an interview with lynne howarth
TRANSCRIPT
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An Interview with Lynne HowarthCarolynne Myall & Jean Weihs BLS aa library technicians, and school librarians , E-mail:Published online: 03 Feb 2009.
To cite this article: Carolynne Myall & Jean Weihs BLS (2005) An Interview with Lynne Howarth, Cataloging & ClassificationQuarterly, 40:1, 3-17, DOI: 10.1300/J104v40n01_02
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CCQ INTERVIEW
Carolynne Myall, Interview Editor
An Interview with Lynne Howarth
Jean Weihs
ABSTRACT. Lynne Howarth discusses her career as a cataloguer andeducator. Topics covered include important issues facing cataloguerstoday; exciting trends–and also some discouraging developments–inlibrarianship, cataloguing, and bibliographic control during the lastten years, and the future of bibliographic control in the next ten years;the challenges in overcoming the traditional view of librarians; andpotential fields of employment for those with cataloguing skills. [Articlecopies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service:1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]> Web-site: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. Allrights reserved.]
Lynne C. Howarth, PhD, is Professor, Faculty of Information Studies, University ofToronto, 140 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G6, Canada (E-mail: [email protected]). Jean Weihs, BLS, worked in academic, public, school, and special li-braries, and taught cataloguing for more than thirty years to librarians, library techni-cians, and school librarians (E-mail: [email protected]).
This interview was conducted in April 2004.
Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, Vol. 40(1) 2005Available online at http://www.haworthpress.com/web/CCQ
2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.Digital Object Identifier: 10.1300/J104v40n01_02 3
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KEYWORDS. Lynne C. Howarth, cataloguing, bibliographic control,library technical service departments, education for librarianship, re-cruitment for librarianship, employment opportunities for cataloguers,image of librarians
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Lynne Howarth was a scholarship student throughout her undergraduateand graduate career. She has been and continues to be an active participant inmany professional organizations and has chaired several important commit-tees. She has received nineteen research grants and written, co-written, or ed-ited four books and thirty-four articles. The first time I met Lynne was when Ihired her to teach cataloguing at Seneca College. She was a splendid teacher–so much so that she was the only teacher about whom I received no complaints(there are always complaints about teachers from disgruntled students). Herelevation from Assistant Professor to Dean of the Faculty of Information Stud-ies, University of Toronto, seven years after she began teaching at the facultywas a testament to her skill as a teacher and her leadership qualities.
JW: Fifty years ago when I went to university, there were few fields open toyoung women. This was not true in your generation. What attracted you tolibrarianship?
LH: While both my parents were readers, my mother was a great supporter ofthe public library. From a very young age she took me with her to the GeorgeH. Locke Branch of the Toronto Public Library, and I would choose my booksin the Boys & Girls Room while she browsed the collections of the adjoiningadult section of the building. By the age of nine I had been “adopted” biblio-graphically by the children’s librarian, Marjorie Fleming, who took greatpains to recommend books for my reading interest, and to solicit my opinionsas to what I had enjoyed about a particular title. Following such a discussion, Iwould be offered books in a similar vein. Whether helping to identify titles fora school project or to savour recreationally, Miss Fleming knew how to fostera love of learning as well as a lifelong and enduring passion for reading. Shewas definitely my first mentor and an inspiration for my future profession as alibrarian and library and information science/information studies educator. Bygrade six, I was working in my elementary school library, and by the age offourteen had become a Page at the Toronto Public Library. I continued to workpart-time in the Boys & Girls Room at the George H. Locke Branch through-
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out my secondary school years and on weekends during my undergraduateyears at McMaster University.
