A frustrating meeting with the director of your library? I have those practically every day.
And cataloging definitely has value.
I just wish our main cataloger had even the slightest intellectual curiosity about schemas other than MARC. Not even MARCXML.
You try to explain to ours the importance of PREMIS, EAD, or even just qualified Dublin Core, and all you get is the same answer:
"MARC does all the things those do."
Well, no, no it doesn't.
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of NGC4LIB automatic digest system
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:00 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: NGC4LIB Digest - 6 Feb 2009 to 10 Feb 2009 (#2009-17)
There are 9 messages totalling 379 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Does cataloging have value? (9)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:11:37 -0800
From: Shirley Lincicum <shirley.lincicum_at_GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Does cataloging have value?
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
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:17:21 -0500
From: "Pile, Joy" <pile_at_MIDDLEBURY.EDU>
Subject: Re: Does cataloging have value?
Yes it still has value. In the digital age, well crafted metadata enables search engines to find items. Traditional cataloging is using a set of rules to apply a standardized set of metadata so that people looking fo a specific item, or information about a particular topic can find it.
Joy Pile
Reference and Instruction Librarian for Foreign Languages and Music
110 Storrs Ave.
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT 05753
pile_at_middlebury.edu
tel. 802-443-5140
fax 802-443-2332
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU]On Behalf Of Shirley Lincicum
Sent: Tue, February 10, 2009 3:12 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [NGC4LIB] Does cataloging have value?
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
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:18:23 -0500
From: Tim Spalding <tim_at_LIBRARYTHING.COM>
Subject: Re: Does cataloging have value?
I value them a lot. They strike me as the one necessary function of a library, and, at best, something of a force-multiplier for everything else the library does. I also think they-or more properly the tools and technologies of their profession-are holding libraries back.
Can you go into any more detail?
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
>
--
Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:22:59 -0500
From: Sharon Foster <fostersm1_at_GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Does cataloging have value?
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
>
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:28:14 -0500
From: Jonathan Rochkind <rochkind_at_JHU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Does cataloging have value?
In my opinion. Cataloging has a lot of value -- but the WAY cataloging is done NOW needs to be modified to get better cost benefit. But getting rid of human metadata control in libraries would be a shame -- although it would be a lot easier than what really needs to be done, which is changing the way cataloging is done.
Shirley Lincicum 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
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:36:15 -0700
From: Janet Hill <Janet.Hill_at_COLORADO.EDU>
Subject: Re: Does cataloging have value?
Despite what some people seem to think, librarians actually tend to be ready and eager to believe in the overall magic of new technologies and applications. So ready, in fact, that we have a long history of making changes in practice and belief (and in staffing and funding) IN ADVANCE of the technology or application being available/existent/proven.
Your administrator is just one more in the long line of people who believe everything that anybody says in praise of something new, and who is taken in by claims that "X is obsolete."
The romance of the new is terribly seductive. But being swept off your
feet by the passion of the moment is not enough. You really should feel the glow and be willing to consider the possibility of happily ever after, but it's just as well to have someone who is willing to ask, "yeah, but what will you live on?"
Catalogers are frequently the people cast in the role of asking the distasteful and niggling questions, so that those who would rather be carried away by the dreams without regard to such bothersome details as buying food and finding a place to live, do tend to be annoyed. And so they may view catalogers as "what's holding us back" when frequently it's cataloger-like thinking, and cataloging-type work that makes the dream achievable in the end.
Janet Swan Hill, Professor
Associate Director for Technical Services University of Colorado Libraries, CB184 Boulder, CO 80309 janet.hill_at_colorado.edu
*****
Tradition is the handing-on of Fire, and not the worship of Ashes.
- Gustav Mahler
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Tim Spalding
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 1:18 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Does cataloging have value?
I value them a lot. They strike me as the one necessary function of a library, and, at best, something of a force-multiplier for everything else the library does. I also think they-or more properly the tools and technologies of their profession-are holding libraries back.
Can you go into any more detail?
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
>
--
Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:48:14 +0100
From: Weinheimer Jim <j.weinheimer_at_AUR.EDU>
Subject: Re: Does cataloging have value?
