I do have a few misgivings about trying to get a thorough grasp of cataloguing before you are sure of a cataloguing role.  Your knowledge can disappear fast if you are not practising, and things will be changing all the time, so you will get out of date.  And if you do get a job, there will be quite a few local things to learn, not least because every system is configured differently.

 

We won’t train people here unless they have a moderately long-term post and their managers promise that they will catalogue for at least 4 hours per week for at least 3 months after training.  Otherwise they will have forgotten much of the detail in a few months (and might then apply for a post as a ‘fully trained cataloguer’ but not prove up to it).

 

I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from spending some time on basics and finding their way round; but be prepared to spend a *lot* of time on the details once you are in post.

 

Best wishes,

Bernadette

 

 

Hi Esther,

 

At UCL there was (and I’m pretty sure still is) a mandatory cataloguing module and then an optional module. I took both because I was hooked straight away! But my graduate traineeship didn’t let me do any cataloguing – they felt I needed to have done my MA and been properly ‘trained’ before being let loose on it.

 

I think there could be real mileage in some kind of distance-learning course offering just a cataloguing module – maybe the admin of signing people up to it and delivering the content would be too much, but it would add to courses which don’t offer cataloguing and serve as a refresher for the rest of us.

 

It does strike me that a lot of librarianship is really a well-informed, carefully thought-out judgement call, but with cataloguing there are actual rules/ standards/theory etc that you need to learn before applying your professional judgement.

 

Helen.

 

 

 

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