Narrative Reflection

NARRATIVE REFLECTION
“Cataloguing is becoming irrelevant as a result of widespread use of library computer networks”
With development of information technology especially that of the computer networks, maximizes the interaction among computer users with various tools and methods. This leads to the introduction and the explosive growth of automation into any professions which seek for open and easy access with the dispersed types.
Librarianship is one example of profession that was drastically impacted by automation- such as with the present of library computer networks.
The recent introduction of automation-library computer networks has changed the library situation in various aspects. Automation-library computer networks has impacted on the traditional ways how work is done in the library, particularly, in cataloguing departments—changing how, and by whom, the cataloguing is done. Historically, professional librarians with at least a Master's in Library Science have been responsible for cataloguing library materials and making knowledge accessible to library patrons. From the time Melvin Dewey opened the first library school in 1886, librarianship was recognized as a profession, and cataloguing a primary activity. Fine-tuned, authority-checked, and original records were the hallmarks of this great age of librarianship which began to change with the introduction of computer technology in libraries in the 1970s, along with a reduction of allocated budgets, inflation, the explosion in information, and a demand for more access. From the mid-1800s to today, there has been a preoccupation with the cost of cataloguing, and it remains an underlying concern. For libraries, one solution has been to use copy cataloguing. Automation of library cataloguing departments became the way libraries could participate in sharing catalogue copy and get rid of their backlogs (Smith 1994, 1). To do original cataloguing for all these materials is an extravagance that can no longer be financed as libraries need to use their shrinking budgets in more creative ways. Advancements in keyword searching capabilities, allows that fewer subject headings are required for the items being catalogued, and the introduction of bar codes for circulation makes the call numbers less important (Rider, 1996, 28).
In the last few decades we have witnessed an explosion in how much information is being published, accumulating into what is now described as the Information Explosion. Original cataloguing or the so called traditional cataloguing, using basic word processing and card catalogues, translated into major backlogs in cataloguing departments throughout the world. Ever more material and new formats were being made available to the public, but no corresponding system to keep up with the increasing demands. Libraries were also beginning to feel the first wave of budget cutbacks, and strategies of how to do more with less was the primary concern of library administrators. Automation of manual systems was seen as the panacea for libraries, but it also brought many unforeseen changes as well.
One unforeseen and unexpected change was that workflow had to be centered on the new computer system: a machine directing the people, rather than the other way around. As Karen L. Horny states in New Turns for a New Century: Library Services in the Information Era, "it now seems safe to admit that computerization is the determining technology of our era" (Horny 1987,11). Hafter points out, schedules, work assignments, and planning were no longer decisions made by the head cataloguing librarian, instead, "network computer availability affected scheduling while system analysts and non-cataloguing administrators began to exert more influence over setting production standards" (Hafter 1986, 64). For example, if OCLC's system failed, then the copy cataloguers could not do any work, and backlogs would develop. In addition, there are certain times of the day which libraries are charged cheaper prices to use the big bibliographic utilities, and that affects scheduling. It was not simply the adoption of automation that caused major changes in technical service departments, rather, it was the simultaneous introduction of bibliographic utilities into cataloguing operations that forever reorganized the work of professional cataloguers and made "skills that were once important in older routines . . . rendered obsolete" (Futura 1990,248). Libraries could get cataloguing for most of their acquisitions from the big utilities like OCLC, RLIN, and WLN, instead of developing original copy for each item, and thereby saving huge amounts of money. Collectively, libraries could share their copy and take better advantage of the high quality records available from the Library of Congress. It has been estimated that Library of Congress cataloguers spend three to five hours cataloguing one item. The introduction of automation and bibliographic utilities allowed cataloguing librarians to move away from continual clerical work and learn new skills in database searching, however, before long, administrators realized that it does not take a well-paid professional cataloguer to search for routine copy on a database, and the bulk of the work was transferred to support staff (Futura 1990, 242). Thus, was the inception of a new stratum of library employees, the paraprofessionals, who have become increasingly more powerful and vocal (Futura 1990, 243).
With the advent of library automation or library computer networks, a real library scenario was being viewed by many, it had make the traditional cataloguing be irrelevant but it also make work in the library more easier and faster for all library personnel’s and library patrons as well.
A study done by Cathleen C. Palmini in 1992, found that the introduction of computerization increased job satisfaction in over half of all support staff in Wisconsin academic libraries, citing an increase in new skills (Palmini 1994, 123). A corresponding increase in satisfaction was noted in professionals. Automation also changed the way many library departments were traditionally structured: before the introduction of computer technology, services were segregated from each other (McCombs 1992, 138). Automation caused a unification of once separate work done by acquisitions, collection development and management, and cataloguing. These departments now flow together as technical services, and are connected with all other areas of the library, including the library catalogue (Macoomb’s 1992, 136-137). Public services and technical services are no longer separate entities; they are currently interconnected through automation, and are two sides of the same coin. This organizational evolution has systematically and radically changed workflow in libraries, making it far less regimented, more efficient, and centralized (McCoombs 1992, 137). It has transformed the way staff, librarians, and paraprofessionals interact with each other (Bednar 1988, 145). For fiscal reasons, workflow must be integrated and streamlined.
These realities brought about by the advent of library automation- especially that of the presence of library computer networks have changed the face of cataloguing forever. Is it less professional? Thus it became irrelevant? With the advent of automation in libraries, deprofessionalization is precipitated or had occurred, cataloguing on traditional way became irrelevant with the presence of online cataloguing, however, in the realistic world of library budgets and computer technology, what matters most is servicing the reading public, in the quickest and cheapest manner possible. According to Marie Bednar in Automation of Cataloguing: Effects on Use of Staff, Efficiency, and Service to Patrons, the days when near-perfect LC and member copy were commonly revised to meet local standards are over (Bednar 1988,148). Online public access computers do not have to be filled with exemplary examples of perfect cataloguing records since technology can make up for the deficiencies, and catalogues can no longer be both finding tools and perfectly organized databases (Bednar 1988,148). Currently, the measure of what is good cataloguing is no longer based on strict quality controlled standards, but whether the copy is available from a network member and appears adequate, with an increased pressure to accept the records as they are (Bednar 1988, 145).
In today’s information age or the so called new information era we need to face the reality, cataloguers are in a losing battle if they think they can turn back the clocks because it is just not the same world out there anymore. A new way of accessing information is already here-library computer network is at the hand of every library personnel’s and patrons. Accessing information with various tools and methods is just one click away. For one thing, there is simply too much information to catalogue in the old-fashioned manner, but what it really comes down to is money. Original cataloguing departments are going the way the university presses have, and the way the dinosaur did before. As Gillian McCoombs points out:
Species that do not evolve in response to a changing environment do not survive, dinosaurs being a case in point. Librarians have the opportunity to choose to evolve, to emphasize relationships, and to respond to the environment. Unless we pause to take stock, to reach out to librarians in other parts of the library, to sound out our users as to their informational needs, we will find ourselves, like relics of the past instead of active participants in the information services of the future (McCoombs 1992,147).
Librarians should not take the deprofessionalization and the irrelevance of the traditional cataloguing in today’s era of their work personally, it is just a fiscal and technological reality that is prevalent across the board, and it does not mean they are not valued. It’s just that reality calls it impossible to go back in traditional ways if new ways is already there. We are not meant to be dominated by the use of automation rather we just need to link it up with our work for efficient and effective delivery of library services to all patrons.