WILL UNWOUND #495: “FAQs About Catalogers”
July 15, 2011Frequently Asked Questions About Catalogers
Q. What does it mean when a job ad asks for a “dynamic” live-wire librarian?
A. Catalogers need not apply.
Q. How many catalogers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. None, they screw in ILLUMINATION – SOURCES OF.
Q. How can you tell when you’re in a cataloger’s cemetery?
A. The tombstones are all arranged by Cutter number.
Q. When can you be sure that your kid is going to grow up to become a cataloger?
A. When he says, “Tell Johnny I can’t come out to play today because I am doing a retrospective conversion of my dinosaur books.”
Q. When can you be certain that your blind date is a cataloger?
A. When she says, “Tell me about yourself. Are you a monograph or a serial kind of guy?”
Q. When can you tell a cataloger is underpaid?
A. When he is standing on the freeway entrance with a sign that says WILL CATALOG FOR FOOD.
Q. When can you tell that the car in front of yours belongs to a cataloger?
A. The license plate reads AACR2.
Q. When can you be certain that the guy sitting next to you at the bar is a cataloger?
A. When he says, “In college I experimented with near beer; now I’m strictly into soda waters.”
Q. How can you tell that the corpse at a funeral is the body of a cataloger?
A. When you hear one of the mourners say, “Gee, Fred looks so lifelike.”
Q. What do you call a cataloger who says Hi to you in the morning”
A. Talkative.
Q. What do you call a cataloger who says “Hi, nice day” to you in the morning?
A. Verbose
Q. What do you call a cataloger who says, “Hi, nice day, how are you?” in the morning?
A. A misplaced reference librarian.
Q. How do you know when your cataloger needs a vacation?
A. When he/she says, “I’m stressed. Everything is beginning to look like a 333.33 to me.”
Q. What is job stress for a cataloger?
A. Deciding between 817.96 or 817.967.
Q. When do you know that the meeting you’ve wandered into is a group therapy session for catalogers?
A. When you hear someone say, “I first started worrying about the distinction between a hyphen and a dash when I was 14.”
Q. When do you know that the guy who’s trying to pick you up in a bar is a cataloger?
A. When he says, “Come home with me and I’ll show you some creative main entries.”
If they say “em” and “en” instead of hyphen and dash they have also had a dose of history of books & printing. Although “em space” is gaining usage among web page designers.
And true catalogers will distinguish carefully between entry work & classification work — with subject heading work having its adherents as well. Ever file a subject catalog according to strict L.C. filing order where punctuation marks were critical — never interfile commas and hyphens.
The intellectual work of keeping Dewey current is mainly done under the auspices of the Library of Congress & an A.L.A. committee.
Two or three-figure Cutter?
Too funny!
Did you just make these up or have they been around and I just never heard them before?
I think the distinction between a hyphen and a dash might also keep someone with a proofreading background tossing and turning at night (not even getting into the whole em dash vs. en dash thing). Catalogers and proofreaders: separated at birth?
I don’t get this one:
Q. When can you be certain that the guy sitting next to you at the bar is a cataloger?
A. When he says, “In college I experimented with near beer; now I’m strictly into soda waters.”
Is it an exaggeration of how specific catalogers have to be? The “near beer” throws me off.
The few years of work I’ve done have been heavy customer service stuff, but I’ve always been interested in cataloging (i.e. spending hundreds of hours on my iTunes library). I haven’t met many catalogers, though, and I’d be afraid of offending the ones I’m acquainted with by asking how well-known this “anti-social cataloger” stereotype is. Is a socially adept cataloger such an exception?
Speaking as a cataloger, the stereotype is very well known, and that’s certainly a safer question than asking how true it is. But the socially adept types do better, as in any job.
We actually had a new hire express outrage at being written up for his poor people skills because he (says he) was assured by his library school instructors/advisor that if he went into cataloging, no one would ever require him to display any. No, he didn’t last either.
Whoever told him that had no business advising students. That type of idiocy is part of what gives library schools a bad name.
Oh, and I think the near-beer/soda-water joke addresses how straight-laced, risk-averse, and utterly devoid of spark and fun we catalogers are supposed to be.
I do believe I have a t-shirt that says “Will Catalog For Food” somewhere in the wardrobe…
Is this the library version of blonde jokes?
