Cataloging and classification work is about more than simply information retrieval. There is an affective dimension, one rooted in the power and pleasure of system building. Recording catalogers as they work reveals these elements in the act of bibliographic description. We discover that cataloging is not the rote, mechanical completion of structured field entries but is instead a profoundly human exercise, one of intellectual exploration, the application of deep expertise and skill, and the joy of both fitting an item into an existing system and altering that system in order to better reflect the diversity of knowledge. Understanding the richly human process of cataloging and classification work can help make the case for continued support for these positions in the face of market pressures to automate and outsource bibliographic labor. Beyond the practical, articulating the pleasures that come with this work can help surface the joy that can sometimes get lost in the mundane details of the everyday.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Illinois School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Library Trends 70 (4). Spring 2022
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
eng
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2022.0018
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2022 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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