Cataloging Thoughts

In my classification class this week, our professor asked some very interesting questions, which I would like to share with you here, along with my responses:

Is it true that the more information we provide in a record about an item, the better?

My initial response to this question is no. Creating a good bibliographic record is important, but too much information can be detrimental to the fundamental purpose of the bibliographic record - helping patrons find what they need in a quick and efficient manner. It seems to me that the important thing is to be attuned to the needs and habits of your user population and tailor your records to their searching habits and preferences. Inclusion of the key elements of an item are important (author, title, publisher, etc) but so also might be the reproduction of the table of contents in a searchable field. The amount of information in a record should depend upon whether or not it includes the data your patrons need to decide if an item is what they need, or not.

Why do library records seem to be frugal in offering information about materials?

I think this has to do with how many items there are to be cataloged, and how few staff members in a library actually do the cataloging. At the Carter, we have two staff members who routinely catalog, and (I would estimate) 500 items in our backlog to catalog. It seems that the dearth of information in a cataloging record has partially to do with the lack of staffing - but also because of the standards established in AACR2r and MARC. These standards provide (for good reason, I think) limitations about what you can, and cannot, include in a bibliographic record. There is a fine line between too little, and too much information in a record - and those standards help cataloguers to find that line.

To what extent should we follow cataloging rules in creating records? (is it ok to be a rule breaker?)

As a cataloguer/creator of metadata, it is very important to follow rules for several reasons. First, it ensures that the same vocabulary, information, and placement are used for all items - avoiding the confusion of many different standards and terms of description. Second, as I mentioned above, the rules assist the cataloguer in finding the right balance of information in a record. Third, the standardization of fields and terms ensures that the record can be used, and read by a multitude of user systems, instead of being proprietary to one system.