[DCRM-L] Including Cataloging History information in public interface

[Christine Megowan]

In most of the institutions where I've worked, if cataloguers' intials were
recorded at all, they were primarily used to track productivity and for
quality control, especially during training.

In light of recent conversations on prejudicial language in both resources
and catalogue records, however, I'm wondering whether a publicly visible
date of cataloguing might help to contextualize some of the language
appearing our records. Internally, it could certainly help to identify
records which are most likely to contain language which has not aged well.

Christine Megowan
(Cataloguing Librarian: Rare Books, Cardiff University | Llyfrgellyd
Catalogio: Llyfrau Prin, Pryfisgol Caerdydd)

On Thu, Mar 18, 2021 at 2:48 PM Piscitelli, Felicia A <
f-piscitelli at library.tamu.edu> wrote:

> Our practice is like LC's, at least since the early 2000's. We use a
> locally-defined field 948 that includes date, time, abbreviated name of
> cataloger, and whether the item was original or copy cataloged. It is
> accessible to patrons if they use the "Technical view" (it does not display
> in the "Full view") and know what the codes mean, but frankly, this
> information is more useful for staff than for the public.
>
>
> The idea to showcase the work of catalogers dovetails into another recent
> thread. Instead of having the public see every record a cataloger works on,
> one can write a blog post or write-up in a newsletter about particular
> items of interest, or a problem solved successfully. Most folks interested
> in rare books would find a Sammelband containing three works by Erasmus
> printed in the 1520's more fascinating than a technical report on asphalt
> pavements from the 1980's. :-)
>
>
> The problem is, when do catalogers have time to write about interesting
> stuff they've cataloged?
>
>
> Felicia Piscitelli, M.M., M.L.S.
> Associate Professor
> Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloger and Italian Resources
> Librarian
> Cushing Memorial Library & Archives
> Texas A&M University
> f-piscitelli at library.tamu.edu
>
> 5000 TAMU | College Station, TX  77843
> Tel. 979-458-7880 or 979-845-1951
> Fax: 979-845-6238
> http://library.tamu.edu
>
> <snip!>
>
>
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