Towards the midpoint of my Bachelor of Arts degree program, and with amajor in political science, I seriously considered a career in law. As a result ofmy exposure to a large sample of librarians during my time in high school anduniversity, I had come to appreciate their facility with knowing somethingabout everything and having the skills to identify information in even greaterdepth, as necessary. These were well-rounded individuals with intelligence,wit, and cultural savvy. I also discovered that they possessed graduate degreesthat would be honoured around the world–just the ticket for someone with ayearning for travel and an interest in people and places beyond Canada. Incomparison, law seemed more limited and limiting; by the end of my thirdyear undergraduate studies, I had committed to pursuing a career in librarian-ship–and to see the world!
JW: Why did you become a cataloguer?
LH: After completing my BA degree, I decided to work for a year to earnmoney to support me through a two-year graduate degree as I understood theMaster of Library Science program required. I applied for a full-time positionas a paraprofessional at the University of Guelph Library, hoping for work inthe reference services area. When I explained that I would only be working atthe library for a year before going back to university for my MLS degree, theinterviewing librarian stated that, in that case, it was not worth the time to trainme as a reference paraprofessional and hired me as a bibliographic searcher inthe Technical Services Division. I determined to do this until the first vacancyin public services occurred, but quickly discovered that the “detective work”involved in looking for cataloguing copy for a huge variety of academic mate-rials was challenging and engaging. My second mentor was Ellen Toms–theHead of Technical Services–who not only encouraged the development of myskills as a bibliographic searcher (with a supervised foray into copy catalogu-ing as we now know it), but also took an active interest in my commitment to acareer in librarianship. Along with Marjorie Fleming, she was highly support-ive of my candidacy for admission to the Master of Library Science program atthe University of Toronto.
I enrolled in the MLS program in September 1976. During the secondyear, I secured part-time employment at the Toronto Board of Educationworking as a bibliographic searcher in the Cataloguing Department. Perhapssensing a potential recruit, cataloguers there shared aspects of their knowl-edge base with me, again exposing me to the more challenging and engagingaspects of original cataloguing in particular. Academically, I had found an in-
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tellectual “home” in cataloguing, pursuing a research stream project under thesupervision of Professor C. Donald Cook–my third mentor and primary influ-ence in my pursuit of an academic career in Information Studies. The studylooked at where the function of bibliographic searching was situated adminis-tratively within Technical Services–with Acquisitions, or Cataloguing, or as aunit on its own.
With a background as a paraprofessional in Technical Services in academicand school libraries, I apparently had “the basic ingredients” for an entry-levelcataloguer, and in a highly competitive job market landed my first job cata-loguing French language materials and sound recordings within the TechnicalServices Division of North York Public Library in 1978. Within two years Iwas supervising a cataloguing team, and shortly thereafter was appointed tohead the Cataloguing Department. This was an exciting time, with the intro-duction of computer-supported cataloguing systems from bibliographic utili-ties, and the beginning of integrated library systems with databases to bedesigned and built. To be a cataloguing manager in the early 1980s was to be atthe leading edge of new technologies, and the early stages of rethinking cata-loguing work processes and resources allocation. The opportunities and chal-lenges posed by the introduction of computer-based technologies in technicalservices, in particular, and libraries, in general, proved instrumental to my fu-ture research as a doctoral student and then academic.
JW: You appear to have been well satisfied with your career in the TechnicalServices Department. Why then did you become a cataloguing educator?
LH: By 1982 I was contemplating a return to graduate studies in a doctoralprogram in library and information science. I was excited by the possibilitiesof pursuing research in the discipline, but wondered if an academic career in-clusive of teaching would appeal equally. At this point you [Jean Weihs] be-came my fourth professional mentor when you offered me the opportunity toteach cataloguing and classification to mature students enrolled in thepart-time Library Techniques diploma program at Seneca College in Toronto.Your reputation well preceded you, and I was, needless to say, both excitedand a little reticent about taking on a teaching assignment as a colleague of abona fide cataloguing expert. Nonetheless, I considered an adjunct appoint-ment to the Library Techniques program a golden opportunity to determinemy own aptitude for teaching. I was immediately “hooked,” and my futuregoal of an academic career assumed a focus and momentum! With you andDon Cook as role models, I was indeed fortunate and well grounded!
