Page 15 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

Preface

With more and more li braries be ing au tomated, the na ture of the
work in the cat aloging de partment has changed tre mendously. Cat a-
loging has be come more technical and less in terpretive, with empha-
sis on uni formity rather than lo cal vari ations. Cat aloging done on the
computer has to be pre cise, and ad herence to all the uni versally
adopted rules needs to oc cur. In most li braries, the bur den of per -
forming this task has been shifted from li brarians to li brary tech ni-
cians, and it is more im portant than ever that the li brary tech nicians
re ceive good ed u ca tion and train ing.
For the past twenty years, when ever I taught the course Cat aloging
and Clas sification in our Library Tech nology pro gram, I was con -
fronted with the difficult job of find ing a suit able textbook for the
course. After search ing year af ter year in vain, I had to face the fact
that it just had not been written, at least not that I knew of. A text book
in the field of cat a log ing and clas si fi ca tion for li brary tech ni cians
needed to be written.
Every year, I had to re sort to de signing the con tent of the course,
planning the or der of pre sentation, and us ing my own notes to teach
the course. This was in convenient for the stu dents. Many pre fer to
own a text book that not only facilitates note taking, but also serves as
a base of reference and a per manent re source on the sub ject. Finally, I
decided that a book to serve this pur pose was nec essary, and with the
encouragement of ed itor Ruth Carter of The Haworth Press, this en -
deavor came into be ing.
The book is de signed as a text book for a Cat aloging and Classifi-
cation course for the two-year Li brary Tech nology As sociate De gree
or Cer tificate Pro gram. To pro vide stu dents with gen eral back ground
in for ma tion, the course In tro duc tion to Tech ni cal Ser vices is rec om -
mended as a pre req ui site for the Cat a loging and Clas si fi ca tion course,
which is a three-credit, one-semester course.

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