Hello readers! I never believed the wanderings of my mind  to be content worthy of being blogged about, yet have always thought blogging might be fun. So when I found out that as part of my practicum, I was to keep a journal, I figured that a blog might be a good alternative.

A little about the title.  Catablogger's judgement is a play on my favorite term, cataloger's judgment, learned in my Cataloging class last summer.  In an article  read for this class by Lloyd Jansen called, "The Craft of Local Practice", cataloger's judgement is defined as,
  
"...taste and judgement, coupled with a solid foundation in the rules and standards, that moves cataloging from being merely a mechanical exercise and into the realm of a craft. Rules and standards can light the way for the cataloger, but strict adherence to these standards does not necessarily result in a catalog record that is helpful to the catalog user. " (Jansen, 2003)

In other words, follow the rules whenever possible but bend them when needed to fit your collection and to serve your patron in the best possible way. Learning about cataloger's judgment led me to realize that despite it's somewhat drab and mundane exterior, there is much craft and creativity behind effective cataloging.  Catalogs and information discovery tools have changed significantly in the past few decades and will only continue to do so.  It is going to take a different type of information professional to be able to adapt quickly and creatively to these changes; one that can use apply cataloger's judgement to help create the next generation of user friendly catalogs and metadata. This is what excites and drives me to want to become a Cataloging/Metadata Librarian.