Welsh, A; (2013) Research and the librarian. Presented at: Innovative Information Technologies for Science, Business and Education 2013, Vilnius, Lithuania.

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Abstract

This paper considers the role of the library catalogue within the research process. As well as advocating the catalogue as an inventory for the library, cataloguing theorists from Cutter onwards have argued that the catalogue record should provide a surrogate for the item itself – that, where the item cannot be provided in full-text via the computer screen, the user should be able to gain a full enough understanding of it from the catalogue record to determine if it really is the item they are seeking. While this may be straightforward as to basic fields such as author and title, it becomes more complex when we consider such matters as edition and state. At this point both analytical and textual bibliography may come into play in order to determine with accuracy the true nature of the item described. Highlighting calls from scholars for more catalogue information on bindings (Pickwoad) and illustrations (Suarez) and on the current dialogues around the cost of cataloguing workflows (Library of Congress), this paper discusses the level of research employed in creating catalogue records versus the research that the library user should expect to have to carry out themselves. Engaging with the current debate on ‘Hidden Collections’, it discusses the balancing act that research libraries have to perform between digitizing, documenting and making collections available quickly and describing them with a high enough level of detail and accuracy to be discoverable by researchers.

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