You think you know how to catalog a book. Think again as that book relies first on metadata to describe its contents or then goes digital where hundreds of tags may be assigned by readers who are trying to make sense of their information world. Our clients are cataloging now and they are not using Dewey, Sears, or LC. What does the Internet do to the organization of information? Worth thinking deeply about.

Ray Barber, an expert collection developer has edited this standard collection tools. Over the years, we expect that this basic collection would cover books. In this edition, there is a list of basic periodicals and recommended electronic resources. For establishing new collections and checking the basic sources, this is still a great list. Hopefully, you can access this one through your jobber’s selection list and this one could be shared across a number of schools. Each book is annotated an contains enough cataloging information to both order and catalog the included titles. Recommended both for establishing new collections but also for re-evaluating collections in the high school.

This guide keeps getting better and better as a consice guide to the entire process of cataloging from description to classification to subject headings of both print and multimedia materials. It is useful both as a text for beginning cataloging classes and also for personal study. Coupled with a guide to MARC such as Pieppenburg’s Easy Marc, plus a current copy of abridged Dewey and a Sears List of Subject Headings should constitute everything needed for those who need to do original cataloging. For the rest of us downloaders, we can usually find cataloging copy from our automated systems software.  Recommended for the purists of the field.

Jia Liu

(Libraries Unlimited, 2007, 192 p., $_____ ISBN: 978-1-59158-306-6)

Cataloging the digital library to exercise some form of “bibliographic control” is the topic of this work. It provides the user with methods, standards, rules, and examples across various types of media and discusses various metadata projects around the world. Recommended for those interested in controlling access to digital libraries.