ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 4 4 2 /C &R L News The W ay I See It Future ca ta lo g ers: Essential colleagues or anachronism s? By Sherry L. Vellucci Broadening the idea o f cataloging to “organization o f information” Do w e need on-site professional catalog- ers?” A recent ALA conference program addressed this issue for public libraries, but the question is valid for academic libraries as well. Most o f the speakers validated the presence of catalogers, offering comforting platitudes and long lists o f essential cataloging tasks. I believe the catalogers in the audience left feeling af­ firmed and hopeful that theirs was a profes­ sion with a future. But I left with two serious concerns. First, although discussing the future, the primary focus o f almost every speaker re­ mained the traditional cataloger in a status quo, book-oriented environment. Second, while cata­ loging skills were presented as a universal good, no one discussed how they should be employed beyond traditional tasks. Rather than feeling uplifted, I walked away with a sense o f fore­ boding; I had seen the enemy and it was us! In the academic arena w e are questioning the future o f the cataloger in an increasingly electronic environment. I believe this future ul­ timately will depend on eschewing a narrow, job-specific focus, and adopting a more holis­ tic approach that broadens the concept from “cataloging” to the “organization o f informa­ tion,” a phrase often used but rarely applied in its broadest sense. Future catalogers must extend their view o f the organizing process beyond one particular cataloging code or record structure, and beyond the “item in hand” as the object o f bibliographic control. This broader perspective also requires a shift in self-percep­ tion from “cataloger” to “organizer o f informa­ tion,” and allows for the creation o f catalogs and information databases in any structure and anywhere within the information environment. The future cataloger As a cataloging educator I am committed to the future o f bibliographic control and those who practice it. But as many library administrators view outsourcing as a more efficient alterna­ tive to retaining on-site professional catalogers who function in a limited capacity, traditional commitment is not enough. In order to secure positions in times o f scarce resources, both administrators and catalogers must understand the wider applicability o f organizational con­ cepts. The knowledge now used to organize the local library collection must extend beyond tangible objects and local OPACs. The cataloger must understand the increasing variety and uses o f bibliographic data, and the database struc­ tures that might best employ data elements. Such conceptual understanding is the hallmark o f professional catalogers. It enables them to design and restructure bibliographic tools in response to evolving needs, and renders cata­ logers indispensable in the changing informa­ tion environment. If the goal o f libraries is to provide access to information, it is the organizational tools cre­ ated by catalogers that help the library meet this goal. These tools become even more cru­ cial in the chaotic Internet environment, where robot-generated indexes and search engines often result in information overload rather than relevant information access. Thus, bibliographic records for electronic resources must provide enough information to enable users to evalu­ ate the quality, value, and appropriateness o f the remote source. In order to accomplish this, bibliographic records must be enhanced, cus­ tomized, and linked to evaluative sources and to the documents themselves. Possibilities abound for creating hypermedia catalogs that are incisive tools for evaluating and accessing information, but their infrastructure depends on an understanding o f object description, hierar­ Sherry L. Vellucci is assistant professor at St. John’s University; e-mail: 4652928@mcimail.com mailto:4652928@mcimail.com July/August 1996/443 Future ca ta logers must extend their v ie w . . . beyond one p articular cataloging code or record structure, . . . chies, indexing concepts, bibliographic relation­ ships, linkages, classification, database struc­ tures, local collections, and user needs. Again, it is the conceptual understanding o f the pro­ fessional cataloger that is needed to develop and oversee these structures, not the well- trained but task-oriented paraprofessional. The ca ta loger a s colleague The image o f the cataloger as a backroom iso­ lationist has damaged the reputation o f cata­ loging and reduced the ability o f catalogers to interact effectively within the library environ­ ment. Regardless o f the validity o f this image, the reality must be different. Catalogers should be integrated into a team ethos, and regarded as conceptual problem-solvers who create and maintain organizational systems. In academe w e have many opportunities for collegial interaction. W ho better to work with reference staff to develop an Information and Referral (I&R) database using the MARC Com­ munity Information Format, or to create an OPAC-based selective dissemination o f infor­ mation (SDI) system? The professional cataloger offers extensive knowledge o f MARC structure and the authority control process critical to I&R corporate name access, as well as experience with subject systems used for query matches in SDI tools. Such collaborative efforts would use the cataloger’s knowledge within a broader con­ text, and bring a consistency to the entries and language in the local databases and OPAC that users would find a distinct advantage. Catalogers are also prime candidates to in­ struct users on OPAC content, structure, and search techniques. As physical presence near the catalog is no longer required, having cata­ logers respond to requests for OPAC assistance from off-site users is an ideal way to enable reference staff to concentrate on true reference queries, while keeping catalogers in contact with users o f the databases they created. A potential partnership also exists between catalogers and scholars working on electronic text encoding projects and creating W eb sites. Document “headers,” equivalent to a printed book’s title page, are generally encoded using SGML tagging for various data elements. The cataloger’s knowledge o f the elements required for object description and access, and familiar­ ity with encoding concepts are valuable for both creation o f the document header and mapping the header to a MARC record for bibliographic access. Also, knowledge o f hierarchical struc­ tures, bibliographic relationships, and linkages makes the cataloger an ideal consultant for anyone creating a hypertext W eb site. Finally, it is time for everyone to realize that biblio­ graphic data have wider application than their latent residency in an OPAC suggests. These data are used in automated collection assess­ ment tools based on the RLG Conspectus, and in management information systems relevant to many library operations. Catalogers must be aware o f potential uses for bibliographic data, and provide the type o f information that can be exploited within many different contexts, while administrators must capitalize on cata­ logers’ expertise when information systems based on their work are developed. Conclusions On-site professional catalogers are needed in academic libraries, and although aspects o f their jobs will change, catalogers should not feel threatened by this change. History suggests that for centuries the cataloging community success­ fully applied the newest technology to the or­ ganization o f information in a way that enriched our catalogs and benefited users. History has also shown, however, that frequently it was the visionaries within other professions who spear­ headed many o f these changes. I believe, as Michael Gorman has stated, that bibliographic control is the “framework for all practical ex­ pressions o f librarianship.”1 It is now up to the cataloging community to put this belief into operation, broaden its perspective, and take control o f its future. As the debate over the necessity o f catalogers continues, I hope it will be the catalogers themselves who emerge as the innovative leaders, guiding us towards the Universal Bibliographic Control envisioned a century ago by Otlet and La Fontaine. Notes 1. Michael Gorman, “H ow Cataloging and Classification Should Be Taught,” Am erican Li­ braries 23 (September 1992): 694. ■