In 1984, I was accepted into the doctoral program at the Faculty of Libraryand Information Science at the University of Toronto, and, with Professor C.
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Donald Cook as my supervisor, completed a dissertation combining my twoprimary areas of research interest, namely, the organization and administra-tion of technical services, and the impact of computer-based technologies onwork processes, workflow, and staffing configurations in libraries. Thus, Istudied the impact of technology on workflow and staffing configurations incataloguing departments in four large public library systems in MetropolitanToronto. One finding in the research leading to the dissertation–the changingrole of professional cataloguers following the introduction of library techni-cians in the cataloguing process–added meaning to the teaching of librarytechnicians.
While working on my doctoral research, I taught cataloguing courses at theUniversity of Toronto, McGill University, and Seneca, Sheridan, and Geor-gian Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology. I also served as an instructor inthe Continuing Education division of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (nowRyerson University), teaching a multidisciplinary course, “Introduction to In-formation Management.” My combined interests in the information life cycle,information management policies and procedures, and in the organization andstorage of information (computer-aided cataloguing; database design), in-formed consulting activities undertaken during the latter 1980s. I worked withindustry clients to redesign information-intensive workflow within their orga-nizations–stimulating and highly satisfying opportunities for me to comple-ment my experiences within the institutional domain of libraries. In 1990 Icompleted the PhD program and was appointed to the Faculty of Library andInformation Studies (now Faculty of Information Studies) at the University ofToronto at the rank of Assistant Professor. My specific teaching assignmentsincluded courses in cataloguing, classification, and subject analysis (introduc-tory and advanced), and in the organization and administration of technicalservices. During my first five years in the tenure stream at the Faculty, I wasawarded two research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Re-search Council of Canada (SSHRCC). The first was for research modelingtechnical services and determining effective workflow strategies and optimumdeployment of resources. The second, with Professor Joan Cherry, investi-gated the content and design of online public access catalogues with the objec-tive, as articulated in the grant title, of “Towards More Useful BibliographicDisplays.” I was awarded tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Profes-sor in the spring of 1995, and appointed Dean in December 1995. I served asDean of the Faculty of Information Studies until June 30, 2003, at which time Ihad completed my full term and elected to return to full-time research andteaching in a faculty position.
My career to date has been highly rewarding because it has kept me intel-lectually stimulated, has played to my innate curiosity and love of learning,
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has introduced me to extraordinarily thoughtful and articulate students andcolleagues, and has indulged my lifelong interest in travel. As an academicand as an active member of scholarly and professional associations, such asISKO, ALA, and IFLA (to name a few), I have been able to participate in inter-national conferences and working groups–particularly in the area of standardsdevelopment, and, more recently, metadata–and have been invited to speak atvenues around North America, Europe, Scandinavia, and beyond. I often sug-gest with (serious) humour to students that they should “pursue cataloguing;see the world!” I have had the incredible good fortune to do both, as did my ac-ademic mentor and role model, Don Cook.
JW: What, in your opinion, are some of the important issues facing cata-loguers today?
LH: When I first became acquainted with cataloguing departments in the1970s, they were seen to be areas of innovation with a potential for changemanifested through the introduction of computer technologies. Technical ser-vices was a “happening” place to work, and was accorded both value and re-spect within the library profession as well as in individual libraries. As originalcataloguing gradually gave way to more copy cataloguing, and as the lattercame to be viewed as a candidate activity for outsourcing, the professionaltenor of the cataloguer began to fade. Yet while this was happening, the needfor highly specialized cataloguers with language and media format skills wasgrowing. Likewise, the need for those with expertise in the organization of in-formation–database design, data analysts, etc.–was also increasing. By themid-1990s, with the exponential growth in Web-based resources and the pro-liferation of Internet and Intranet applications, a new role for those with cata-loguing skills was emerging. The demand for those skilled as informationarchitects or as metadata specialists (to cite only two examples) has risensteadily, while the supply chain has lagged behind. Some cataloguers are la-menting a “de-skilling” of the profession; my own opinion is that we are wit-nessing a dramatic expansion of potential employment opportunities for thosewith cataloguing skills–or at least a cataloguing mindset that is systematic,logical, and capable of seeing information organization and analysis from boththe macro and micro perspectives.
