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College and Research Libraries
September 2004, Vol. 65, No. 5

Book Review

Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Pitfalls and the Pendulum. Ed. Janet Swan Hill. Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth (published simultaneously as Cataloging and Classification Quarterly, v.34, nos. 1–3, 2002), 2002. 398p. alk. paper, cloth $79.95 (ISBN 0789020289); paper $49.95 (ISBN 0789020297). LC 2002-15053.

This book presents a clear examination of the current state of cataloging education, sets forth a brief synopsis of the history of education for catalogers, and explores where the future of cataloging education seems to be headed. Written mostly by educators rather than professional catalogers, the emphasis is on the lack of traditional cataloging classes in most information science curriculums and the resources available for catalogers to further their education after graduation.

The articles are, for the most part, very easy to follow, written in clear, anecdotal styles that draw the reader in, and present their cases plainly. Some articles also delve deeper with detailed analyses of statistical research supplemented by tables and charts. Each article is preceded by a summary. The book is divided into four overall sections.

The first section, "A Matter of Opinion," includes four opinion articles on the nature of cataloging and how people react to it. This was my favorite section. I found it inspiring to read the opinions of these authors, who explore the problems concerning the education of catalogers, including the trend toward more theoretical teaching versus hands-on experience in cataloging classes. Articles are written with humor and yet offer sincere and seasoned insights into the nature of cataloging and the education of future catalogers. One article, "Why Does Everybody Hate Cataloging?," is particularly engaging.

The second section, "The Context," focuses on current cataloging courses. Again, most authors see a trend toward teaching theoretical concepts on the organization of knowledge, including metadata and indexing, instead of practical cataloging skills. Traditional cataloging classes seem to be diminishing in most information science curriculums and in some schools are only available as advanced electives. The requirement tends to be a class on the theoretical organization of information. Yet, there is a chapter devoted to a survey of LIS graduates in which 89 percent of the graduates, most of whom were not catalogers, felt that a practical cataloging course was essential and should be required of all students. Another article states that 67 percent of employers found that graduates were unable to perform entry-level professional cataloging. In a most stimulating article, "Where Are We and How Did We Get Here?," the author clearly explains his views on cataloging education and the balance he feels is necessary between theory and practice. He honestly admits that he loves cataloging and wishes it were given more importance and time in curriculums.

The third section, "Education for Specific Purposes," covers such issues as format integration, metadata (including Dublin Core, etc.), subject cataloging, authority control, and cataloging managers. Other than metadata, most of these topics are taught only in advanced classes, if at all. One chapter discusses the management skills that catalogers who are also managers need. Most of these papers, again, deal with the notion of theoretical learning versus practical learning, with the majority of the authors favoring the teaching of theory.

The main emphasis in the final section, "Alternatives for Instructional Delivery," seems to be on computers and cataloging education. One chapter presents the challenges of a Web-based basic cataloging course that focuses on teaching students how to catalog Internet resources. This course makes use of online mentors who are actual catalogers from around the country. The following chapters describe the students’ perspectives and the mentors’ thoughts on this class. Other chapters deal with distance education and cataloging, the use of Autocat (the cataloging listserve) as a mentoring tool for cataloging questions, and the training courses offered by the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC). Two articles focus on OCLC’s Web-based course, "Cataloging Internet Resources Using MARC21 and AACR2." One evaluation found that people who completed this course gained a substantial amount of knowledge in the practical and theoretical aspects of cataloging these resources. There is also a chapter on teaching Dublin Core to noncatalogers, mostly museum staff and archivists, for a digitization project. Although the chapters are well written, I was rather disappointed with this section because I had hoped to learn of innovative alternatives for cataloging instruction, but the articles included explore training options that have been around for some time.

Overall, I think this book presents a clear and rather bleak picture of cataloging education. Despite the obvious need for more cataloging instruction in library schools, the emphasis seems to be on teaching theoretical concepts in broad basic classes and leaving it to the library departments, conferences, PCC, library associations, and others to pick up the slack. I have been a professional cataloger for twelve years, and although most of what I learned was on the job as a paraprofessional, I did have some in-depth, hands-on cataloging classes in school. Colleagues of mine, who attended library school after I had graduated, received much less actual cataloging training. They have complained about the emphasis on the history and theory of cataloging (in most cases, they only cataloged a few books in an entire semester), as well as on the lack of advanced courses in cataloging. Upon graduation, they have had a hard time matching the requirements of even entry-level professional positions. The state of cataloging education is indeed in need of analysis. This book offers some insights into these problems but seems to reach the general conclusion that most in-depth cataloging education in the future will happen outside library schools.—Isabel del Carmen Quintana, Harvard University.