The Desk Set

romancing the catalog

Dec 16

BilleyFrom Our Guest Bloggers cataloging, catologers 3 Comments

Apologies for the delay of my debut blog post here on The Desk Set. I can assure you it’s with very good reason, but I’ll get into that more later. For my first post, I wanted to return to some of the most basic principles of library science- why we do what we do. When I tell people that I’m a librarian, they usually ask if I can recommend a good book. Then I have to explain that I’m not that kind of librarian- I’m a cataloger. That I couldn’t tell you the what the current New York Times best seller, but I could totally reorganize their closet…by color, size or genre.

Many people don’t understand why I choose to be a cataloger. They assume our work is mind-numbing, meticulous, detailed, and monotonous…and yes it can be, but it’s also challenging, creative, relaxing, and powerful.

Charles Ammi Cutter once described in his “Rules,” that library catalogs should function as agents of location, collocation, and recommendation. This means that from the data entered into a catalog, anyone should be able to find the item they are looking for, similar items should be grouped together, and finally it should suggest items if exact information is unknown. To accomplish this, the data input must be carefully and consistently applied through a syndetic structure of descriptive information, access points, and relationships for every asset in the collection.The role of the cataloger in the beautiful library machine is perhaps the most important cog. We define how things are described and provide access to those things through the structures we create. Radical cataloger, Sanford Berman knows this better than anyone B-)

At first catalogs were kept as lists, then books, until finally the 3X5 card. Now in our digital age, the card catalog has become something of near, if not total fetish. There was something comforting in the knowledge that all of a library’s holdings were just a drawer and finger flip away. The system was physical, linear, and simple. Title, name, subject. Paul Otlet sought to catalog all of human knowledge through millions of catalog cards in the 1920s, but even he dreamed of an electronic network of information. Now here we are decades later with our interconnected internet…trapped in maze of digital silos and a muddle of metadata. The possibilities are immeasurable, but we have to rise to this monumental opportunity. We’re not just catalogers anymore…we’re metadata librarians, information architects, content strategists, digital asset managers, digital curators…we design and decide how information is structured and accessed.

Despite all the digital discourse, there isn’t a more satisfying feeling than typing a catalog card. The smell of typewriter grease and ink, the sound of slamming keys, punching the rod hole, and fixing the card into place in its drawer. I always wanted to learn library hand, maybe someday I will.

Over the coming weeks, I will discuss issues of digital preservation, metadata standards, and the joy of cataloging. Please email me with any questions or comments you have. Hope you all had fun at the BiblioBall!

-A.M. Billey
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