Without a doubt in my own mind, the single greatest challenge for cata-loguers today is to think strategically about where they and their skill sets fitwithin an organization context–and note that I did not say a library context,necessarily. What value can an individual who thinks like a cataloguer bring toany organization–to its mission, its goals, its product life-cycle, its clients orcustomers, its business processes, its bottom line? I think the opportunities for
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cataloguers-as-strategic-thinkers are indeed immense. This may require thatwe talk our way into new employment opportunities with our skill sets as thevalue-add proposition. We need to be “big picture thinkers” with our feetfirmly planted on the terra firma of first principles, compliance with stan-dards, and an acknowledging nod to “the devil is in the details.” Don’t get mewrong. . . . I believe there is still an immense amount of (original) cataloguingto be done, and more than enough demand for those interested in so-called“traditional” cataloguing. I am saying that I see a very dynamic future thatplaces great value on the kinds of skills and ways of thinking usually associ-ated with cataloguing. For example, the number, volume, and diversity ofknowledge repositories call out for those with expertise in the design of taxon-omies and the systematic organization of vast quantities and types of digitaldata. Naming and locating key information within proliferating enterprise por-tals in multifunctional organizations has become a major challenge. Whobetter qualified than a cataloguer to bring constituency and standards-compli-ance to the table?
Cutter lamented the loss of the “golden age of cataloging” at the turn of thelast century–an observation that proved unfounded as the growth in public ed-ucation and in the publication of print and nonprint materials to support thatdevelopment increased the need and demand for cataloguers. It seems to methat we are in, perhaps, the “platinum age” of cataloguing with computer-sup-ported cataloguing systems having freed the professional cataloguer to focuson more challenging materials, or on the management of processes and re-sources, or on expanding the net of the cataloguing mindset or approach tonew applications, institutional domains, or other previously unexplored ave-nues. Imagine!
JW: What have you found to be exciting in the field of librarianship and/orbibliographic control during the last ten years?
LH: Within the field of bibliographic control there are four trends that I havefound particularly exciting over the past ten years. The first reflects an intel-lectual rigour that has been applied to the cataloguing domain, resulting in thearticulation of foundational models, such as the Functional Requirements forBibliographic Records (FRBR), or Tom Delsey’s entity-relationship model-ling of the two-part Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR). We have“done cataloguing” as we recognize it today for well over a century and a quar-ter. With the FRBR framework, or Delsey’s models, we are now making ex-plicit the underlying theoretical tenets of applied cataloguing. Modelling whywe do what we do represents, for me, a profound maturation in the discipline,and gives us a solid base on which to further refine our codes, standards, and
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processes. Current explorations into situating AACR and the family of ISBDswithin the FRBR framework are the next logical steps in this theoretical re-thinking of longstanding practices. No doubt the Functional Requirements andNumbering of Authority Records (FRANAR) will accomplish the same forauthority control.
In addition to the intense activity that has accompanied conceptual model-ling, the field of bibliographic control has witnessed an unprecedented focuson code revision and standards development, perhaps even surpassing that, Iwould wager, of the 1970s when the family of ISBDs and a second edition ofthe Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules were published. As libraries began ac-quiring electronic resources and mixed formats, such as interactive multime-dia, many of cataloguing’s foundation concepts were called into question.Among these, seriality and the primacy of physical carrier–the cataloguer’s“item-in-hand”–were subject to particular scrutiny. Task groups chargedwith their review crafted revisions that represented a bold rethinking of in-ternational cataloguing codes. As a result of the careful analyses of AACRundertaken for the International Conference on the Principles and Future De-velopment of AACR held in Toronto, Canada, in 1997, the Joint SteeringCommittee embarked on an intense schedule of code revision that, even now,shows no signs of abating! This level of activity is being mirrored at the inter-national level with ongoing, systematic revision and updating of the ISBDs,and the IFLA-led initiative to develop an international code of cataloguingrules.
