MEETING THE NEEDS OF SPECIAL FORMAT CATALOGERS: IDEAS FOR PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, LIBRARY SCHOOLS, AND PROFESSIONAL CATALOGERS
Robert L. Bothmann
SUMMARY: Catalogers are essential for cataloging and classification of resources in library catalogs to create a resource discovery tool to aid users in their research and public service librarians to assist users. The number of catalogers in libraries has declined in past decades; and many more are on the cusp of retirement, resulting in an impending loss of collective history. Previous literature addressed catalogers in general, the training and recruitment of catalogers, and the expected retirements of librarians in general. The purpose of this study is to assess the specific needs of nonprint or special format catalogers in relation to education, training, and mentorship. A voluntary online survey conducted in 2004 asked questions about special format catalogers’ current work, involvement in professional organizations, source of their training, their opinions of library school education, and demographic questions. The survey results indicate nearly half of all special format catalogers will retire within fifteen years, and the majority have had special format cataloging added to their workflow over
time. Memberships in professional organizations are low, but one third hold some sort of office in an organization. Special format catalogers are interested in more training and felt that library schools do not offer enough training. Ideas dealing with cooperative professional development among special format catalogers, professional organizations, and library schools are proposed based on the survey results.
Keywords: Special format catalogers; Professional development; Cataloging training and education; Mentorship; Library education; Professional organizations
Robert L. Bothmann is Electronic Access/Catalog Librarian, Assistant Professor, Library Services, Minnesota State University, Mankato, P.O. Box 8419, ML3097, Mankato, MN 56001 (E-mail:
[email protected]).
I. INTRODUCTION In the discipline of librarianship, cataloging and classification are arguably the most complex, essential, and theory-driven fields among the various types of professional librarians. Without catalogers to analyze resources and create surrogate records, there would be no catalog of any meaningful or useful kind; and it is the catalog that all other types of librarians use for instructing and locating resources in a library for users. Without proper cataloging and classification, collection development librarians would not be able to ascertain strengths or weakness within a collection; serials librarians would be unable to locate preceding or succeeding or ceased journals; instruction librarians would
be unable to teach users how to access materials; and reference librarians would be unable to locate resources that could aide a patron. Without a proper catalog, a library is nothing more than a building full of books with no map to guide the user to the resources. Thus, catalogers are essential to the function and use of a library so that the education and training of catalogers is essential to the continued viability and health of the library catalog. It is therefore alarming that the essential nature of the cataloger’s role in the healthy functioning of a library has been demoted in many libraries. The ratio of catalogers to resources acquired appears to have declined over the past two decades,1 with many libraries employing fewer catalogers. Many library schools have dropped the teaching of cataloging and classification from the core courses, some even from the curriculum altogether.2 Those who wish to be educated in the field of cataloging and classification, either in graduate school or post-graduation, find themselves with a very limited options. Without a large selection of library schools that provide courses geared for those who wish to be professional catalogers, new professionals must content themselves with on-the-job training and any cataloging-related workshops that may be available. To compound the problem, the current population of experienced professional librarians is expected to decrease drastically due to retirement over the next decade. Not only is the profession on the verge of losing a wealth of collective history and knowledge, it is also losing those professionals who would be the best candidates as mentors and recruiters of the next generation of catalogers. With the move of many libraries toward outsourced cataloging, more catalogers find themselves cataloging nonprint or special
format materials that have a complexity that does not lend itself to outsourced cataloging. The purpose of this article is to examine the current state of those catalogers who identify themselves as non-print or special format catalogers, to assess their needs with respect to training, education, and mentoring, and to discuss how professional organizations and library schools can contribute to the continued professional development of the special formats cataloger.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW There are a number of articles relating to the various issues concerning catalogers that are covered in this article, including surveys of catalogers, reports on mentoring, and many articles related to the education and training of catalogers. Leysen and Boydston3 surveyed one hundred heads of cataloging at Association for Research Libraries (ARL) libraries in 2003. Their survey, which focused on catalogers’ responsibilities and future demand for their roles in academic libraries, found that the number of catalogers in half of the responding libraries has decreased since 1998, generally due to retirements and the reallocation of those positions to other areas. Other findings indicated that one-third of ARL catalogers could retire in the next decade and that ARL libraries see future professional catalogers providing more training and focusing on administrative tasks. In an earlier survey, Buttlar and Garcha4 surveyed academic catalogers to see how their jobs had changed from 1987 to 1997. Their findings show that catalogers’ responsibilities for special format and electronic resource cataloging has increased, and that catalogers do their work with a smaller professional and support staff.
