received on Tue Feb 10 2009 - 15:24:14 EST