I really admire catalogers. It takes a lot of patience and skill to do
their jobs well, and most of the ones I have met are very dedicated to
their jobs.
I think there is a LOT of room for improvement in that particular
subfield of librarianship. For example, MARC is not a good record
format - it reflects the limitations of computers and storage media in
the 1960s and 1970s, is needlessly arcane, and doesn't play well
with...well, with anything, really.
Individual catalogers are forced to stay with the old way of doing
things, so you can't really point the finger at them as individuals.
The real problem is that the library world in general is slow to adopt
changes to its fundamental technologies and standards, so things like
MARC continue to exist, through sheer momentum.
Library schools should be training catalogers in real information
science, as opposed to the limited, insular library world view of it.
All librarians (catalogers or not) should come out of school with "power
user" computer skills, at the least. They should also know SQL and have
intermediate level database skills. We are a profession that is closely
tied to technology, and our training should reflect that.
Jesse Ephraim
Youth Services Librarian
Southlake Public Library
1400 Main St., Ste. 130
Southlake, TX 76092
Email: jephraim_at_ci.southlake.tx.us
Phone: (817) 748-8248
FAX: (817) 748-8250
www.southlakelibrary.org
uncommonly friendly service
Received on Thu Feb 12 2009 - 12:39:00 EST