Managing Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Philosophies, Practices and Challenges at the Onset of the 21 Century

One often hears about cataloging rules, integrated library systems and their database maintenance, subject headings and classification, digitization, markup languages, various practices and techniques. Yet these practical, day to day activities within cataloging, technical services, and digital library units must fit into the library as a whole: they involve resource allocation in terms of staff, equipment, and the acquisition of library resources and cataloging data. Some of the articles in this book concentrate on a major change such as automation. Others focus on staffing, organization, teamwork, and workflow. Some treat topics connected with digitization of resources or remote resources. Several are comprehensive in the topics treated while others focus more narrowly. All add to our collective knowledge on what is happening in libraries around the world today. Some articles present a guide to "best practice" while others emphasize plans for the future. If there is any single theme it is that catalogers and more broadly, technical services and digital library staff, must be flexible and expect change. Nothing is ever final or forever cast in stone. The articles in parts one and two collectively demonstrate that libraries of diverse types and sizes and regardless of geographic location, face similar challenges and have made amazingly similar decisions, managing cataloging and the organization of information.