Struggling Toward Retrieval: Alternatives to Standard Operating Procedures Can Help Librarians and the Public

Starting points for cataloging and bibliographic control are assumptions that “the goal of libraries is to serve their patrons,” and that documents should be identifiable individually as well as grouped with related items in an array from which patrons can choose what they wish. But, like all human endeavors, libraries and the world around them do not stand still. Ranganathan observed that “the library is a growing organism,” which prompts us to consider change a fundamental value. Years later, Marshall McLuhan observed that “the medium is the message,” highlighting the power and impact of physical form on the information it contained. Despite the author’s strongly held belief in the value of standards and uniformity, which has made the exchange of computerized bibliographic data possible, she suggests libraries must move beyond accepting those values unconditionally to a new position in which customization assumes a higher priority. She looks to the world of commerce to explore potentially useful new approaches to cataloging and metadata. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: ©2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]