Page 24 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

6 Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians
Cat a loging is the pro cess of or ga niz ing li brary ma te ri als and mak ing
them ac cessible to li brary users. The chal lenge the cat aloger faces is ac -
commodating the many diverse ap proaches peo ple use in re trieving li-
brary ma terials. A good cat aloger makes it pos sible for us ers to find
ma te ri als eas ily, what ever ap proach is ap plied. Good cat a log ing
prac tices make li brary op er a tion more ef fi cient. The most won der ful
collection is useless if the ma terials are not eas ily ac cessible to li brary
users. Cat aloging is also called bib liographic con trol, and un der-
standing the why and how of bib liographic con trol is not only vital to
staff working in the cataloging de partment, it is im portant to all li -
brary per sonnel. Ref erence and pub lic ser vice staff are more likely to
perform their du ties ef fectively if they have some background knowl -
edge in cat a log ing and clas si fi ca tion. This in cludes un der stand ing
how the col lections are ar ranged for use and how to as sist us ers in
finding needed in formation in an accurate and timely fash ion. Spe cial
training is nec essary to en sure that li brary staff ac quire knowl edge
and skills on the theories and pro cedures of the cat aloging and clas si-
fi ca tion pro cess. Con tinuing ed u ca tion in volv ing new de vel op ments
and trends in the field, in cluding rule changes and re visions, must be
avail able.
To fa cilitate the cat aloging pro cess, guides and codes are de -
signed, re viewed, and re de signed by li brary or ga ni za tions. The of fi -
cial guides and codes, in turn, are adopted by li braries to en sure
uniformity from library to li brary. In a time when peo ple move from
place to place and use different li braries at dif ferent times, con sis-
tency is es sential. Even for the us ers of small li braries, con fusion is
minimized when of ficially adopted stan dards are prac ticed. In the
sense of shared cat alogs and per sonal com puter con nections, au toma-
tion al lows ac cess to many dif fer ent li brar ies si mul ta neously; more
rea son for uni for mity in cat a log ing and clas si fi ca tion rules. Knowl-
edge of cat aloging rules and codes, along with a gen eral back ground
in cat aloging, en courages all library staff to un derstand how the col -
lection is or ganized and to identify quickly and eas ily the materials
contained within the lo cal col lection or from other remote-
ac cess li brar ies.
In the area of cataloging, the library tech nician’s job has changed in
the past de cade chiefly be cause of au tomation and bud get re straints.
Many tasks done in the past by librarians are now rou tinely per formed