To me, it's a no-brainer. For a library to exist in the first place, it needs a = collection. If a library has no collection, nobody wants anything to do with it.= Whether people like it or not, for a collection to be useful at all, there need= s to be some kind of finding tool to get into it. That tool is called a catalog.=
There are lots of problems with using the traditional catalog, but there are adv= antages also. A catalog is necessary, perhaps a necessary evil, and the people w= ho make catalogs are called catalogers. Get rid of the catalogers, you get rid o= f the catalog, and then there is no way into the collection and the library itse= lf ceases to exist. Of course, lots of changes are needed to the catalog if the = catalog is to continue to exist.
That said, I would also be very interested to hear the complaints. Those kinds o= f comments are golden!
Jim Weinheimer
>=A0I value them a lot. They strike me as the one necessary function of
>a =A0library, and, at best, something of a force-multiplier for
>everything =A0else the library does. I also think they=97or more
>properly the tools =A0and technologies of their profession=97are holding libraries back.
>=A0
>=A0Can you go into any more detail?
>=A0
>=A0On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 3:11 PM, Shirley Lincicum
>=A0<shirley.lincicum_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>=A0> I just got out of a really frustrating meeting with the director
>of my =A0> library. I'm left wondering, does anybody out there (other
>than =A0> catalogers) value anything that catalogers do? Or are
>catalogers the =A0> main thing holding libraries back in this day and age?
>=A0>
>=A0> Thanks,
>=A0>
>=A0> Shirley
>=A0>
>=A0
>=A0
>=A0
>=A0--
>=A0Check out my library at
>http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:04:15 -0800
From: Kyle Banerjee <kyle.banerjee_at_GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Does cataloging have value?
> Despite what some people seem to think, librarians actually tend to be
> ready and eager to believe in the overall magic of new technologies
> and applications.
This is not peculiar to librarians -- wanting to believe the impossible is a fundamental human weaknesses, and blind faith in technology goes way back.
This idea that collections can develop and organize themselves may just be a fad. When computers first hit the workplace in a large scale in the early 80's, there was a lot of drivel about the "paperless office." In the mid 90's, there it was "zero administration machines."
No one can mention either of those things now without getting laughed out of the room since paper use has gone way up and computers are more of a PITA than ever.
Now the buzz word is "cloud computing," but I'm afraid I actually believe in that one. We'll see how kind history is down the road.
kyle
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:49:11 -0500
From: "Edward M. Corrado" <ecorrado_at_ECORRADO.US>
Subject: Re: Does cataloging have value?
There are two issues here. 1. Are catalogers valued? and 2. Are catalogers the main thing holding libraries back?
#1. I certainly believe that a huge percentage of libraries (esp.
academic libraries) value there catalogers. If they didn't, why would they still have them? I know of only one academic library that has announced that they "are effectively "getting out of the cataloging business"." [1] If catalogers where not valued, I'd think we would be seeing many more libraries follow suit.
#2 assumes that libraries are being held back. Accepting this point for a majority of libraries, I think in individual libraries, you could point to person A or department B and say that they are holding that particular library back because they don't want or don't agree with the need for change. In order for this to be catalogers being the main thing holding libraries back, a supermajority of the people holding the profession back would need to be catalogers. While I have not seen any statistics on this (not have any clue of a way to get accurate ones) it has not been my experience that any one area of the library profession has a lock on "holding libraries back." It is equally (or more) likely that instructional services, administration, reference, and yes, even the systems people are holding any particular library back as it is that it is the catalogers.
So yes, catalogers are valued and no, catalogers are not the main thing holding libraries back in this day and age.
This of course leads to the question as to what is the main thing9s0 holding libraries back, but I will leave that question as an exercise to the reader.
Edward
[1]
http://ulatmac.wordpress.com/2006/12/03/getting-out-of-the-cataloging-business/
> 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
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
------------------------------
End of NGC4LIB Digest - 6 Feb 2009 to 10 Feb 2009 (#2009-17)
************************************************************
Received on Wed Feb 11 2009 - 14:51:50 EST