With the numbers of professional librarians, including catalogers, expected to retire in the next decade, recruitment and mentoring have become two important topics of discussion for the American Library Association (ALA) and some of its divisions. ALA commissioned an analysis of the professional workforce in 2001 and reported the results in the March 2002 issue of American Libraries.5 The analysis indicated that more than 18,000 professional librarians will reach the age of sixty-five between 2010 and 2014. An update on this study based on 2000 census data reported that retirements for the 45% of professionals reaching the age of 65 between 2010 and 2014 will likely occur between 2015 and 2019 and that the number of working professionals increased by 22% between 1990 and 2000.6 In light of these expectations, ALA and the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) have listed recruitment as a top priority.7 Fennewald and Stachacz describe the ACRL Delaware Valley Chapter’s mentoring program which recruited students at nearby library schools as mentees for the project. The program has been successful with matching students to mentors and benefits both the students and the mentors. With specific regard to the mentoring of catalogers, Aulik, et al. reported a generally good experience in which Dominican University library school students learning electronic resource cataloging in an online course were partnered with a professional mentor for a two-week period.8 Harcourt and Neumeister also reported a good experience as mentors for the Dominican course. In particular, they noted that mentoring helped to improve their own skills by requiring them to check rules and to comment on the students’ work. Views and discussion on the education and training of catalogers is very well represented in the literature. Two different theme issues of Cataloging & Classification
Quarterly (CCQ) (1987 and 2002) have been devoted to this very topic as well as two monographs from the March 1989 Simmons College Symposium on Recruiting, Educating, and Training Cataloging Librarians: Solving the Problems.9 The articles in the publications from the Simmons College Symposium focus on the changes in the nature of cataloging as a result of automation during the 1970’s and 1980’s, the decline in cataloging and classification course work in library schools, and the poor image of catalog librarians in the profession as it affects the recruitment of new catalogers. The 1987 CCQ theme issue also addresses the education of catalogers in changing times and focuses on the theoretical education and practical training of catalogers. Interestingly, the 2002 CCQ theme issue revisits many of the same questions, problems, and discussions of the previous decade but differs in noting the need for the continuing education of catalogers on account of the rapid changes in technology and the increase in the number of nonprint and special formats catalogers work with today. Connaway supports this notion and concludes that library school education should include theory and practice in its curriculum.10
III. METHOD To understand the current state of special format catalogers, a survey instrument consisting of fifty-six questions divided into four sections was developed.11 Section one asked questions about current and past cataloging work, types of formats cataloged, and changes in workflow. Section two asked questions about professional organizations in which special format catalogers have membership, hold offices or elected positions, and participate in conferences as well as which organizations special format catalogers
perceive to best support and least support special format cataloging. Section three asked how special format catalogers obtained their training, if they felt library schools offered acceptable training, and about mentorship. Section four consisted of demographic questions, including gender, age range, salary, institution type, range of patron population, geographic location, length of time in the profession, and if retirement was anticipated in the next five to fifteen years. In an effort to reach the largest possible number of catalogers who identify as a special format cataloger, the survey was sent to four different electronic discussion lists: AUTOCAT, OCLC-CAT, OLAC-List, and Serialist.12 AUTOCAT and OCLC-CAT were chosen to access the largest number of catalogers of all types of formats. Serialist was chosen to invite those serials catalogers who work with electronic and microform cataloging. OLAC-List, the electronic list for the OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers, Inc. (OLAC), devoted to the discussion of special format cataloging, was chosen to survey special format catalogers. The survey was open for nine days from 29 April through 7 May, 2004.
