When the Local Matters Globally: Beginning Cataloguing Roadmap

Abstract

This poster highlights work undertaken by Beginning Cataloguing in 2020-22 to train public library workers in original cataloguing. It covers: • publications for which the public library is the only known repository • materials for which the primary (and sometimes only) audience is local • formats that are common in local studies collections such as privately printed books, oral history recordings, maps and gazetteers, and the output of local exhibitions • the similarities and differences in cataloguing archival materials that are unique by design (e.g. manuscripts) and publications that can be considered unique by survival rate UK public libraries began outsourcing metadata work in the 1980s, so by the 2020s they exemplified Manuel and Oppenheim's 2007 prediction that "Economies of scale take precedence where budgetary constraints are in operation, but loss of key skills may have long-term implications." The image on the poster is of the Beginning Cataloguing Roadmap, which forms the basis for the trainings we have developed for each local authority.