Are Cataloguers’ Skills Still Relevant? A Critical Reflection on South African Cataloguing

Abstract

The study that directed this article aimed at finding out the requirements for cataloguers’ positions in South Africa in the twenty-first century. Cataloguing has always been at the very heart of library and information work. Arguably, as technology has become ubiquitous and libraries are becoming technology hubs, cataloguing has become increasingly important. In the study, a qualitative approach was employed to gain an in-depth understanding of the job market for cataloguers in South Africa. Qualitative content analysis was used to achieve the purpose of the study. Ten cataloguers’ job advertisements from LIASA and two national news articles, namely Sunday Times and Mail & Guardian from 2013- 2016, were reviewed for the purpose of the study. Data elements require a qualification from an accredited higher learning institution. The study revealed that traditional cataloguing standards (for instance, AACR2, LCSH and DDC) are still highly required for cataloguing jobs. However, these standards should be incorporated with ICT components. Some other advertisements require RDA instead of AACR2, further to the fact that other advertisements require knowledge of digital curation in order to arrange information on the web. Therefore, it is clear that Library and Information Science (LIS) schools should incorporate both traditional and techno-centric cataloguing skills in their teaching to ensure that candidates are ready for cataloguing practices. Based on the findings, cataloguers should be provided with on-going training to keep pace with emerging trends in the cataloguing field.