For this paper, I chose to interview a cataloger at the Elkhart Public Library, Downtown Branch.

The Elkhart Public Library is a public library, and my local library. It serves approximately 90,000 people.

The Downtown branch is 3 stories. The first floor has the children’s section, the movies, and the fiction.

The second floor holds the adult nonfiction, periodicals as well a special genealogy collection. The

basement holds a variety of meeting rooms, as well as the Tech Services department where cataloging

takes place.

Tech Services is a good-sized room, with several workstations for various staff to work at various

tasks. Cataloging has a narrow room running parallel to that, with each workstation a bit more isolated

via walls made of cabinets. The wall behind it is made of glass though, and there is not a door to the

room.

The cataloger I interviewed was Linda Cary. She has a Master’s of Library Science from Western

Michigan University. She had always enjoyed reading, and that drew her to begin working at the library

first at the circulation clerk. Working at the library made her want to know more about how it worked,

so she began studying her MLS during the summers. After she got her degree, she moved into

cataloging, and has now been been working for the library for over 40 years.

Linda is one of four catalogers, all with MLS, and mostly does the special genealogy collection,

Indiana history, Reinstatements (items that need their catalog updated due to being moved to a

different department, or some other reason), Reference books, and the books from a vendor program

called Automatically Yours.

All four catalogers are simply titled “Cataloger” and are full-time employees, and while

cataloging is their main tasks, they do work the Information Desk sometimes as well. While it’s been

slowed by COVID, they- as well as other staff- are encouraged to go out and contribute to community

service in some way. Technical Services—including the cataloging division— is done only at the
Downtown branch and shipped out from there to the various branches. Except for at Goshen, who does

their own Technical Services work.

While copy-cataloging is the majority of the cataloger’s work, all are capable and do original

cataloging when necessary. Some unusual things they have created an original catalog for include a park

pass and a computer keyboard. Linda has a saying, “You have to be part detective to work in Technical

Services.”

Linda’s not the only one who’s been at the library for a long time, the other catalogers have also

been there for decades. With everyone having been there for so long, there is not a set training plan for

new catalogers. All catalogers have an MLS, but it’s not certain if that would be a requirement to new

hires. Cataloging guides are also more a scattered collection of ‘cheat sheets’ rather than a manual,

though there is a project to create one.

Linda described keeping up to date as a chore. But they have several methods of keeping up.

Staff attend MCLS webinars, and conferences from the Indiana Library Federation and ALA. Linda

personally also has an AutoCat subscription, as well as another of the catalogers. They also use OCLC’s

list of what’s new in cataloging.

Staff also have once a month meeting for cataloging staff, another once a month meeting for

technical services, and another for both departments together. They discuss various issues that have

cropped up and the solutions found for them. There is also bi-yearly staff training days branch wide.

The library uses Dewey Decimal as it’s classification system, and Library of Congress headings.

While there was talk of trying some special kind of cataloging in the children’s department, it never

came to fruition. A fact Linda was very grateful for. Often they have add subject headings as well during

the process of copy cataloging. This is for fiction as well as non-fiction.

 The greatest difficulty in cataloging for the library is keeping up with the Priority Items. There’s a

red cart that priority items are set on and staff need to get them cataloged ASAP. Priority items are often

run down several times a day. Also fleshing out a bare-bones catalog is a chore. Linda mentioned she’d

almost rather make it from scratch.

The library uses OCLC to pull catalo records from, as well as Fantastic Fiction to get the series

number for book series. GoodReads, Amazon, or an author’s website are secondary sources they

investigate as needed as well. The library’s system is Polaris, and they use ILS with RDA formatting for

cataloging.

The library does not purchase bibliographic materials along with the materials, or outsource any

cataloging to vendors. Cataloging records are pulled from OCLC, or created in-house when necessary.

Periodicals are checked to see if there is a bib record already available, and if not they are sent down to

Linda to catalog.

The library’s switch to RDA from AACR2 is mostly to simply create new records in RDA format,

there is no undertaking to re-do the old records in the new format. To prepare for the switch, the library

ordered books on RDA—I saw some sitting by Linda’s work station during the interview—and staff

attended webinars and bookshops to learn more about the new format.

Linda’s least favorite cataloging task is original cataloging, especially for the local history

collection. There are a couple different things she considers the best. One is getting to see all the new

materials that come in. Another is that the job is one that makes her use her brain, it keeps the mind

sharp.

Linda feels that cataloging will fade out however. She predicts more cataloging will be

outsourced and done automatically, and that this will hurt the quality of the records. A cataloger can
look and see so many ways to improve the record a computer can’t, such as series number or more

subject headings. She keeps up to date by watching the AutoCat list.