Hi, All--

    As a practitioner who used to teach as an adjunct, I have been very 
interested in hearing your perspectives on these critical curricular 
issues.  I loved teaching cataloging/IO and wish I could do more of it.  
I agree with Dr. Carlyle that recruitment among the doctoral ranks is a 
significant problem.  I apologize for sounding mercenary, but I think 
part of the issue is that it is so costly to get the doctorate, when you 
think  in terms of lost income, and then on top of that having to make a 
5-year commitment to being on the tenure track is a daunting as well as 
costly prospect for many.  The salary issue is a huge challenge.  It 
simply isn't financially feasible for many people to consider a career 
in academe compared to the compensation one could expect while rising 
through the ranks as a practitioner.  I keep hoping to see some creative 
grants that might help to alleviate this situation.

-Karen M. Brown (Letarte)


Allyson Carlyle wrote:
> Hi all,
> Although there are more courses in IO & cataloging being offered (yay), an informal survey of school websites that I did in the Winter this year shows that fewer than 50% of schools have full-time doctoral educated faculty who specialize in IO teaching cataloging classes (I'm planning on writing this up for publication later in the summer).  This situation seems to me to be at the level that could be called crisis. 
>  
>  I'm concerned that we do not have enough doctoral students who are pursuing cataloging and who can take leadership positions in schools (as in, leading curriculum development, etc.).   I have only one student who will be qualified to teach cataloging and who has it as her dissertation topic (I have several other doctoral students who are IO but not cataloging).  How about the rest of you?  Do you have students who will want to be cataloging faculty when they graduate?  Are you finding it as difficult to recruit as I am?
> Allyson
>  
> Allyson Carlyle
> Associate Professor
> iSchool, University of Washington
>   

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Karen M. Letarte
Interim Head of Metadata and Cataloging
NCSU Libraries
Box 7111
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
(919) 515-5696
Fax: (919) 515-7292
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