The title of this post came from Pete Seeger's song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?". This is because in class last Tuesday, as we were discussing how there aren't many traditional catalogers anymore, I couldn't help but think of this song. Obviously catalogers are not gone and probably won't ever be gone, however; our conversation in class did raise an interesting question. What happens to the future of libraries if future librarians don't have in-depth knowledge on cataloging?
Cataloging was once considered the most important thing a librarian knew. Cataloging was the main portion of the librarian profession, this changed as librarians gained the lovely ability to catalog an item and then allow everyone else to copy it. Now, when a library gets a new item it is much easier to use copy cataloging and duplicate an already created record then creating a new record yourself. The problem with this solution is that librarians are no longer learning all the in-depth knowledge about cataloging. The question is, is this a mistake? Should librarians be focusing more on cataloging? I'm not sure, but I do think it is interesting that there aren't that many cataloging classes offered at the ischool. When I asked an older librarian why librarians need a graduate degree she said "because they need to learn how to do things like catalog." She thought this was the most important piece of knowledge a librarian needs to know.
So I'm not sure where cataloging stands in the future. I know that it will always be apart of librarianship and it will most likely always be taught in library schools, but to what depth? As I have yet to take a cataloging class, I have very little knowledge of cataloging, but it seems to me that this is a skill that needs to be focused on more. Though it may be easier to copy an already existing record, someone has to make that record in the first place right? What will happen if all the people trained in cataloging retire, then what do we copy?
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