Principia Bibliographica? Balancing Principles, Practice, and Pragmatics in a Changing Digital Environment

This article explores the emphasis on control in cataloging versus the chaos found on the Web. It delves into adversarial relationships between catalogers and technologists. It seeks commonalities and suggests that new alternatives addressing both perspectives might offer superior and more satisfying results. A series of examples juxtapose current practices, enrichment possibilities, and flaws in current digital solutions to suggest potential opportunities where catalogers might excel. Speculation on ways to promote cataloging principles and valuesvia more direct participation in the unruly digital environment hints at a more promising future for our profession