Topic summary
Cataloger
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Cataloging (library science).
Ethical issues
An official code of ethics for catalogers does not exist, and thus catalogers often follow library or departmental policy to resolve conflicts in cataloging. While the American Library Association created a "Code of Ethics", Anna Ferris notes that it has been criticized for being too general to encompass the special skills that set catalogers apart from other library and information professionals. Sheila Bair has laid out the beginnings for a formal code of cataloging ethics, suggesting that an effective code should be aspirational and also "discuss specific conduct and actions in order to serve as a guide in actual situations". In 2021, the Cataloging Ethics Steering Committee of the American Library Association released the Cataloging Code of Ethics, which was endorsed by the ALA Core Board of Directors in August 2021.