Contents: Foreword: Managing cataloging and the organization of information/Ruth C. Carter. Preface: Chaos, convenience, and catalogers/Gloriana St. Clair. National Libraries: 1. Managing cataloging and cataloging operations-2000 and beyond at the library of Congress/Beacher Wiggins. 2. The National Library of Canada: organizing information for the new millennium/Liz McKeen and Ingrid Parent. Libraries Around the World: 3. Defying conventional wisdom: innovation and culture change from down under/Jilleen Chambers, Jennifer Martin and Beverley Reynolds. 4. Emerging from the bibliographic wilderness: catalogue automation in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford/Peter P. Burnett. 5. Technical processes and the technological development of the library system in the National Autonomous University of Mexico/Charlos Garcia Lopez. 6. Role changes: cataloguing: technical services and subject librarianship at the University of Botswana Library/Rose Tiny Kgosiemang. 7. The organization of the cataloguing function at McMaster University/Cheryl Martin. 8. Classification systems used in Latin American Libraries/Filiberto Felipe Martinez Arellano and Orlanda Angelica Yanez Garrido. Specialized Libraries: 9. Bibliographic access management at Lane Medical Library: Fin de Millennium experimentation and bruised-edge innovation/Dick R. Miller. 10. Technical services in twenty-first century special collections/Ellen Crosby. 11. Cataloging @ 2000: over 100 years of change at the University of Colorado Law Library/Georgia Briscoe and Karen Seldon. 12. Information resource management: transitions and trends in an Academic Law Library/Eloise M. Vondruska. Academic Libraries: 13. Exploding out of the MARC  box: building new roles for cataloging departments/Judith Ahronheim and Lynn Marko. 14. Cataloging at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Library/Patricia Banach and Melvin Carlson. 15. Pursuing the three Ts: how total quality management, technology, and teams transformed the cataloging department at Penn state/Marie Bednar, Roger Brisson and Judy Hewes. 16. Flexibility in the management of cataloging/Claire-Lise Benaud, Elizabeth N. Steinhagen and Sharon A. Moynahan. 17. Management by action: how we're embracing new cataloging work at tufts/Lyn Condron. 18. Cataloging in three academic libraries: operations, trends and perspectives/Kuang-Hwei (Janet) Lee-Smeltzer. 19. Cataloging plus: philosophy and practice at a Small College Library/Y. Mei Mah. 20. Staff assignments and workflow distribution at the end of the 20 century: where we were, where we are, and what we'll need to be/Jane Padham Ouderkirk. 21. The end of an era builds new team spirit: team playing at its best/Andrea L. Stamm. 22. Cataloging at Yale University in 2000: challenges and strategies/Joan Swanekamp. Index.

    "One often hears about cataloging rules, integrated library systems and their database maintenance, subject headings and classification, digitization, markup languages, various practices and techniques. Yet these practical, day to day activities within cataloging, technical services, and digital library units must fit into the library as a whole: they involve resource allocation in terms of staff, equipment, and the acquisition of library resources and cataloging data.

    Some of the articles in this book concentrate on a major change such as automation. Others focus on staffing, organization, teamwork, and workflow. Some treat topics connected with digitization of resources or remote resources. Several are comprehensive in the topics treated while others focus more narrowly. All add to our collective knowledge on what is happening in libraries around the world today. Some articles present a guide to "best practice" while others emphasize plans for the future. If there is any single theme it is that catalogers and more broadly, technical services and digital library staff, must be flexible and expect change. Nothing is ever final or forever cast in stone.

    The articles in parts one and two collectively demonstrate that libraries of diverse types and sizes and regardless of geographic location, face similar challenges and have made amazingly similar decisions, managing cataloging and the organization of information." (jacket)