When I took my school's required cataloging class, I fell into cataloging because I "got" it. I enjoyed the idea of putting an item into a neatly classified box.
Admittedly, it was a naively simple understanding of cataloging.
Shortly after I finished my beginning cataloging class, I secured work as a paraprofessional cataloger at a public library. When I started, I didn't really understand very much about cataloging, but I knew that I had all of the tools that I needed to gain a better understanding.
I'd worked as a paraprofessional cataloger for about six months before I took an advanced cataloging class. The advanced class covered music, serials, e-resources, videos/dvds, and maps. By the time I took the class, I'd had on the job training on cataloging videos/dvds, music, and serials.
Basically, for lack of a better metaphor (and to steal one from Caveat Lector's Dorthea Salo), I beat cataloging with rocks until I figured out how it worked.
Speaking of Dorthea Salo, she talks about the "training-wheels" culture in this post at Caveat Lector.
Salo seems to have lost her patience with those who aren't willing to figure things out on their own, but rather wait with baited breath for the training session. She uses cataloging as a prime example of the "training-wheels" culture in action.
Library schools are offering fewer and fewer cataloging classes, it's true, which means that catalogers-in-training will be more responsible for teaching themselves the nitty gritty of format-specific cataloging.
I think that library schools owe their students at the very least a basic understanding of how library catalogs are designed to work in terms of search and retrieval. They also owe their students as basic understanding of subject analysis and classification schemes.
Knowing how these things works makes you a better librarian no matter what area of librarianship "calls" to you.
But I've never been certain that asking a person who has no interest in cataloging to create an "original" record has any significant value for the student beyond turning them off to cataloging.
If I were teaching a "basic" cataloging course, I would teach students how to "use" a library catalog. I would teach them search strategies that can be used with all catalogs, regardless of vendor. I would teach students about controlled vocabulary and how subject headings are formed. I would teach students how to read bibliographic records. I would teach students about DDC and LC in general terms, and get them familiar with what goes where.
Librarians of every kind learn a lot on the job. Why should cataloging be any different?
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2 comments:
I too had to basically "beat cataloging with rocks" to learn it on the job, even though I thought my cataloging classes were good. I don't think you can expect to turn out great catalogers after one or two classes. The most important thing I learned in my classes was "where to look things up." Of course, at that time (1987), the places to look things up were not online, so you had to have access to a lot of bulky documentation and know how it was arranged. When cataloging discussion lists first started I was thrilled by the ability to ask questions of other practitioners. Now, however, there is a wealth of information at a cataloger's fingertips. The key is knowing where to look and how to find good examples of accepted practice.
I too lack patience with those who are not willing to figure things out on their own, but I've learned that some people simply do not learn the way I do. Many people cannot read instructions to learn something new. And, many people feel that they are so "busy" that they don't have time to sit down and work something out. Catalogers tend to be production-oriented people. They want to have completed a certain amount of work to feel good about how they spent their time. You don't get anything "done" when you fiddle with a new interface to see how it works, or spend time investigating the pros and cons of something like multiple versions or indexing rules for your local system, or learning how to catalog serials when all you've done up to now has been monographic.
Granted, many people are pressured by their workload and staffing shortages that they really don't have time to spend on learning. Sometimes it takes leaving the workplace and going to a training session to force that time availability.
But having said all that, I am still frustrated by "professionals" that I know who are incredibly busy doing things that are not the most important things they could be doing, simply because it's familiar and they already know how to do it (and they might be really good at it.)
You make some great points, Patricia, about cataloging be production-oriented. When I started out in cataloging, our department was very production-centered. You're success was based on your output, and it really would have been hard to justify a month's-worth of low numbers because you were teaching yourself something.
Perhaps this is why people are so dependent on training sessions. You can take the time you need to learn cataloging while, at the same time, looking "busy."
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