Hello,

I’m Frances and I manage a collection management team within a large university library. I’m not a cataloguer by trade (I will confess that upfront!) but my interest in cataloguing is directly related to the question of how the library service can make best use of our catalogue data for reporting on and understanding our collections.

I think Esther makes a very important point. In a global information environment it doesn’t make sense for multiple individual cataloguers to be cataloguing mainstream material, when that catalogue record can be created once and reused, and there is a valid argument for shelf ready is that it frees cataloguers’ time to deal with the complex or unique material.  However the value of the cataloguer/metadata specialist also lies equally in understanding how catalogue records work in relation to the library management and discovery systems and how best they can be imported/exported/reused/exploited.

For me, I would say the critical question is not the quality of the individual new catalogue record but the quality of the overall database. Like most universities, we have a legacy of 2.7 million or so items on our catalogue, added over decades, to varying standards and with differing quality of record: we’ll never have the resource to correct everything item by item and have to think about working with outsourced providers, bulk updates etc. And of course that is only possible when working with staff who really understand the vagaries of our catalogue data.

Incidentally, it’s interesting to see your role Esther as I see a very close relationship between cataloguing and library systems management as mutually complementary fields of expertise.

All the best,

Frances

Frances Machell

Head of Collection Management

Library Services

University of Birmingham

Edgbaston

Birmingham

B15 2TT

Tel: 0121 414 7251

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Twitter: @uoblibservices

Website: https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/library

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