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Cataloging has long been considered a fundamental component of special collections work. Beyond the ability to constantly adapt to new technologies and content standards, special collections catalogers also deal with special collections specific issues, from fragile or poorly preserved materials to the need to learn item-specific terminology, like binding descriptions, to larger security concerns. By existing within the two worlds of both special collections and technical services librarianship, there is not always a clear answer to where and whom a position should report. The institutional role and best reporting structure of the special collections cataloger has yet to be well-defined, categorized, or understood.

This chapter seeks to better understand and quantify some of the challenges current special collections catalogers face through conducting and analyzing the authors' recent survey of special collections catalogers primarily working in American cultural heritage institutions. While these findings are neither simple nor straightforward, it is possible to suggest some preliminary solutions. Overarching trends and challenges included communication between departments, security of valuable materials versus workspace locations, and priority setting.

The user-centered approach to understanding information use and users has shaped research in library and information science (LIS). In a user-centered environment, catalogers are told to focus on users and adapt standards to meet users’ needs while following standards in order to be efficient in their jobs. This study describes three academic cataloging units as they negotiate both the demands to follow and adapt these standards to meet users’ needs. New institutional theory served as a framework for the study. The results suggest that standards and users are pressures that cataloging units negotiate in their jobs, along with demands for work efficiency and professional legitimacy. While negotiating these pressures, catalogers and cataloging units redefine their work jurisdiction and maintain legitimacy to remain relevant in a complex work environment. Understanding how catalogers negotiate the normative institutional pressures of standards and users leads to an understanding of the complex nature of work in areas that deal with issues of standards and users, shows how an area within a profession maintains legitimacy when the profession no longer values that work, and, finally, shows the limits of the user-centered focus in LIS practice.

Reports from the Phoenix, Arizona Public Library on the process of physically linking online catalogues with the community college district, a DRA site, for resource sharing and other co‐operative projects. Addresses the issue of foreign language collections in a culturally and linguistically diverse area,focusing on the implications for acquisitions and cataloguing methods.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize different research projects and approaches to managing the “hidden collections” problem.

The paper describes current research and practices.

Hidden collections are a problem for both libraries and archives. “Hidden collections” are materials that cannot be found in the online catalog or may be found there only under a collective title or un‐ or under‐processed primary sources. These materials transcend all formats of library and archival materials (print, microform, video, etc.) and can be found throughout the library in a variety of collections from government documents to area studies to music to the reference department. It is in the area of archival and special collections, however, that this problem has received the most attention and where the greatest challenges and opportunities for exposing these collections exist.

Many archives have backlogs and “hidden collections”. This article discusses some recent efforts to identify and expose these collections to enable better archival control and researcher access that may be applied in other settings.

This article identifies and highlights different approaches and potential solutions to the problem of hidden collections.

Outreach in libraries has traditionally been considered the realm of public services, where librarians interact one-on-one with our patrons at the reference desk, run social media accounts, and other activities of a similar vein. In today's evolving library world, it is time to challenge outreach in its traditional sense and consider technical services work and its associated duties as outreach. This article delves into technical services work (including cataloging, archival processing, shelf maintenance, etc.) and how the results (bibliographic records, metadata, authority control etc.) are in themselves outreach.

THE announcement that Mr. James Wilkie, M.A., will be President of the Library Association for 1951 is gratifying, He has been for some years the honoured Secretary of the Carnegie Trust and before that was the officer at the Ministry of Education most nearly concerned with the public library. For many years now he has been a familiar figure at library conferences, and his geniality, Strong sense of humour and excellent speaking, have won him the esteem of librarians and others concerned with libraries. He almost invariably attends the meetings of the National Central Library. It is, therefore, appropriate that he should preside over the Library Association, which owes so much to him and the Trust he serves and in many activities represents. We wish him a pleasant year of office and can surely promise him the loyalty of librarians.