Job Exchange

I always liked cataloging.  I've done my share of copy cataloging; I've done my share of original cataloging (law materials of all things!), and I still like it.  To me, cataloging is at the very essence of Ranganathan's "Save the time of the User" law.  Along that line, I seem to be laboring under the delusion that cataloging (and classification) should make it easier for the user to find materials.

For instance, one would think if an item is catalogued as, say, a Made for Television Movie, and shelved in (Dewey classification) 791.45, subsequent sequels produced for broadcast, would be shelved next to (or at least near) the original in 791.45.  Silly me.  If the sequels were not broadcast as television programs they obviously don't belong in 791.45.  That would be too easy.  They must now be shelved with feature movies in 791.43, which, in most of the branches, including ours, is in a different part of the library.

Of course, this gives us an opportunity to interact more with those users laboring under the same delusions about cataloging making it easier to find materials, and to teach them how they can achieve Ranganathan's goals by thinking like a cataloguer.  Except that I've done cataloging, and this doesn't make sense to me, so it's looking like  an uphill battle.  But heck, running up those statistics is our whole purpose out here in the branches, right?

I would like a job exchange where we really exchange jobs.  I'd like to trade jobs with a cataloguer for a week.  I'd get a change of scenery, and maybe learn a little more about cataloging; and a lucky cataloguer could get to repeatedly listen to befuddled patrons asking the same questions about where materials are, and maybe get a better picture of the real world and how their work affects patrons, staff and work flow.  

Any takers?