I agree with Katrina – our Discovery and Metadata team is creating/managing the metadata for catalogue, the institutional repository and the digital library, so we have a finger in many pies.  There are also occasions when our expertise can be used more widely in the University so we’re keen to take those opportunities as well.

Helen

 

 

To an extent we do outsource a bit in that we’re going to be buying in records. I’ve been involved in ensuring the records meet our standards and we’ve had some very interesting discussions as a team about what is/isn’t important.

 

That’s going to free us up nicely to concentrate on much more complicated things.

 

I think that ‘cataloguers’ have skills though that can be applied to many things like repository work or describing digital resources. Therefore a lot of it (trying to take it back to the employability point) is about honing skills in data accuracy and in understanding why things like standards are important.

 

Katrina

 

 

Esther, you’ve made a very valid point in my mind. In the event of outsourcing cataloguing, I would imagine that if cataloguers were kept in employment , their organisation would have them doing cataloguing-related activities: One would have to ensure that the importance of checking the quality of outsourced bib records must be argued with the employer and quality checks built in to these activities. #breathesasighofreliefthatwedontoutsource

 

 

 

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