The engagement in code rethinking and revision underscores for me a thirdexciting trend that has emerged over the past ten years. I refer to it as the “de-mocratization of cataloguing” that has been largely supported through the intro-duction and ongoing maintenance of cataloguing listservs, such as AUTOCAT,as well as through the ready availability of Web sites showcasing activities inthe bibliographic control arena. Cataloguing practitioners not only contributevaluable experience and opinion through the electronic lists to which they sub-scribe, but also are instrumental participants in the assessment and evaluationof proposed standards and rule revisions. Such activities as invitations to par-ticipate in worldwide reviews of IFLA guidelines or revisions to the ISBDs en-sure input from both national cataloguing agencies, as well as “grassroots”practitioners. Working cataloguers can visit the Web sites of the IFLA Cata-loguing Section, the JSC, or CC:DA to be updated on current activities, impor-tant documentation, or pending revisions. Those who engage in code revisionhave more immediate access to the first-hand experiences and insights offrontline practitioners. Cataloguing democracy at its best!
The fourth exciting trend in bibliographic control that I have observed overthe past ten years is that related to my own area of research, namely the design
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and implementation of metadata schemas. The application of metadata stan-dards, such as the Dublin Core, has not only impacted approaches to repre-senting and accessing digital objects, but has also influenced how existingschemas can be interpreted and used. Thus we see the use of Dewey DecimalClassification for organizing and enhancing the discovery of electronic re-sources through subject gateways such as Renardus, or Classifile. Engage-ment in the development and application of metadata schemas extends thereach of bibliographic control, and the expertise of information professionalscommitted to effective knowledge access management. I consider the past tenyears to have been chock-full of new and exciting developments in the field ofbibliographic control. The pace and intensity of change has been sufficientlyimpressive to challenge even the most entrenched stereotypes of cataloguingas cure-all for insomnia!
JW: What have you found disappointing in the field of librarianship and/orbibliographic control during the last ten years?
LH: I cannot say that I have found anything particularly disappointing as per-haps disturbing or discouraging. What I have found particularly discouragingin the field of bibliographic control over the last ten years is also mirroredmore broadly in librarianship as a whole. I have observed what appears to meto be an erosion in the confidence of the profession. There seems to be morequestioning of the inherent value of librarianship, as well as of the uniquenessof the skill set that librarians offer. This is reflected in such comments as,“Why do we need librarians when we have the Internet?” While self-reflectionis important to identifying both weaknesses and strengths, I sense, instead, anundermining self-doubt. Among some cataloguers this seems amplified al-most to despair! Over the past ten years much attention has been paid to the“makeover” of the negative, stereotypic image of the librarian as “shushing”sociophobe with sensible shoes and glasses (for women), and, in the case ofmen, bookishly shy and/or effeminate. Most of us know many librarians whodefy any such stereotype; some of us may know a few who might indeed qual-ify. But identification of the “guilty” is not the issue, and “makeovers” are notthe answer–no matter how popular and successful the current action figure li-brarian may be!
