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Cataloging & Classification Quarterly |
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Volume 32, no. 3, 2001 |
EDITORIAL
The
Importance of People
Cataloging
& Classification Quarterly benefits from an energetic and talented editorial
board including the journal's columnists. It
also could not exist without the authors who share their research, practical
experiences, and a variety of insights into the profession and its
practitioners. More than most
issues, CCQ 32(3) has a distinctly people focus and has contributions both by
and about editorial board members.
The
CCQ interview features Martin Kurth talking with Barbara B. Tillett, a member of
CCQ's editorial board, and the Library of Congress director of its Integrated
Library System Program Office and Chief of the Cataloging Policy and Support
Office. Ėkos Domanovszky a little
known Hungarian cataloging educator and theorist is the subject of a
biographical article contributed by an international member of CCQ's editorial
board. A third member of CCQ's
editorial board, Arlene Taylor, is honored through tributes by seven of her
colleagues and former students. Although Taylor is retiring from teaching at the
end of 2001, she will continue to enrich the profession for many years to come
through her research and publications.
Topical
articles treat the application of cataloging codes for author entries to the
Spanish National Library Online Catalogs; error indicators [sic] and [i.e.]
in cataloging; and word division in Chinese script transcription in the title
fields of bibliographic records. We
are all beneficiaries of these authors' contributions to the cataloging
literature.
CCQ's
new feature, ERC-Electronic Resources for Catalogers, provides a useful
annotated record of Internet-based discussion lists of interests to catalogers.
The Cataloging News column adds depth to the issue through conference
reports, other news, and announcements.
As
has been said before, "cataloging and classification are done by and for
people." [1] Without people there is not only no cataloging but there is
no purpose to cataloging. Working
with people is one of my pleasures as editor of Cataloging & Classification
Quarterly. Not only do I have the
opportunity to interact with members of the editorial board and authors but I
also have many contacts with staff members at Haworth Press.
Beginning
with CCQ volume 26, the Haworth Press has supported a "Best of Award"
for each volume. The award panels
consisting of three members of the CCQ editorial board on a rotating basis, have
a difficult yet pleasant decision to make among the many fine articles in any
volume. In the five volumes to date
the diversity of award winners demonstrates the wide variety of article subjects
and contributors. They include
practitioners and educators; a small college librarian, several large academic
librarians and a special librarian. The
award recipients live in the United States, Mexico, and The Netherlands.
Their topics range from the theoretical to research to work patterns to
"how to" and cover AACR in electronic form, the cataloging of aerial
photographs, spatial metadata, English and Spanish language subject headings in
catalogs; and changes in LSCH over a hundred years in a linguistic context.
The newest award recipient is Y. Mei Mah. Her article "Cataloging Plus: Philosophy and Practice at
a Small College Library," appears in CCQ 30(2/3) and was cited for "an
excellent job of incorporating local details into a discussion with a broad
outlook. In an article that is likely to appeal to both catalogers and
non-catalogers, the author presents a delightful account of how a cataloger can
be holistic and know what needs to be done to satisfy library users."
Several
of the award articles appeared in general issues of CCQ and several were part of
theme issues. As editor I value
both the general issues and their diverse topics with some invited but many
unsolicited papers. I also believe
that theme issues are a value service to catalogers and cataloging educators. Usually guest edited by leaders in the area, theme issues
gather the latest in research and practice on both "hot" topics and
topics of longer term interest. Theme
issues currently underway include education; authority control; works; and
classification. Several others are
in the early planning stages. I am
grateful to all the guest editors and individual authors for their time,
creativity, and expertise. With all
of you we can maintain CCQ as an essential journal for those engaged in all
aspects of cataloging broadly interpreted.
-- Ruth C. Carter
[1].
Carolynne Myall and
Ruth C. Carter, "Introduction," Cataloging & Classification
Quarterly 25(2/3):1 (1998). Also
published in Myall and Carter, Portraits in Cataloging & Classification,
(Haworth Press: 1998).
© Haworth Press, Inc.