Cataloging is one of the more technical skills practiced by a professional librarian. It requires adherence to a set of standards that allow the librarian to organize and label diverse sets of items in a logical and repeatable way, and the result allows library users to easily find those items on the library shelves and in an online or card catalog. The trained cataloger creates catalog entries that include a bibliographic description (sufficient information to distinguish the item in hand from other similar items), subject analysis and a classification notation. The latter is the set of characters (letters, words and/or numbers and symbols) on the spine of a book or associated with the item in a library catalog.
Catalogers may use an existing record—referred to as copy cataloging—or create a new cataloging record with original cataloging. Unsurprisingly, copy cataloging requires less time and fewer resources than original cataloging. OCLC’s WorldCat is a critical tool for catalogers wishing to take greatest advantage of copy cataloging. Self-described as “the world's largest network of library content and services,” WorldCat “enable[s] libraries to share high-quality library metadata and bibliographic records with each other” and helps librarians reduce the time spent on original cataloging.
WorldCat records are considered the industry standard for quality, with OCLC catalogers and other specialists continuously creating new records and correcting information in existing records. Transportation libraries that maintain an OCLC cataloging and metadata subscription can also augment WorldCat catalog records. Illustrating the impact of copy cataloging, OCLC reported that in calendar year 2020, OCLC member librarians copy-cataloged 95% of their items from WorldCat, saving an average of 10 minutes per title.
Shelving classification schemes are used to create the call numbers that appear on the spine of a book and allow for logical shelving of physical items in a collection. Transportation libraries may use Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) (typically used by public libraries) or Library of Congress Classification (LCC) (commonly used by research and academic libraries) as a shelving classification scheme.
How these classification schemes differ is illustrated by the same book held in two libraries:
55, A Decade of Experience, edited by Edythe Traylor Crump, published by TRB
Dewey Decimal Classification
Oregon DOT Library includes this book in its catalog with a DDC call number: 625.06 SR204 1984.
DDC structure starts with 10 main classes of knowledge. Each main class is further defined into 10 hierarchical divisions, with each having 10 more divisions of increasing specificity. This classification scheme is arranged by discipline, not subject, and the more decimal places a call number has, the more specific the subject.
Below is an illustration of the classification structure for this title, informed by an OCLC listing of the 600 DDC class.
Each portion of the DDC call number is described below:
625.06: The Dewey number in the call number.
SR204: This portion of the call number refers to the author or editor of the book. “SR” indicates that this publication is part of a series; 204 is the series number.
Note: For other books labeled with a DDC call number, this portion of the call number may be a “Cutter number” that is preceded by a decimal point. Cutter numbers further identify a book and indicate an author’s name, if available. Cutter number tables are used to translate an author’s last name into the “cutter,” which begins with a letter of the alphabet followed by one or more numbers. Cutter numbers can be used to distinguish between books published by the same author.
1984: The date of publication.
Library of Congress Classification
Northwestern University Libraries’ catalog includes this book with this LCC call number: HE5620.S6 A154 1984.
The LCC system divides knowledge into 21 classes, identifying each with a single letter of the alphabet. Most classes are then divided into subclasses and identified by two- or three-letter combinations.
Each portion of the LCC call number is described below:
HE: The first two letters of an LCC call number indicate the general class (social sciences) and the subclass (transportation and communications).
5620: These numbers define the subject of the book (automotive transportation).
.S6 A154: The first Cutter number indicates the author or title of the book. In a double Cutter number, the second cutter can reflect special instructions or the main entry. Generally, Cutter numbers represent names, titles, subjects and geographic places but can reflect other special aspects of an item. A Library of Congress September 2019 training module on the use of Cutter numbers provides further details, as does the short Cutter table described in the Library of Congress’ Using the Cutter Table.
1984: The date of publication.
Call numbers classify items by subject, a practice that makes browsing a library’s stacks or shelves possible. Users find one title of interest and then may find several more on the same shelf or close by.
Some transportation libraries may supplement item records that include a DCC or LCC call number with the Transportation Research Thesaurus (TRT), which functions as subject classification scheme. TRT was developed primarily to make it easier to search Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS). (Note: TRIS is the precursor to Transport Research International Documentation (TRID), which is TRB’s database of worldwide transportation research.)
New and experienced catalogers alike have a wealth of training opportunities available to them, some freely available and some at a cost. A sampling of these offerings is provided below:
Catalogers Learning Workshop: This Library of Congress website “provides cataloging and metadata training resources at no cost for information professionals to download, translate to other languages and modify to meet their needs.”
Cataloging Documentation: This OCLC website offers cataloging documentation, practices and programs.
Collections Management: WebJunction Course Catalog: Included in these webinars and self-paced courses are several related to cataloging, including Introduction to Cataloging for Non-Catalogers.
Fundamentals of Cataloging: This fee-based online course offered by Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, a division of the American Library Association, “is tailored for librarians and library support staff new to cataloging, librarians and library support staff from other units who want to know more about cataloging, and experienced cataloging librarians and library support staff seeking continuing education and networking opportunities.”
Introduction to Dublin Core Metadata: This two-hour online class offered by Lyrasis provides the basic information needed to implement Dublin Core metadata and integrate into a workflow that includes MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) or another cataloging schema. (The American Library Association has described Dublin Core as a “general-purpose scheme for resource description originally intended to facilitate discovery of information objects on the Web.”)
MARC Standards: This Library of Congress website offers a wealth of information about MARC, a data format with data elements that “make up the foundation of most library catalogs used today.” Among the resources are brief descriptions and tutorials on these topics:
MARC in XML: This Library of Congress website offers frameworks for working with MARC in an XML environment. XML is used in cataloging to make sharing and searching easier when resources are in different formats.
Midwest Collaborative for Library Services: This consortium of libraries organized to facilitate sharing resources and collaboration with member libraries in Indiana and Michigan presents training for both members and nonmembers (nonmembers pay a higher registration fee). Numerous cataloging courses are offered as virtual workshops.
Other Library Consortia: Other nonprofit and publicly funded networks of libraries, such as Lyrasis, Minitex and OhioNet, provide training and resources for new and experienced catalogers.
A new cataloging standard—Resource Description and Access (RDA)—launched in 2010 as the “successor to AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, second edition), the cataloging system developed nearly 50 years ago for the creation of card catalog records of print materials.” As a July 2021 journal article noted, the new standard “shifted the focus of cataloging away from record creation and toward creating quality metadata that can easily be shared and reused.” Help is available for libraries wishing to apply the new standard in the form of a toolkit and other guidance.
Resource Description and Access
The Library of Congress and its Program for Cooperative Cataloging developed guidance and policy statements to help libraries build their own policies to reflect the new cataloging standard—Resource Description and Access (RDA): Information and Resources in Preparation for RDA.