The turnaround rests, I believe, with the current group of students and veryrecent graduates who not only challenge old stereotypes, but also pursue theirgoals seemingly oblivious to negative labels or images. The new generation oflibrarians comes from a cohort that is not constrained by definitions of socialrole, gender, status, group affiliation, etc. They are largely career-oriented,goal-directed, and dismissive of anything that could distract from their aspira-
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tions–particularly something as insubstantial and unnecessary as a stereotype.Many are undeterred, almost fearless in their belief in the range of opportunityavailable to them. They will go where they are interested, stay where they feelvalued, and leave when underutilized or no longer challenged. This equationcan be applied, whether one is talking about recruiting students to library andinformation science/information studies programs, or employing recent grad-uates, or retaining new professionals within a job or association. I recall feel-ing great promise in the future that librarianship offered me in 1978. I still feelthat sense of continuous opportunity, and feel quite deflated when I encounterindividuals who appear besieged, or who believe they are undervalued, under-estimated, or misunderstood as librarians. I hope they will find the profes-sional pride of new graduate colleagues positively infectious! To borrow fromone of the questions in this interview, I trust that the initiative and intelligenceof the new generation of librarians will prove as invigorating and inspiring tothose of a flagging “old guard” as they are restorative to the future of the pro-fession as a whole. Or, to paraphrase from a recent Ontario Library Associa-tion brochure, “We’re all superheroes!”
Another trend I have found profoundly disturbing is what I perceive to be awide and growing gap between practitioners and academics in the field of li-brarianship. At the first Congress for Professional Education, I found myselfin a verbal tousle with a librarian practitioner who lamented the fact that edu-cators were not producing “plug-and-play” cataloguers. She wondered whygraduates were unable to do copy cataloguing without extra training on thejob. While my response emphasized that graduate programs are designed toteach first principles to students who will presumably be hired, then promotedand paid to assume decision-making and/or supervisory/management rolesthat extend beyond entry-level copy cataloguing, what struck me even morewas the intensity of the rhetoric in which we were engaging. It seemed an“us-versus-them” kind of discourse, when, in fact, we are all in the same pro-fession, though travelling along distinct parallel tracks. Academics in gradu-ate (professional) programs of library and information science/informationstudies (LIS/IS) are caught between a university culture that demands a levelof excellence in scholarship as well as teaching (and professional service), anda practitioner culture that relies on LIS/IS schools to produce the next genera-tion of outstanding library professionals. The result can be two solitudes thatview each other as mildly misguided at best, and outright irrelevant at worst.Each “side” may view the other as uncaring or even contemptuous of its per-sistent needs and real constraints. But I say that, for the health and future wellbeing of both the profession and the academy, we must support each other andfocus on ways to cooperate or collaborate more fully and without rancour.
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JW: I want to return to my original statement about the difference in oppor-tunities for women over the past fifty years. Now that women can enter allfields, are we in danger of losing the “pick of the crop” that found an outletfor their initiative and intelligence in librarianship? How do we overcomethe traditional image of the mousy librarian? And further than that, how dowe overcome the “dull and boring” stigma that many people, including li-brarians, attach to cataloguing?
LH: While I think you pose a profoundly interesting and somewhat provoca-tive series of questions, let me say, first, that I believe librarianship continuesto offer women a unique outlet for their initiative and intelligence. Having saidthat, I expect that, with all the career options now open to women, we will in-deed lose parts of the “pick of the crop” though certainly not all. Librarianshipis not for everyone! Nevertheless, I think there remains much in the professionto stimulate and challenge those with considerable intellect; I am less confi-dent about appealing to those with initiative in the ways that, say, business orpolitics or medicine can. It is far more difficult to make the case that “cata-loguing makes a difference,” than to show the impact of a new governmentpolicy on the lives of its citizens. And while I commend programs, such as theNorthern Exposure to Leadership in Canada, and its American counterpart, theSnowbird Leadership Institute, for explicitly linking recent graduates with in-spiring mentors who exemplify the best in management and entrepreneurialsavvy in the profession, these opportunities are limited both in number andavailability. The satisfaction of initiative, of making a difference, is likelymore subtle for those who choose a career in librarianship. Like the work ofother so-called “helping professions,” such as social work, or even family lawor family practice, there is often little public recognition, elevated professionalstatus, or extraordinary financial rewards accorded librarians. Rather, the sat-isfaction of making a difference is more likely savoured quietly and singly,and, except within the context of a professional association or conferencemeeting, largely privately.
Now, this is hardly a reflection of “mousy,” though the seeming lack of“blowing our own horns” publicly may make librarians appear reticent, shy, oreven socially introverted–dare I say, “mousy”?! I am very encouraged bysuch large-scale initiatives as the @Your Library and local publicitycampaigns regarding the services offered by public libraries that are articu-lating the place and value of librarianship within the broader social, politi-cal, and cultural context. Likewise, on the side of bibliographic control,initiatives, such as the cataloguing mentor’s programme being promotedby the ALA/ALCTS Committee on the Education, Training, and Recruitment
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of Catalogers (CETRC), are tackling the “dull and boring” stigma head-on.These are important steps, and, in the case of the latter, require all the supportwe can lend individually. I recall vividly the kind of “buzz” that seemed to sur-round technical services when new technologies were being introduced in the1970s and early 1980s. While such factors as the downgrading of courses incataloguing, classification, and subject analyses to elective, rather than corestatus, in many degree programs in Library and Information Science/Informa-tion Studies in the United States (though not in Canadian programs) may ren-der “raising the buzz” of bibliographic control more difficult, I think thepayoff that can be achieved through linking “cool cataloguers” with interestedstudents is certainly well worth the effort. Furthermore, engaging new gradu-ates in national and international cataloguing, classification, and subject anal-ysis/access committees or working groups will also be essential to introducingthem to the more dynamic, leading edge aspects of bibliographic control thatare far from “dull and boring.” It is incumbent on those of us who have experi-enced such great satisfaction and personal reward (not to mention travel andcolleagueship!) in our careers in librarianship to create opportunities for ourcolleagues to do the same.
On a more concrete level, I challenge us to consider endowing scholarshipsat our own alma mater, or within provincial/state or national professional as-sociations targeting those with a career interest in bibliographic control. Andcan we be creative in coming up with more opportunities for socializing andhighlighting some of the lighter moments of librarianship–just imagine a“Cataloguing Comedy Cabaret”! Silly? Perhaps. But an intriguing counterbal-ance to the excruciating seriousness of “dull and boring.” Will Manley has cer-tainly provided us with lots of cutouts and cannon fodder for that! But back tobusiness. . . . I think we can also make a strong case to the “women of initia-tive” (as posed in your question) that, within the next five years, the opportu-nities for those recently employed as librarians to pursue managementpositions, or jobs with greater responsibility, are indeed plentiful. While bud-get cut-backs and hiring freezes throughout the 1990s were debilitating tomany libraries–particularly public, academic, and government libraries–andeffectively decimated any potential for the next generation of middle manag-ers, they are proving opportune to more recent graduates, benefiting also fromthe demographic shift in population with its bulge of retirements. To be able tocontinue attracting the “pick of the crop” we will not only need to think cre-atively, but also to act quickly. Our newer colleagues can certainly be instru-mental partners–if not our leaders–in doing both!
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JW: Where do you think bibliographic control is heading in the next tenyears?
LH: What a wonderful question–quite a challenge for conjecture! With the tre-mendous growth in Web-enabled resources, and the proliferation of Internetand Intranet applications over the past decade, I think we may now be enteringa period of relative consolidation as we have come to understand the role ofbibliographic control relative to electronic materials. This may give us abreathing space to determine to what extent the standards, tools, and systemsthat we have developed to deal with digitization require enhancement or rede-sign. When the pace of change is intense, change seems the order of the day.And this is where I think some “sober second thought” may now be opportune.While I have great regard for the effort being committed to defining the theo-retical underpinnings of bibliographic codes, I confess that the educator in mefears that cataloguing rules may become more complex in structure, and lessreadily learned or understood. While we are engaged in moving from a cata-loguing environment rich in the traditions of application, but poor in theoreti-cal foundations, I am reluctant to see cataloguing rules that derive from aninflexible framework or theoretical model uninformed by practicality. Thismay be similar to the cautionary message that Michael Gorman has been de-livering over the past half dozen years or more whenever fundamental changesto AACR have been proposed.