IV. FINDINGS The survey results represent the answers from 354 librarians who identify as professional or paraprofessional special format catalogers who subscribe to one or more of the electronic discussion lists at the time the survey invitation was sent. In May 2004, the electronic lists had the following number of subscribers: AUTOCAT, 4,145; OCLCCAT, 2,672; OLAC-List, 931; and Serialist 3,106. Many respondents indicated receiving
the survey invitation on more than one of these lists. Of the total number of respondents completing the survey, 259 were professionals and 95 were paraprofessionals. Since the survey was not sent to a specific number of pre-selected individuals, there is no method to provide a response rate of special format catalogers to this survey. However, of the total number of respondents, 99 indicated they were members of OLAC, which had a membership of 379 personal members in May 2004.13 Assuming that OLAC personal members are representative of the special formats cataloger community, there was a 26% response rate from special format catalogers in general from all of the lists. This indicates that the survey was delivered and answered by a fairly representative number of special format catalogers in the cataloging community. The demographic section of the survey indicates a predominately female, midcareer composition of special format catalogers. Women make up 82% of respondents, and half the survey population are between the ages of 45 and 59. Half the respondents indicated they earn between $30,000 and $44,000 per year; 64% are employed by an academic library; and 93% of respondents are from the United States. Professional librarians comprise 78% of the population of which half have faculty or faculty-like status. Finally, half of all respondents anticipate retirement within the next fifteen years; 12% indicated they will retire within five years; 19% within ten years; and 21% in fifteen years. The majority of respondents reported that the nature of their current special format cataloging work consisted of cataloging electronic resources, sound recordings (both audio and music), and video resources. The cataloging of other types of special format materials came in at a distant second as is shown in table 1. Three-quarters of the
survey respondents had not actively sought a position specifically for cataloging of special formats, and 74% of respondents have had special format responsibilities assigned over time. Half of all respondents indicated their cataloging department consists of one to three catalogers with only 19% indicating their department has more than ten catalogers. Table 1: Percentage of Formats Cataloged
Formats cataloged Videocassettes, DVDs, Film, etc. Electronic Resources Sound Recordings (Audio & Music) Microforms Kits Music (Scores, etc.) Cartographic Resources Realia & Three-Dimensional Artefacts Graphic Materials
Response Rate 76% 68% 67% 39% 36% 31% 27% 21% 19%
To get a sense of special format catalogers’ involvement in professional organizations, the survey listed twelve professional organizations that address or support the needs of catalogers as indicated in table 2. Almost half (48%) indicated they are members of ALA, while only 27% were members of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), the division of ALA that addresses cataloging and classification. As for other professional organizations, only 31% were members of OLAC, which specifically addresses special format cataloging issues. One third (34%) were members of their state library association, and 41% belong to some other group not listed in the survey. Although membership in professional organizations on the whole is relatively low, nearly one third (30%) of respondents indicated that they hold an elected or appointed office in an organization, primarily in a state library association, ALA,
ALCTS, and the Music Library Association (MLA). The majority of respondents indicated that ALA, their state library association, OLAC, and ALCTS workshops are their most commonly attended conferences (table 2). Table 2: Memberships in Professional Organizations
Professional Organizations American Library Association (ALA) Other State Library Association OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC) Assoc. for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) Music Library Association (MLA) Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG) Medical Library Association Society of American Archivists American Association of Law Libraries Canadian Library Association American Association of School Librarians Public Library Association
Hold Membership 48% 41% 34% 31%
Attend Conferences 34% 45% 37% 19%
27%
14%
11% 11% 3% 3% 2% 2% 1% 1%
10% 6% 2% 2% 3% 3% 0% 2%
When asked which organizations best support special format cataloging, the majority indicated OLAC, ALCTS, MLA, and ALA; they cited the state library associations as overlooking special format cataloging needs. Not surprisingly, more than half of the respondents said OLAC provides the best support for special format cataloging. One-third perceived that training opportunities in the U.S. are adequate, and half felt opportunities are less than adequate. The survey provided five areas for respondents to indicate where they would like to have more training and gave the option to indicate other areas. The topics provided were access points, authority control, classification, description, and subject analysis. When asked about continuing education, the response for all five areas was strong, as
can be seen in table 3. Other topics that special format catalogers added for this question include training for continuing resources and for metadata schemes such as MARC21 and the Dublin Core. Table 3: Training Needs
Desired Areas of Training Description Authority Control Subject Analysis Access Points Classification Other
Response Rate 63% 58% 48% 44% 31% 11%
Finally, respondents were asked abut their perceptions of their training in library school and their experience with mentorship. Most respondents indicate that they had little or no training for cataloging special formats and feel even more strongly that library schools offer little to no training for special format cataloging. Only 40% indicate they have had a professional mentor; 29% are currently mentors; and 55% would consider being a mentor. However, only 15% said that their institution has a formal mentoring program, a fact that indicates that mentoring is very informal. Table 4: Perception of Cataloging Training
Training Perception
No Training Some Training Adequate Training for most formats Excellent Training on all special formats
Did you have sufficient training when you began cataloging special formats? 23% 47%
Do library schools offer adequate training for special formats cataloging? 41% 55%
28%
5%
2%
0%
Table 5: Mentoring
Mentoring Questions Did/do you have a mentor? Are you a mentor now? Have you been a mentor in the past? Would you consider being a mentor? Does your institution have a formal mentoring program?