No. Catalogers are smarter than other librarians.
Right, Mick!
An activity which at its heart attempts to impose order and discipline on a messy and arbitrary world is always an easy target for humor.
Here’s a challenge for the catalogers among the Unwinders — since electronic resources are susceptible of traditional catalog practice, and there is currently no worldcat.org entry for “Will Unwound,” how about someone putting forth the effort to devise a catalog entry for this tavern?
Boris & crew — divide a $50.00 however seems fairest.
I read this earlier this morning and thought, “What fun!” I came back just now and was surprised that someone had not yet posted something. I’m a little bit concerned about what this says about me.
“An activity which at its heart attempts to impose order and discipline on a messy and arbitrary world is always an easy target for humor.”
Beautifully put Stan.
Amen to what Kate K said.
The quality of the cataloging directly correlates to the quality of the online catalog. I’m grateful that there are people in the world who enjoy the work – I’d rather stick a fork in my eye.
Puts me in mind of the Librarian Avengers on why you should worship librarians:
“Librarians can catalog anything from an onion to a dog’s ear. They could catalog you.”
http://librarianavengers.org/worship-2/
A reminder of Librarian Avengers is always welcome.
(As a lagniappe, Katchoo’s image on the original site eventually led me to Strangers in Paradise.)
What an amusing way to start a Friday!
What a great list.
I’ve never done cataloging because it is done at the system level in my library system. I’ve done item conversion which is still done at most libraries in our system; however, that makes me wonder if cataloging is still commonly done at many public libraries? Or, have other people experienced the same thing that we have in our system – that cataloging is now done on the system level and thus you don’t have catalogers in the public libraries within the system?
I’d imagine though that cataloging is still done on site in academic libraries – although I don’t know that for a fact.
So I’m just curious!
We have two catalogers at our small academic (law) library. We like to say that they will always have a job. Our director is emphatic that the catalog is the center of our universe and MUST be perfect! Without our catalog (or catalogers) the system would fall to pieces.
But I did love Will’s “jokes” and will send them to our catalogers who are lovely and personable.
I work in a county public library system and here the cataloging is done at the system level, as well, and with a shrinking number of staff hours it seems.
Ok, my catalogers always talk to me, and it’s not just about cataloging or reference questions. One was a medievalist and the other is just funny. So maybe I’ve encountered weird catalogers or don’t stereotype them, so they feel more comfortable with me…don’t know.
And if anyone ever said “Come home with me and I’ll show you some creative main entries” to me….Ooooh baby!!!
I’ve always got along well with catalogers too–most of them have had really wicked, dry senses of humor. And bizarre and fantastic hobbies.
I’m kind of afraid to ask about the “bizarre and fantastic hobbies,” since I suspect some of my hobbies would qualify.
The cataloger side of me fits the needs of DATAMP (www.datamp.org) Does that count as a weird hobby?
Or how about these — ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/34219731@N07/sets/72157624507692843/ )
Isn’t establishing FLICKR sets a cataloging / organizing type activity?
Harrison,
Come home with me and I’ll show you some creative main entries.
Does it involve anything to do with creative main entries involving Art Blakey or Brubeck Quartet…then I may have to think about it……because seriously…does Art get his own entry or what
…and is the main entry for Coffee just coffee or Coffea arabica…
I need a cold shower….
I think this posting should not be #495, but #025.07.
Catalogers are born, not made.
Wayne,
We don’t have DDC 22; in DDC 21 this post could be 025.007? or perhaps 025.3? why not go for 818.40253? — now let’s hear from the L.C. classifiers.
How about Z693?
Great list. We’ve had the stereotypical cataloger (retired, thank god) and then we have one who switched to cataloging from Interlibrary Loan (seems to like the switch, is very routine in her work). Then there is the one who started in cataloging, moved to collection management and is now spending most of her time doing metadata for our digitization projects. Me thinks “metadata” will be the new world of cataloging.
You do know, don’t you, that when he lived in California Michael G’s vanity plate was, in fact, AACR2?
My all time favorite, at my first statewide public services meeting at my current job:
Q. What’s the difference between a cataloger and a terrorist?
A. You can negotiate with a terrorist.
One day in cataloging class, our professor was having use read articles and then give each article subject headings. When I presented my subject headings to the class, the professor said, “You’re being too creative… no one would ever look under those subject headings for that article.” And then he paused and asked “Are you going to be a children’s librarian?” And I said “Yes.” He said “Perfect. Keep up the good work.”
