CATALOGERS IN ACADEMIC-LIBRARIES - THEIR EVOLVING AND EXPANDING ROLES

Catalogers in academic libraries who belong to ALA's Technical Service s Division were surveyed to determine if and how their job functions h ave changed over the past ten years. The 271 respondents indicated a c hange from print to electronic formats, involvement of nonprofessional s in higher levels of cataloging, a trend toward outsourcing (particul arly, copy cataloging and foreign-language materials), and more catalo ging of specialized items, audiovisual materials, and digital document s by professional librarians. The latter now use their expertise to ed it problematic records, engage in managerial tasks, catalog and attemp t authority control of Internet resources, do Internet training or Web page design, and use HTML. More and more catalogers are involved in a ctivities formerly in the domain of systems librarians (selecting and implementing catalog products, database maintenance, etc.).