Dept. Home | Manual | People | Projects | Reference

Statement of Expectations
Regarding Knowledge and Skills
for Professional Catalogers

All professional catalogers are expected to master the following tools and protocols, to demonstrate ability to apply these tools in creating and maintaining catalog records, and to remain current on updates, revisions, developments, and amendments to these tools.

• the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2) with revisions and amendments, including the chapters in Part I on general rules for description and description of formats within their assigned specialties, and all chapters in Part II, Headings, Uniform Titles, and References.

• the Library of Congress Rule Interpretations (LCRI), particularly those corresponding to rules in chapters of AACR2 pertaining to the individual assignment as described above.

• the USMARC Bibliographic Format, as described in the official format guide, with special attention to its application to formats in the assigned specialty.

• the USMARC Authorities Format and its application to names, subjects, and series, as described in the official format guide.

• Library of Congress subject headings, and guidelines for application covered in Subject Cataloging Manual: Subject Headings.

• the Library of Congress classification scheme, appropriate LC schedules, and guidelines for shelflisting covered in Subject Cataloging Manual: Shelflisting.

• Procedures and protocols for creating and maintaining catalog records in the local library system, as described in the system documentation.

• Procedures for identifying and retrieving source copy from national utilities and other resource files, and for transferring copy to the local system and from the local system to appropriate output files.

• Bibliographic standards for contributing members established by the utilities and national cooperative programs in which we participate.

• Department policies as outlined in the department manual.

In addition to the above general areas of knowledge, catalogers are also expected to know and use important tools and resources relevant to their specific assignments.

The primary responsibility for acquiring the this knowledge and skills lies with the individual cataloger. Knowledge and skill are developed through personal study and application of skills and by attendance at workshops and group training sessions. The department and the library help by providing time and resources for continuing professional education, as well as initial training in cataloging fundamentals at the time of hire. Supervisors and team leaders should help new catalogers assess their levels of knowledge and skill and set appropriate goals to bring about improvement.

Date last updated: April 4, 2000