Cataloging and Classification

"The new edition of this essential work has raised the bar on an already excellent text about cataloguing." - Library Journal, Starred Review

The fifth edition of the classic Cataloging and Classification covers the analysis and representation of methods used in describing, organizing, and providing access to resources made available in or through libraries. Since the last edition, there have new developments in cataloging, with the introduction of the IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM) and the new, official RDA, following the 3R Project.

This text presents the essence of library cataloging and classification in terms of four basic functions: descriptive cataloging, authority work, subject access, and classification. Within this framework, content has been re-organized, all chapters have been rewritten, and new chapters have been introduced to incorporate the changes that have occurred during the interval between the four and fifth editions. In each part, the historical development and underlying principles of the retrieval mechanism at issue are treated first, because these are considered essential to an understanding of cataloging and classification. Discussion and examples of provisions in the standards and tools are then presented to illustrate the operations covered in each chapter.

Divided into seven parts—a general overview; record production and structure, encoding formats, and metadata records; RDA (original and official); subject access and controlled vocabularies; the organization of library resources; encoding & records of bibliographic and authority data; and cataloging ethics--this book includes lists of the standards and tools used in the preparation and processing of cataloging records covered, lists of RDA elements, and sample records.

Its companion website with interactive learning activities and supplementary materials located at catclassintro.org make it a true multimedia tool.

Athena Salaba, Professor at the School of Information, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, is the co-author of four books and author of a number book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers.

She holds a Ph.D. in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Salaba served as the Co-chair and Secretary of the IFLA Working Group on the Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Records (FRSAR), Chair of the Subject Analysis Committee (SAC) of ALA’s ALCTS Division, and a member of the IFLA Bibliographic Conceptual Models (BCM) Review Group, previously the FRBR Review Group. She serves as the Chair of the IFLA Subject Analysis and Access (SAA) section and Treasurer and member of the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO) Board of Directors. She is an appointed member of the ALA Committee on Accreditation.

Her research areas include the organization of information, metadata, knowledge organization systems, subject access to information, conceptual modeling of bibliographic data, intercultural awareness of information professionals, knowledge organization education and competences, user-information interactions, and user experience studies.

She teaches graduate courses on resource description and access (descriptive cataloguing) and subject analysis, representation, and access.

The late Lois Mai Chan was professor emerita at the School of Library and Information Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, was the author of eight books and numerous articles and co-editor of two collections in the areas of knowledge organization and subject indexing. In 1989, Chan was awarded the Margaret Mann Citation for Outstanding Achievement in Cataloging and Classification given by the American Library Association. In 1992, she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Chinese- American Librarians Association. In 1999, Chan and Diane Vizine-Goetz were chosen for the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services’ (ALCTS) Best of LRTS Award for the Best Article Published in 1998. In 2006, Chan received the Beta Phi Mu (International Honor Society for Library and Information Science) Award for distinguished service to education for librarianship. From 1986 to 1991, Chan served as the chair of the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee. She served as a member of the IFLA Standing Committee on Knowledge Management and the IFLA Functional Requirements for Subject Authority Data (FRSAD) Working Group. Her research interests included knowledge organization, subject vocabulary, authority control, metadata, and organization and retrieval of Web resources.