Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Pitfalls and the Pendulum

Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Pitfalls and the Pendulum

Edited by Janet Swan HillHaworth PressBinghamton, NY2003ISBN:0789020297$49.95

The education of cataloguers has swung pendulum-like from on-the-job training to graduate education and back again. The place of cataloguing in the library-school curriculum has swung from one of near pre-eminence to one of near extinction and has begun to swing back again. The durability of education for cataloguing has swung from, “in getting your degree you will learn everything you need to know in your career” to, “you will have to engage in continuing education throughout your career, beginning virtually as soon as you have your degree.” Making informed decisions about how, and how much, cataloguing education is to be provided is full of pitfalls, some of which the profession has fallen into already. What is needed now is a reconsideration of how education for cataloguing and bibliographic control is provided.

Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Pitfalls and the Pendulum examines education for students and working librarians in cataloguing and bibliographic control. The book covers the following main areas:

• the ways that professionals perceive the place, nature and necessity of cataloguing education;

• the professional, demographic and academic context within which cataloguing education is provided;

• education regarding special types of materials and special aspects of cataloguing; and

• alternatives to traditional modes of education for cataloguing, including distance learning, online mentoring, Web-based instruction, continuing education and training through co-operative projects.

The role of the “community of cataloguers” in the continuing education of those who provide intellectual access to the world of information also comes under the microscope.

In the section entitled “A matter of opinion”, Michael Gorman considers whether cataloguing should be taught, Sheila S. Intner tackles the issue of theory versus practice, Heidi Lee Hoerman suggests how people can be made to enjoy cataloguing and Robert P. Holley proposes ways of making cataloguing education more effective and interesting.

A second section sets the context in which education for cataloguing and bibliographic control must operate. Stanley J. Wilder suggests that the shortage of qualified cataloguers may get worse in future. Daniel N. Joudrey provides survey information about the status of cataloguing instruction. Jerry D. Saye examines the structure and atmosphere of library-school programmes and the impact of operating within the wider academic arena. Beatrice Kovacs and Nancy Dayton provide the results of a survey of graduates on the usefulness of their cataloguing instruction. Michelle R. Turvey and Karen M. Letarte give library educators’ views on the importance of cataloguing competencies to graduates.

In section three, Clement Arsenault and John E. Leide consider the impact on the cataloguing curriculum of the proliferation of formats in which information resources are being produced, Ingrid Hseih-Yee considers issues surrounding digital resources, Arlene G. Taylor and Daniel L. Joudrey investigate the different approaches taken to education in subject cataloguing, Rebecca L. Mugridge and Kevin A. Furniss ask whose responsibility it is to teach authority control, and Janet Swan Hill lists many of the skills needed by cataloguers and those who manage cataloguing, including those that cannot be acquired in library school, and discusses ways to gain them.

The final section, “Alternatives for instructional delivery”,reflects major changes in education for cataloguing, in terms of who should be responsible for instruction, when and where instruction could and should be delivered, and how technology can be used to conduct or enhance education and training. It contains papers by Gertrude S. Koh, Elaine Yontz, Robert Ellett,Anna M. Ferris, Carol G. Hixson and William A. Garrison, Sue Kriegsman and Judith Hopkins.

The book is well written. In particular, a liberal dose of visual aids such as charts and tables makes gaining access to the information quick and easy. Despite the US bias that the text shows in places, it contains plenty to appeal to world-wide providers and consumers of training for cataloguing and the organization of information.