McGrath, Ellen T.

English

Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law

University at Buffalo School of Law Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law Law Librarian Book Reviews Law Librarian Scholarship Fall 1-1-1998 Ruth C. Carter's Education and Training for Catalogers and Classifiers (book review) Ellen T. McGrath University at Buffalo School of Law, emcgrath@buffalo.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/law_librarian_book_reviews  Part of the Cataloging and Metadata Commons Recommended Citation Ellen T. McGrath, Ruth C. Carter's Education and Training for Catalogers and Classifiers (book review), 28 RQ 128 (1998). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/law_librarian_book_reviews/2 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Librarian Scholarship at Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Librarian Book Reviews by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. For more information, please contact lawscholar@buffalo.edu. 128 FALL 1988 RQ Education and Training for Catalogers and Classifiers. Ed. by Ruth C. Carter. Cataloging and Classification Quarterly, v.7, no.4. New York: Haworth, 1987. 195p. $32.95 (ISBN 0-86656-660-0). LC 87-8535. This collection of twelve essays was also published as an issue of the journal Catalog­ing and Classification Quarterly. The selection of articles is balanced, with five contrib­uted by educators and the remainder by practictioners and administrators. The collective opinion seems to be that the need for catalogers is defintely not diminishing. On the contrary, the responsibilities of cat­alogers are becoming more diverse and in­creasing in importance due to the prolifer­ation of local automated systems. Consequently, the issues of education and training for future catalogers assume added significance. The book begins with essays on library education and continues by treating the topic of on-the-job training, thus describ­ing the normal progression from student to professional. There is also a presentation of the results of a survey of cataloging courses offered by library schools in the "Cataloging News" section at the end of the volume. A basic theme persists throughout the majority of these articles, namely, that a conflict exists between the­ory (also referred to as education) and practice ( or training) in the teaching of cat­aloging. With theory generally preceding practice, the consensus is that both are es­sential and that a careful balance of the two is most beneficial. On-the-job training then builds upon the solid foundation of education. The work achieves its purpose of exam­ining the present state of affairs pertaining to the education and training of catalogers. In the process, it serves to stimulate think­ing about these subjects and paves the way for authors of similar works to take the next step by proposing methods for attain­ing the optimal balance between theory and practice. The book is recommended for all stu­dents and members of the profession who possess an interest in cataloging. The spe­cific examples of teaching methods will be of value to educators, while the description of training programs will prove helpful to practitioners involved in that area. Even public services librarians may be inter-SOURCES 129 ested ( or possibly alarmed) to read the ac­counts of the decentralization of cataloging departments at two academic libraries, which resulted in the training of public ser ­vices staff to perform cataloging functions.-£/len McGrath, Cataloger, Charles B. Sears Law Library, State University of New York-Buffalo. 

Ruth C. Carter\u27s Education and Training for Catalogers and Classifiers

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Ruth C. Carter\u27s Education and Training for Catalogers and Classifiers (book review)

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