Yes
No 40% 29%
60% 71%
31%
69%
55%
45%
15%
85%
V. DISCUSSION With regard to education and training specifically for special format catalogers, the survey data indicate a number of different possibilities and partnerships among catalogers, professional organizations, and library schools to meet the needs of special format catalogers. These include targeted training opportunities, coordinated mentoring programs, and involvement in professional organizations. Foremost among these possibilities is a need to address the education of cataloging and classification provided by library schools in general. Cataloging literature over the past two decades has critically indicated that library schools are not providing adequate education in cataloging and classification. Assuming that bibliographic control of resources is a primary and necessary tenet of the provision of access to information, it logically follows that library schools ought to provide sufficient theoretical and practical course work in cataloging. It is therefore incumbent upon library schools to reexamine their curricula to provide the education and training future catalogers require. Furthermore, the ALA should re-examine the accreditation requirements related to cataloging and classification education in library schools to ensure curricular support.
As a mechanism for providing adequate training, professional organizations and library schools could benefit from creating and administering a formal mentorship program for library school students as well as for practicing librarians. While some schools and institutions do offer this opportunity, a coordinated effort would benefit both the schools and the catalogers, and promote recruitment efforts. With less than one third of special format catalogers currently acting as mentors and half of survey respondents indicating a willingness to be a mentor, there is sufficient interest and talent available to institute such a program. With the impending retirement of almost half of the special format catalogers who replied to this survey, it is extremely important for the profession to act on a mentoring program as soon as possible, before our most experienced special format catalogers retire. Another partnership for professional special format catalogers to explore is their involvement with professional organizations. Organizations are only as strong as their memberships make them. In light of the numbers in table 2, it would be prudent for special format catalogers to join and become more active in the professional organizations that best support special formats cataloging and training such as OLAC and ALCTS. It is equally important that these professional organizations target and sponsor training opportunities regionally and hold them more frequently. In particular, respondents noted that their state library associations, in which many hold memberships and offices and whose conferences they attend, are the very associations that do not support special format catalogers. Therefore, those special format catalogers holding offices or membership in the state associations could use their leadership roles to advocate for more training opportunities to be sponsored by the larger professional
organizations at the state conferences since this would thus provide better access to training for a broader audience of catalogers.
