The Affiliate. Telluride Historical Museum. Cataloging Futures. A portal to my Cataloguing Aids website | Cataloguing advice and links that serve the website of the same name. Eye Level. The Bigger Picture. Archives of American Art Blog. Smithsonian Collections Blog. What It's Like to Be a Cataloger. As part of our Archives Month 2010 celebration, archivists and librarians here at the Smithsonian are blogging about the work they do.
I was asked to describe what it's like to be a cataloger. I filled up pages of notes with thoughts about the past, present, and future of cataloging archival and library materials, and, more specifically, about my job as Special Collections Cataloger for the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. It was a great exercise, but I generated way more information than I could pack into one entry. Therefore, I've suggested to my fellow SIRIS bloggers that we ought to do a continuing series on the glories and travails of cataloging (do you agree? Let us know in the comments section below!). I think being a cataloger is one of the best jobs ever, but, generally speaking, cataloging has traditionally enjoyed a mixed reputation, even among other librarians and archivists.