Page 17 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

Much has changed in the field of cataloging and clas sification since
the first edi tion of this book was pub lished in 1995. New edi tions of the
ref er ence tools have been pub lished with mod i fi ca tions and ad di tions.
The li brary en vironment has changed as well. Au tomation has taken
over, and even the smallest li brary is now somewhat com puterized.
Even if a library is not a member of a con sortium, chances are that
some kind of stand-alone au tomation sys tem is in place. Cat aloging on
the com puter in MARC for mat has be come much more com mon, and,
therefore, it is important and necessary for li brary tech nicians to learn
the ins and outs of cataloging in MARC for mat, as well as the ba sic
skills of de scrip tive and sub ject cat a log ing.
The sec ond edi tion fol lows the for mat and style of the pre vious
edition. It starts with a gen eral in troduction on the topics and con tin-
ues with an in-depth discussion and ex planation of all the ref erence
tools that are needed to per form the task of cataloging. Step-by-step
instruction is pro vided so that the tar get us ers of this book, stu dents
with no li brary ex perience, will gradually learn and un derstand the
essence of each task and will feel con fident with it.
Every chap ter has been re vised and up dated with new materials
presented to re flect the changes and de velopment of the rules and the
new edi tions of other ref erence tools. A new chap ter on cat aloging on
computers in MARC for mat (Chap ter 8) has been added. Cataloging
Internet materials has been in cluded in this chap ter. All ex amples
have been up dated or ver ified in the latest edi tions of the ref erence
tools dis cussed. In some places, more examples are in serted to il lus-
trate how the theory is put into prac tice.
Users of this text must have the orig inal ref erence tools cited here
readily available. For ex ample, al though An glo-Amer i can Cat a loguing
Rules, Second Edi tion, 1998, is dis cussed in de tail in Chap ter 4, that
publication is re quired to prop erly and ex actly ap ply rules of per -
form ing de scrip tive cat a log ing. The book is in tended for be gin ning

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