While my brain doesn’t work like a cataloger, I think catalogers are fantastic, interesting people. When I started my first job, I made sure to make friends with our cataloger–while it might not be the case everywhere, I’ve found that if you can get the cataloger on your side, you’ll be okay.
I am not a cataloger, but keep offering to catalog things in my house if only I could buy a card catalog for the living room. Too bad I haven’t seen any card catalogs for sale for under $250.
Disclaimer: I am not a cataloger (though if I landed a cataloging job, I think I’d be very happy with it). I have always had a penchant for making lists and organizing my book and music collections in databases. I get concerned if the tags on my Flickr photos don’t follow a consistent format. Some of my hobbies require a lot of nicely-formatted data (genealogy, for example). I also have done some time as a proofreader (if you hadn’t guessed), which is another one of those trades that is all about imposing order on a messy world. And most of my best friends have the same traits. I may not be a cataloger in reality, but I suspect I’m a cataloger at heart.
You are. Congratulations!
Thanks, Kurt!
Conversation remembered from library school – “Hey wanna go back to my place and practice the HQ…” ummm nvm LOL.
Then there are those of us who once perhaps were catalogers; but have since gone further over the edge – umm no – I meant pushing the envelope! DataBase builders; Thesauri designers; subject specialty term list creators…
Q. How many librarians does it take to change a light bulb?
A. I don’t know, but I can help you look it up.
(Not original to me, but I don’t remember the name of the librarian who made this joke up so I can’t credit him properly. Also, it sounds like an instruction librarian more than anything else.)
My favorite version:
Q. How many librarians does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Change?!?!
Will, the marvelous thing is that people actually pay you for standing up and delivering these old groaners.
By the way, you would find light bulbs under Bulbs, Light; Light Bulbs (for easy user searching) or Incandescent Lamps (NT).
Hey, I work with interior design people…I have to know these things
. Illumination or Lighting is a BT in their world.
And I imagine with interior design people as with anyone else, some are brilliant, some dim, some flicker erratically, and a few are just shadowy figures.
Bumper stickers seen in years gone by:
Dewey? Sure we do!
Catalogers do it with class.
Oh, and this from LISCareer:
http://www.liscareer.com/murray_cataloging.htm
And don’t forget the Famous Catalogers’ School:
http://spot.colorado.edu/~hilljs/urge_to_catalog.htm
(That last preserved for us by the lovely and talented Janet Swan Hill.)
Hmm, more on light bulbs. Here’s the authority record for the Library of Congress subject heading (in MARC format, of course):
010 $a sh 90003210
040 $a DLC $c DLC
150 $a Light bulbs
450 $a Bulbs, Light
550 $w g $a Incandescent lamps [this is a broader term]
670 $a Web. 3 $b (Light bulb = INCANDESCENT LAMP)
670 $a Random House $b (light bulb; an electric light)
670 $a Yellow pages $b (Light bulbs and tubes)
670 $a World Book: $b v. 6, p. 130 (Incandescent lamps; light bulb: “The word lamp can refer to either a light bulb or the appliance that holds it. But a lighting engineer uses the word to mean only the source of electric light — that is, the light bulb … Incandescent lamps, the most common source of electric light, may be found in almost every home. Automobile headlights and flashlights are also incandescent lamps … Every incandescent lamp has three basic parts: (1) the filament, (2) the bulb, and (3) the base …”)
670 $a Hennepin $b (Light bulbs x Electric lamps, Incandescent)
675 $a ASTI; $a TEST; $a AIC
680 $i Here are entered general and popular works on a type of incandescent lamp.
This is a case where a cataloger will have to change a light bulb–or at least the subject authority record–since with CFLs and LEDs coming into greater use, the common light bulb is no longer just a subset of incandescent lamps.
I am a cataloger and I laughed out loud while reading this.
Ooh, way to perpetuate the stereotype!
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So if ILLUMINATION – SOURCES OF isn’t LSCH, this can’t be funny, right?
And, anyway, wouldn’t it be:
Illumination, Sources of.
This is hilarious.