I believe there are rich opportunities to extend the reach of bibliographiccontrol beyond libraries, to apply recently crafted theoretical models andwell-tested applications and processes to other information-intensive environ-ments. Recent activities in the design and application of metadata schemasmay provide us opportunities for offering our expertise and tools to cognatecultural domains, such as archives, museums, communications media, or pub-lishing. Likewise, and as I have suggested in response to an earlier question,the continuing growth in knowledge repositories, data warehouses, enterpriseportals, digital libraries, etc., has created a huge demand for human (as well ascomputer) mediation in the design of content management systems (CMS). Theneed for specialists in the design and maintenance of enterprise taxonomies, inthe conceptualization and management of large-scale metadata projects, and inthe implementation and evaluation of computer-assisted categorization soft-ware, is urgent now, and will continue over the next decade. Suffice it to saythat I believe that the more complex our tools for managing and analysing in-formation become, and the more pressing the need to capture and share strate-gic enterprise knowledge, the greater the need for human intermediariespossessing the first principles and technical skill set of bibliographic control.
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I also believe we can seize upon the current Web-rich environment to createcommunity liaisons, and to promote bibliographic control as a true “publicservice,” rather than the “public service to the public service” that character-izes today’s best-case scenario. For example, with their unique skills in identi-fying, organizing, and making readily accessible a diversity of digital media,specialists in bibliographic control could assist groups with particular needs tocreate and maintain their own knowledge repositories. With a focus on a pro-cess known in government policy circles as “community capacity building,”cataloguers, for one, could assist new immigrants, or seniors, or military veter-ans, or paralympic athletes, or first nations children, or members of a languageminority, or regulars in a local book club, etc., in developing their presence ona community-resident Web site or portal. Imagine how relevant and “cool” itwould be for cataloguers of or in a particular community to lend their skills topreserving and promoting culture, or actively ensuring that, through their ef-forts, citizens were empowered with the information they required to live theirlives most effectively. Sound lofty or idealistic? I don’t think so. And far from“dull and boring,” or “mousy,” even!
JW: You have been the Dean of the Faculty of Information Studies at theUniversity of Toronto for the past eight years and are now on a well-de-served administrative leave. After such a demanding position, what are yourplans for the future?
LH: In the short-term, I am enjoying the great pleasure of digging into mymetadata research with the support of a three-year grant from the Social Sci-ences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Doctoral candidate TheaMiller and I are currently developing a prototype system for searchingmetadata-enabled multilingual resources contained within culture-focuseddigital repositories, and expect to engage in focus group testing and evaluationearly in 2005. After eight years of balancing scholarly activities with a de-manding administrative agenda, I am making the most of concentrating nowon the former. In September 2004 I will return to teaching a full load of gradu-ate courses, including a new course in Metadata and Taxonomies. I continue tosupervise doctoral students and look forward to the possibility of teaching anundergraduate level course. I have been engaged in knowledge managementinitiatives with a number of (Canadian) federal government agencies, and amcurrently drafting a monograph describing “key lessons” from those proj-ects. I look forward to completing work on two reports for the IFLA Divisionof Bibliographic Control emanating from the Guidelines for OPAC DisplaysWorking Group, and the Working Group on the Use of Metadata Schemas, re-spectively. I will also continue contributing as fully as I am able to cataloguing
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code revision through my work with the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing(CCC), and the ISDB Review Group (IFLA). In short, I expect to engage in,and benefit from, the many exciting opportunities this dynamic field of biblio-graphic control seems to offer continuously. As a corollary, I hope my ownpersonal commitment and enthusiasm will carryover to “seed the field” andfoster any willing converts seeking stimulating challenges, a variety of con-stantly evolving foci, and exciting roads to travel–literally and figuratively!
CCQ Interview 17
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