On the Role of Cataloging in Library Science: The Promotion of the Growth of Knowledge, Growth of Education and of the Economy

Cataloging, done by a library cataloger, is an extremely important job, but which, unfortunately, has generally not been well understood, appreciated, valued or recognized by the general public or by academicians, in general . Cataloguing involves the cataloger in the task of making sure that the latest scientific books, journals, articles and literary works, that has been produced by university and college academicians, are available in the library to be read and used by other, interested researchers in the particular field that the published research deals with.

We need to further investigate the results of why and how using the materials made available by catalogers to academicians (engineers, physicists, biologists, chemists, medical doctors, social scientists, behavioral scientists, historians and philosophers) in private and public university libraries is so important.

Let me expand on the role of the word,” used”. Practically all basic, university and college, government funded research, that is transformed into journal articles and books, which then allows more   researchers to use these published materials to build on, so that it might/ may lead to different degrees of scientific breakthroughs in the future, is first examined, inspected, recommended and approved for acquisition   by catalogers working  in a library. They make the hard calls about which specific works, out of the millions of books and articles published each year, are worthy of inclusion within a particular library (research library, university library, public library) or a specific   part of a library. 

A particular example of this process is that the end result of academic  research, which was based on the materials chosen by a cataloger for inclusion in the library ,can lead to  technological innovation and advance in many fields of  science ,medicine and business .This research  depends  on the basic research that is funded by government and private foundations or organizations, in order  to create outcomes using the provided research  ,which could  greatly increase the standard of living and quality of life of society.

It is argued in this paper that the beginning of this process involves the cataloger, who, based on his /her great knowledge of a particular part of the literature in a particular field, which it is her/his job to be knowledgeable about and  a specialist in .It is the cataloger who decides initially what to incorporate within a library .

 It can thus be argued that the cataloger is ,in some way , a gatekeeper ,as a cataloger’s decision about what to obtain for inclusion in  a particular library sets in motion  processes that can lead to major improvements and changes in a society by researchers ,who  read such materials and created new and novel findings that can have ramifications in the far and distant  future that are not foreseeable in the immediate ,near future