Issues on Cataloguing Operations of Technological University and College Libraries in Taiwan

Abstract

This paper identified 17 known issues that university and/ or college libraries are often faced with in cataloguing operations and investigated them by surveying 73 technological university and college libraries in Taiwan in May and June, 2006. The feedback from the different institutions was compared and tested by T-test and ANOVA to examine the difference in frequency of occurrence of these issues among the libraries in different types of institutions. Some significant findings in this study are: (1) lack of manpower, accumulating backlogs, high turnover rate of student assistants, difficulty controlling the quality of cataloguing and limited chances of on-the-job training are the five most frequently occurring issues on cataloguing operations of the technological university and college libraries in Taiwan; (2) private technological institution libraries face more cataloguing operations issues and face them more often than do their public counterparts; (3) technological two-year college libraries on average face cataloguing operations issues more frequently than technological four-year college and technological university libraries. The results of this study indicate that the challenges are minimized with more financial resources and that libraries become quality-oriented as they evolve.