Wednesday, November 11, 2009

First entry

I have been cataloging books for ten years now, at the University of California, Berkeley library. I am in the copy cataloging division of Technical services. Catalogers are basically divided into two main categories: original and copy; and from there divided between those who do monographs and those who do serials. At most libraries, a Masters degree in Library Science is required for an original cataloging position, not so here at Berkeley. Most of the catalogers here, whether in original or copy, are hired more for their skills and experience, especially foreign language, than on the basis of their degrees. That is in part because we have many books in foreign languages, and we are a huge academic library. I was first brought in because I know Vietnamese to some extent, although not fluent, and that was considered sufficient for mostly copy cataloging of the large number of books we receive from Vietnam.

It is late tonight, so more in my next entry.

1 comment:

  1. I love your blog! I was very glad to find it, because I'm currently in an MLIS program and I'd like to focus on cataloging. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete