At 09:26 AM 4/7/2004 -0400, Steven Smolian wrote:
>Actually, the presence of fewer catalogers may be seen as a good thing,
>perhaps indicating that it is no longer considered imperative that each
>library generate all its own cataloging with its accompanying administrative
>empire but rather obtain it from a central service, reducing costs
>substantially. This may be leading to everyone cataloging the same way with
>minor additions to the record regarding location and other administrative
>variants, and thus allow searches to disclose multiple copies countrywide
>more easily.
>
>I thought this was what everyone had been working toward over the years.

I believe we are seeing here one of the splits in contemporary library
technology. That is, a lending library using published materials, would
have such a standard index available. But an acquisitions library dealing
with manuscripts, private recordings and works in limited distribution
would have to devise its own cataloguing system as well as its own filing
system. Clearly, older publications will also be deprived of modern
catalogue references; the first folio has no ISBN. <G>


Mike
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