VI. CONCLUSION The results of this survey show that the characteristics of special format catalogers are remarkably similar to demographic data drawn from surveys of catalogers and librarians in general. The results also support the notion held by many professional catalogers that library schools do not provide enough training for new professionals to begin special format cataloging. However, the data also show a relative weakness on the part of the special format cataloger to be a member of professional organizations and to attend conferences. The fact that so many special format catalogers would consider mentoring suggests that special format catalogers are an untapped force for leadership and change in the profession. The obvious next step is to lobby the larger professional organizations to bring these pieces together to promote the change and the support required for a strong and healthy pool of special format catalogers. 1
Stanley J. Wilder, “Demographic Trends Affecting Professional Technical Services
Staffing in ARL Libraries,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 34, no. 1/2 (2002): 53-7. Wilder provides statistical data demonstrating a decline in the number of technical services librarians, primarily catalogers. Joan M. Leyson and Jeanne M. K. Boydston, “Supply and Demand for Catalogers: Present and Future,” Library Resources & Technical Services 49, no. 4 (Oct. 2005): 250-65. Leyson and Boydston’s findings confirm a general loss in the number of catalogers since 1998 (p.254). Sheila S. Intner, “Scholars and Media: An Unmixable Mess of Oil and Water or a Perfect Meld of Oil and
Vinegar?” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 31, no. 3/4 (2001): 297-312. Intner reports that statistics of nonprint media have not been taken in recent years. Her research demonstrates a general increase in the acquisition of nonprint media, particularly electronic media. Martha Kyrillidou and Mark Young, “ARLStatistics 2003-04,” http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/04pub/04intro.html, accessed 15 January 2006. The Association for Research Libraries does not address nonprint or special format resources in its statistics. However, their statistics indicate a general increase in the expenditure of ARL libraries for one-time purchases of electronic resources. 2
Jerry D. Saye, “Where Are We and How Did We Get Here? Or, The Changing Place of
Cataloging in the Library and Information Science Curriculum: Causes and Consequences,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 34, no. 1/2 (2002): 121-43. 3
Leyson and Boydston, “Supply and Demand for Catalogers.”
4
Lois Buttlar and Rajinder Garcher, “Catalogers in Academic Libraries: Their Evolving
and Expanding Roles,” College & Research Libraries 59, no. 4 (July 1998): 311-21. 5
Mary Jo Lynch, “Reaching 65: Lots of Librarians Will Be There Soon,” American
Libraries 33, no. 3 (March 2002): 55-6. 6
Mary Jo Lynch, “Retirement and Recruitment: A Deeper Look,” American Libraries
36, no. 1 (Jan. 2005): 28. 7
W. Lee Hisle, “Top Issues Facing Academic Libraries,” C&RL News 63, no. 10 (2002):
714; John W. Berry, “Addressing the Recruitment and Diversity Crisis,” American Libraries 33, no. 2 (Feb. 2002): 7.
8
Judith L Aulik, Holly Ann Burt, Michael Geeraedts, Elizabeth Gruby, Bongjoo Moon
Lee, Anita Morgan, and Corey O’Halloran, “Online Mentoring: A Student Experience at Dominican University,” Cataloging & ClassificationQuarterly 34, no. 3 (2002): 289-92. 9
Ruth C. Carter, ed., Education and Training for Catalogers and Classifiers in
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 7, no. 4 (1987); Janet Swan Hill, ed., Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Pitfalls and the Pendulum, Parts I and II, in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 34, no. 1/2-3 (2002); Sheila S. Intner and Janet Swan Hill, editors, Recruiting, Educating, and Training Cataloging Librarians: Solving the Problems, New Directions in Information Management, no. 19, New York: Greenwood Press, 1989; Sheila S. Intner and Janet Swan Hill, editors, Cataloging: The Professional Development Cycle, New Directions in Information Management, no. 26, New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. 10
Lynn Silipigni Connaway, “Educating Catalogers to Meet the Needs of Diverse Users
in a New Technological Environment,” Colorado Libraries 25, no. 3 (fall 1999): 48-50. 11
The survey questions are available on the author’s Web site at
http://mavweb.mnsu.edu/bothmr/2004/sfc-survey.html. 12
AUTOCAT (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/autocat/) is an independent
electronic discussion list for cataloging and authority control topics. OCLC-CAT is a discussion list for library staff using OCLC products and the discussion of cataloging in OCLC’s World Cat. OLAC-List (http://www.olacinc.org/olaclist/) is the electronic discussion list of the OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers, Inc. (OLAC), which is devoted to the discussion of cataloging nonprint or special format media. Serialist (http://www.uvm.edu/~bmaclenn/serialst.html) is devoted to the discussion of issues
related to serials processing, including serials cataloging. This particular list was chosen to reach out to catalogers who deal with electronic and microform serials. 13
OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers, Inc., OLAC Newsletter 24, no. 2 (2004): 5. The
OLAC-L list is not closed, thus list members need not be OLAC members.
