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Abstract
The model the library catalog will base itself on for the future is being debated. The author argues that the current objectives of the catalog, as outlined by Charles Cutter, remain vital in our consideration of how to implement the catalog within the newer, networked, technologies. The library catalog provides an authority and objectivity for our patrons that are useful and needed during this time of increased publication. The catalog itself will take various forms, but those forms should be guided by stated objectives.
Keywords
Catalolgues, Libraries, Internet, Quality control, Standards
In discussions of the future library catalog created on the Amazon.com model (Baruth, 2000), I should mention that I posted a book review on Amazon.com recently for a book I have never read, by an author whose works I have never read. In a time of dynamic change, when conferences are being held and papers being presented and published on a wide variety of cataloging topics, we do not need to throw away the singular characteristic of our catalog for the cachet of the moment. The library catalog is a useful tool. It is not bought and sold; retrieval on a patron's search is not biased intentionally according to advertising whims[1]. We give patrons a thought out, thorough, continually improving, mostly impartial, search tool. Implicit in that is an authority and authenticity that other mechanisms do not always have nor want[2]. In the following discussion of the catalog, I will emphasize what we will need to retain in our move forward. I write from the perspective of one working in an academic environment, but hope to address general issues for cataloging. We are in a time of transformation, but not of obsolescence nor of loss. The main characteristic in our cataloging future is growth - of patrons, of materials, of items cataloged, of formats, of standards, and of work contexts. Our stable qualities are authenticity and authority. We should retain them and promote them.
Background
The library catalog's objective has long been defined as some version of that as outlined by Cutter (1904). Paraphrased, they are:
(1) to enable a patron to find a known item by author, or title, or subject;
(2) to present to a patron...