Dissertation Information for Ruth Anne Hafter NAME: - Ruth Anne Hafter
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science
SCHOOL:
- University of California, Berkeley (USA) (1984)
ADVISORS: - Patrick Wilson
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Robert D. Harlan - Harold L. Wilensky
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: COMPUTERS IN THE LIBRARY: HOW BIBLIOGRAPHIC NETWORKS AFFECT THE ORGANIZATION, QUALITY, AND VISIBILITY OF PROFESSIONAL WORK
Abstract: This study examines how participation in online bibliographic networks affects the organization, quality and visibility of the work of professional catalogers employed in libraries. Interviews with catalogers and library administrators in six academic libraries plus interviews with network quality control personnel, provide the primary data for analysis of the intended and unintended effects of communal data base creation on library members of online networks. The heightened visibility of work produced in the new communal environment, and the resulting ability of persons outside the employing library to evaluate the work and status of professional catalogers, is hypothesized to have significant impact upon all major aspects of the cataloger-network relationship.
The main findings are: (1) Increased reliance on computerized bibliographic networks leads to increased deprofessionalization of cataloging. Work previously performed by catalogers is now subdivided and made routine, thereby eroding claims of catalogers to professional status based upon possession of a unique body of knowledge. (2) Network cataloging quality control policies have not developed as instruments for the social control of the work of catalogers. Networks acknowledge that they could not have created their data bases without the standards created by catalogers. Both network personnel and catalogers share a strong commitment to developing quality control procedures. Methods developed by networks to insure this quality include error rates and identification of master catalogers for future appointment as mentors or advisory committee members within the network. (3) Network membership leads to enhanced activity and status for cataloging peers groups. Master catalogers, identified by the quality of the work that they contribute to the communal data base, develop national reputations and become appointed to network and other advisory groups. Other catalogers support and encourage their work. (4) Catalogers, administrators, and network personnel are developing competing standards and definitions of quality control. In general, catalogers support traditionally complex and detailed quality control standards. Administrators favor more flexible and innovative standards based upon visible patron responses to online catalog use. Network personnel occupy the middle ground in this debate.
| |
MPACT Scores for Ruth Anne Hafter A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-06-15 15:18:37
Advisors and Advisees Graph
generating graph, please reload |