Meeting Users’ Needs in Cataloging: What is the Right Thing to Do?

Library and Information Science takes a user-centered approach to research and practice, and helping users is the highest principle in ethics statements, such as the American Library Association’s code of ethics. The cataloging field, however, generally has not taken a user-centered approach in research or in the development of cataloging standards. Instead, the responsibility to meet users’ needs has been placed on catalogers in practice, who are encouraged to customize bibliographic records to meet their local users’ needs. Previous research suggests that catalogers are constrained in their ability to customize bibliographic records, because catalogers do not know who their users are and cannot identify their users’ needs. In addition, library administrators limit customization in favor of fast and efficient cataloging processes. If catalogers in practice cannot customize bibliographic records, how can local users’ needs be met? Who is responsible for meeting users’ needs in cataloging? What is the “right” way(s) for cataloging to help users and ensure equitable access to materials? This paper discusses these questions and explores possible ways for cataloging to focus on users and move toward a more ethical cataloging practice.