Paraprofessional Involvement in Music Cataloging

Abstract

Although the last few years has witnessed a trend toward shifting increased cataloging responsibilities to paraprofessionals, catalog department staffing patterns in some large public, college, and university libraries continue to perpetuate a division of workload reflecting traditional attitudes toward professional versus nonprofessional cataloging responsibilities. Assigning cataloging responsibilities on this traditional basis tends to restrict downshifting what was formerly professional work to paraprofessionals. This situation is perhaps more apparent in the area of music materials cataloging where the subject expertise required to catalog printed and recorded music is usually held by the professional music cataloger. The relative lack of this expertise among paraprofessionals has tended to slow a similar trend to downshift the cataloging of music materials. The involvement of paraprofessionals in the University Libraries at California State University, Northridge with OCLC member-input copy for printed music and sound recordings, the specific activities they perform, and the training methods employed to effect their cataloging proficiency are examined in this commentary. Additionally, a description of paraprofessional involvement in music cataloging based on a survey of practices in six other libraries is included for comparison purposes.