The Library of Congress and Cataloging’s Future

A recent change in cataloging at the Library of Congress, and the recent publication of reports calling for broader changes in cataloging generally, have made catalogers wonder about their future, and about what to expect from LC. This article examines LC’s historical relations with other libraries, the content of proposals for broad changes in cataloging, the significance for cataloging of commercial “content organizers” such as Google, and expectations from a new Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, commissioned by LC to report in 2007.