© Haworth Press, Inc.
EDITORIAL by Ruth C. Carter
The Elephant in the Catalog: Cataloging Animals You Can't See or Touch. By
Janet Swan Hill
INTRODUCTION. We have all heard the story of the three blind men who were put
next to an elephant and asked to describe it. Each of them touched a different part of the
beast, and because none of them could examine the entire creature, their resulting
description was neither accurate nor useful. Constructing a catalog has always been a bit
like describing elephants blind, and rather than getting easier as standardization and new
technologies are widely implemented, the emergence of new types of information resources
are making the job more difficult. Remotely-accessible electronic information resources
are among the newest of cataloging's elephants. Not only is it difficult to see -or touch
the entire animal, but the creature may move or change during or after the description
process. The beast is also unwieldy, and the person doing the description may have no
control or ownership of it. The temptation is great to say that it is not our business to
describe either this particular beast or any other animal that we don't own, and to walk
away. Unfortunately, remotely-accessible electronic information resources are increasing
in number and importance, and access to information about materials over which the local
library has no control is becoming both easier and more common. Library users more and
more expect to have access to these resources, so the option of leaving them undescribed
and thus excluding them from the catalog is becoming indefensible. In coming to grips with
the problem of describing these exotic beasts, it may be helpful to recall how we have
dealt with similar challenges in the past, and to remember that the practices, rules,
policies, and principles that surround and define the activity of cataloging have always
reflected the current concept of what constitutes a library catalog, and that that concept
inevitably reflects both the history and role of libraries and available technology. Until
relatively recently the primary roles of a catalog were widely recognized to be providing
inventory control for a particular collection and serving as a finding aid to that
collection only, but in practice, even the most elaborate catalogs never fulfilled even
these roles entirely. Whole categories of materials, such as maps, photographs,
newspapers, pamphlets, and rare books were excluded, or at best were described in separate
catalogs or finding aids. Information about the contents of individual objects, such as
chapters, contributions, and journal articles were also rarely included in the catalog. A
small number of major parts of some works were described through analytic cataloging, and
contents of other items were sometimes listed in notes in cataloging records when those
parts were considered separable and potentially important in their own right, but because
entries were generally not made for items included in contents notes the lists were
primarily useful to those who had already found the main record. Description of the
internal contents of information resources was left to reference works such as indexes and
bibliographies. Far from being viewed as a flaw or insufficiency in the catalog, this need
to use outside finding aids was accepted as the way things were.
Support Staff and Librarians in Cataloging. By Jennifer A. Younger
ABSTRACT. Support staff have assumed increasingly responsible, complex assignments
in libraries and today, working closely with cataloging librarians, carry out a wide range
of responsibilities for cataloging. Across the country, support staff and librarians are
taking up the challenge of determining the most appropriate uses to make of the knowledge
and skills, respectively, of librarians and support staff in carrying out the library's
cataloging operations. This article provides a brief historical context against which to
understand the present and contemplate the future, describes activities and emerging
trends with potential for improving the utilization of support staff and librarians in
cataloging departments, and discusses obstacles lying in the path of redistributing
cataloging responsibilities.
Half a Lifetime in the Cataloger's Chair: A Perspective from a Career
Cataloger. By William E. Studwell
ABSTRACT. A prominent career cataloger who has devoted over thirty years
to the craft of cataloging reflects on what it means to be a long-term professional
cataloger.
Finding the Forest Among the Trees: The Potential of Collection-Level
Cataloging. By Margaret F. Nichols
ABSTRACT. Both the contextual focus of current literary and historical
scholarship and the increasing pressure on libraries to process more with fewer resources
make collection-level cataloging an attractive option for certain kinds of collections,
not only of manuscripts, but also of printed materials and graphics. A 1991 project
involving Cornell's French Revolution Collection offers an example of how collection-level
cataloging can be used to process a massive group of materials in multiple formats. The
author describes how the project proceeded, the advantages of cataloging in the RLIN AMC
(Archival and Manuscript Control) and VIM (Visual Materials) formats, and the advantages
of creating a hierarchy of records. The essay concludes with a discussion of other
possible uses of collection-level cataloging and its advantages over minimal-level
cataloging.
Use of the LCSH System: Realities. By Tschera Harkness Connell
ABSTRACT. This study examines the question of whether academic libraries keep
up with changes in the Library of Congress subject heading system. An analysis of the
handling of 15 subject headings in 50 academic library catalogs available online through
the Internet found that libraries are not consistently maintaining subject authority
control, or making syndetic references and scope notes in thew catalogs. The data are
discussed from the perspectives of the libraries' performance, performance on the headings
overall, performance on references, performance on the type of change made to the
headings, and performance within three widely used online catalog systems. The
implications of the findings are discussed in relationship to recent expressions of
dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of subject cataloging.
Characteristics of the 670 Field in Records for Names in the Anglo-American
Authority File. By Michael T. Krieger
ABSTRACT. Increasing amounts of time and expense required to provide authority
control for OPACs has stimulated interest in the automated generation of name authority
records. At the same time, national cooperative cataloging programs such as NACO are
seeking participants on a wider scale. A better understanding of the nature of authority
records, the possibilities and limitations of their machine creation, and the resources
needed for institutions to participate in national programs is needed to assist decision
making in these areas. The 670 field is used to justify the form and content of
established headings and their cross references. The 670 fields from national level name
authority records pertaining to the subject area of the Catholic Church were examined.
Information was sought on the number of 670s per record, on the types of work cited, and
on the works themselves. Findings indicate that considerable differences exist among the
categories of authority records, with some (modern personal names and uniform titles)
being more amenable to machine generation. It was also possible to tentatively identify a
core reference for authority work in a subject area.
A Beginner's Guide to Copy Cataloging on OCLC/PRISM, by Lois
Massengale Schultz
Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, by Mary
Liu Kao
Reviewed by Bobby Ferguson
Technical Services Management, 1965-1990: A Quarter Century of Change and a Look to
the Future: Festschrift for Kathryn Luther Henderson, edited by Linda C.
Smith and Ruth C. Carter
Reviewed by Lee Shiflett
Library of Congress Subject Headings: Principles and Applications, 3rd ed., by
Lois Mai Chan
Reviewed by Lois Kuyper-Rushing
© Haworth Press, Inc.