Preparing 21st Century Catalogers
Library Cataloging

Preparing 21st Century Catalogers


ALCTS/ALISE Task Force Releases Proposal for Preparing 21st Century Catalogers

A joint ALCTS/ALISE task force has responded to a call from the Library of Congress to recommend appropriate training and education for bibliographic control of Web resources. The task force report and recommendations are available.

An increasingly common notion is that libraries no longer need catalogers, and library and information schools no longer need to teach cataloging. Yet the need to organize information resources has become more pressing in the last ten years and the options for organizing digital resources have expanded. To address the challenge of cataloging 21st century library materials, the Library of Congress hosted a bicentennial conference on "Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium". John Byrum, chief of the Library of Congress Regional and Cooperative Cataloging Division, remarking on the genesis of the conference, said "libraries have witnessed an explosion in Web resources and they recognize the need to integrate them into their collections. The conference sought to enable an open discussion and the development of an action plan to pursue."

More than two dozen action items arose from the LC conference and two of them relate to education and training. Due to the strong commitment of ALCTS to the development of librarians engaged in bibliographic control, the Library of Congress asked that ALCTS take a lead role to accomplish these two action items.

As a first step, ALCTS appointed the joint ALCTS/ALISE task force, which also included partners from an OCLC regional network and the Library of Congress. The task force, which was chaired by Beth Picknally Camden of the University of Virginia, engaged principal investigator Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, associate professor of the School of Library and Information Science of the Catholic University of America, to survey ALA-accredited programs and to recommend fresh approaches. Camden notes "Ingrid's survey results and recommendations make a significant contribution to the field. Her research is the foundation of our plan to assist educators and anyone who cares about cataloging and metadata education to prepare for teaching in this area."

The joint task force proposes a five-part plan to help metadata and cataloging educators and trainers: to announce the task force's findings regarding the elements of bibliographic control expertise; to assemble a "metadata basics" package for use by faculty and workshop leaders; to create a listserv for sharing news; to set up a Web clearinghouse for pedagogical resources; and to hold a conference for educators and trainers to share expertise and ideas for integrating metadata topics into courses and workshops.

The next step is to carry out the joint task force's plan. An implementation group has been appointed with members from ALCTS, ALISE, the Library of Congress, OCLC, and other organizations with a stake in supporting metadata and cataloging educators and trainers. Meanwhile, a second ALCTS task force, chaired by Carol Hixson of the University of Oregon, is preparing recommendations for changes and additions to continuing education programs for catalogers. Hixson's task force expects to present its plan for approval at the 2003 ALA annual conference in Toronto.

The ALCTS/ALISE joint task force was appointed by ALCTS-the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, a division of the American Library Association. ALISE-the Association for Library and Information Science Education-provides a forum for library and information science educators to share ideas and to seek solutions to common problems.

For more information, contact Diane Baden of NELINET (dbaden@nelinet.net) or Olivia Frost of the University of Michigan (cfrost@si.umich.edu).

Posted with permission.





- Task Force On Non-english Access
I wanted to let you know about a new task force that has been created: The Task Force on Non-English Access. The task force will examine our role in enabling access to library resources in all languages and scripts and in addressing the needs of users...

- Teaching Cataloging
The "Educat" discussion list has recently been established as a forum for issues in teaching cataloging and metadata principles and techniques for electronic resources, as well as broader issues relating to cataloging education and training. The list...

- Do You Use Aacr2 2.12-18?
A task force of ALA's Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access has been asked to examine the rules in AACR2 for cataloging of early printed materials (AACR2 2.12-2.18) and make recommendations, which will be forwarded to the Joint Steering...

- Continuing Education
A draft of Cataloging for the 21st Century: A Proposal for Continuing Education for Cataloging Professionals : A response to Action Item 5.3 of the "Bibliographic Control of Web Resources: A Library of Congress Action Plan" submitted to The ALCTS Advisory...

- Continuing Education For Catalogers: Survey
This survey has been designed by members of the ALCTS Continuing Education Task Force (LC Action Plan Item 5.3) to assist them in outlining a continuing education curriculum for catalogers....



Library Cataloging








.