rda-l  

Re: [RDA-L] Time and effort

Miksa, Shawne
Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:38:20 -0700

Jim unbelievable wrote: "But it must be accepted that catalogers are *most 
definitely NOT* the people to know what people need from information. That can 
only come from reference librarians and the public, the researchers, scholars, 
and students, themselves."

With all due respect---what planet are you on, Jim? Come back to this one. 
Where do you get this stuff? Let me welcome you to the 21st century where 
catalogers are user-centric, born and bred. We start from the point of the 
user--what are their needs, how do we organize it to help them meet those 
needs; how do the choices we make as organizers affect their ability to find, 
identify, select, obtain, navigate.....and so on. Let's call it functionality, 
shall we?

Only a reference librarian, and not a cataloging librarian, can know what 
people need from information?  Bulldada. If there is an instance of this then 
it occurs when a cataloger gets so wrapped up in the 'brilliance' of their own 
cataloging skills that they can't see the forest for the trees. 

Done. Outta here. Buh-bye.


**************************************************************
Shawne D. Miksa, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Library and Information Sciences
College of Information
University of North Texas
email: shawne.mi...@unt.edu
http://courses.unt.edu/smiksa/index.htm
office 940-565-3560 fax 940-565-3101
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