A New Cataloging Curriculum in a Time of Innovation: Exploring a Modular Approach to Online Delivery

Abstract

Cataloging librarianship has a tradition of innovation. Currently, professional and instructional innovations must be considered in a new Cataloging curriculum. Using as a framework Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation, this reflective study explores one solution being considered at the University of Missouri while revising the Cataloging curriculum. A balance between theory and practice is suggested through the establishment of a set of core theoretical topics to be covered in the first part of the Cataloging class; Web-based modular elements to be covered in the second part will focus on cataloging practice in specific kinds of libraries.

KEYWORDS:

• cataloging
• cataloging education
• innovation

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Felicity Dykas for her attention to detail in proofreading an early version of the article.

Notes

1. Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations. 5th ed. (New York: Free Press, 2003), 12.

2. Judith Hopkins, “The 1791 French Cataloging Code and the Origins of the Card Catalog,” Libraries and Culture 27, no. 4 (1992): 378–404.

3. Michel Mingam, “Rameau: Bilan, Perspectives,” Bulletin des bibliothèques de France 50, no. 5 (2005): 39. http://bbf.enssib.fr/consulter/bbf-2005-05-0038-001.pdf

4. Judith Hopkins and John A. Edens, “Introduction,” in Research Libraries and Their Implementation of AACR2, ed. Judith Hopkins and John A. Edens (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, 1986): 1–17.

5. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 1.

6. Thomas R. Kochtanek, e-mail message to author, September 13, 2011.

7. Kenneth Roy Bonin, e-mail message to author, 2010.

8. Seymour Lubetzky, “On Teaching Cataloging,” Journal of Education for Librarianship 5, no. 4 (1964): 255.

9. Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, “Educating Cataloging Professionals in a Changing Information Environment,” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 49, no. 2 (2008): 93–106.

10. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations.

11. Jennifer P. Lundblad, “A Review and Critique of Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Theory as It Applies to Organizations,” Organization Development Journal 21, no. 4 (2003): 50–64. This article also gives an excellent overview of the Rogers framework in general terms.

12. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 36–38.

13. Hsia-Ching Chang, “A New Perspective on Twitter Hashtag Use: Diffusion of Innovation Theory.” Paper presented at the 2010 ASIST Conference, Pittsburgh, PA.

14. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 267–299.

15. Ibid.

16. Larry Millsap, “A History of the Online Catalog in North America,” in Technical Services Management, 1965–1990: A Quarter Century of Change and a Look to the Future, ed. Linda C. Smith and Ruth C. Carter (New York: Haworth Press, 1996), 79–103.

17. Ibid., 84–85.

18. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 168–218.

19. Ibid., 169.

20. Ibid., 28–29.

21. Sherry L. Vellucci, “Cataloging across the Curriculum: A Syndetic Structure for Teaching Cataloging,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 24, no. 1–2 (1997): 35–59; Daniel N. Joudrey, “A New Look at US Graduate Courses in Bibliographic Control,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 34, no. 1–2 (2002): 57–99; Hsieh-Lee, “Educating Cataloging Professionals in a Changing Information Environment,” 59–68; Daniel N. Joudrey, “Another Look at Graduate Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 46, no. 2 (2008): 137–181.

22. Hsieh-Yee, “Educating Cataloging Professionals in a Changing Information Environment,” 62.

23. Sylvia D. Hall-Ellis, “Cataloging Electronic Resources and Metadata: Employers’ Expectations as Reflected in American Libraries and AutoCAT, 2000–2005,” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 47, no. 1 (Winter, 2006): 38–51; JoAnne Deeken and Deborah Thomas, “Technical Services Job Ads: Changes Since 1995,” College & Research Libraries 67, no. 2 (2006): 136–145; Jung-ran Park and Caimei Lu, “Metadata Professionals: Roles and Competencies as Reflected in Job Announcements, 2003–2006,”Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 47, no. 2 (2009): 145–160; Jung-ran Park, Caimei Lu, and Linda Marion, “Cataloging Professionals in the Digital Environment: A Content Analysis of Job Descriptions,” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 60, no. 4 (2009): 844–857; Myung-Ja Han and Patricia Hswe, “The Evolving Role of the Metadata Librarian: Competencies Found in Job Descriptions,” Library Resources & Technical Services 54, no. 3 (2010): 129–141.

24. Janet D. Swan-Hill, “Descriptive Cataloging Proficiencies Among Beginning Students: A Comparison Among Traditional-Class and Virtual-Class LIS Students,” Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Education 2, no. 2 (2005): 13–43.

25. “ALA Core Competences of Librarianship,” ALA, 2009, http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/careers/corecomp/corecompetences/finalcorecompstat09.pdf. See especially section 3: Organization of Recorded Knowledge and Information.

26. Vellucci, “Cataloging across the Curriculum,” 37.

27. Sheila S. Intner, “Persistent Issues in Cataloging Education: Considering the Past and Looking Toward the Future,” Cataloging and Classification Quarterly 34, no. 1–2 (2002): 15–29.

28. Janet Swan Hill, “Education for and about Technical Services: Where are We, and Where Do We Go Next?,” in Commemorating the Past, Celebrating the Present, Creating the Future: Papers in Observance of the 50th Anniversary of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, ed. Pamela Bluh (Chicago: American Library Association, 2007), 41–42.

29. Lubetzky, “On Teaching Cataloging,” 256–257.

30. Isabelle Dussert-Carbone, “Faut-il encore enseigner le catalogage?,” Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France 50, no. 4 (2005): 20.

31. Hsieh-Yee, “Educating Cataloging Professionals in a Changing Information Environment,” 59–68; Vellucci, “Cataloging across the Curriculum,” 35–59.

32. Cataloging Curriculum Summit, University of Missouri. Agenda available at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2AUNZ6w_tbkMjA4ZjEyODAtYThiMS00MTljLWI0MWItYmUxMDE4NWVlNWVm&hl=en_US

33. Intner, “Persistent Issues in Cataloging Education,” 20.

34. “ALA Core Competences.”

35. Intner, “Persistent Issues in Cataloging Education,” 15–28.

36. Heidi Lee Hoerman, “Why Does Everybody Hate Cataloging?,” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 34, no. 1–2 (2002): 36.

37. See Swan-Hill, “Descriptive Cataloging Proficiencies.”