





































Conversation Groups  207

Top Concerns of Technical 
Services Staff
Richard A. Lammert, Concordia Theological Seminary

ABSTR ACT The Tuesday evening preconference conversation group 
hosted by the Technical Services Interest Group provided an opportu-
nity for technical services staff (and other library workers interested in 
the concerns of technical services staff) to talk about their top concerns. 
This year, the discussion focused on intentional succession planning 
(and whether such planning is wanted and/or needed) and some of the 
ethical problems encountered in cataloging.

About twenty-five individuals (including several who were not part 
of a technical services staff but whose input is always valued by those 
present) met for the conference’s traditional Tuesday evening Tech-
nical Services conversation group, facilitated by Richard Lammert. 
The group’s discussion focused on “Top Concerns of Technical 
Services Staff.”

The first topic that the facilitator chose to discuss was intentional 
succession planning, or “Who are the next technical service librar-
ians?” It is evident to anyone who has attended the annual confer-
ences that many of the faces remain the same. The good news is that 
we have many valuable technical services staff who contribute to the 
operation of ATLA libraries. The bad news is that those people will not 
be around forever. Thus, the natural question is, “How does a library 
plan for succession?”

This topic elicited a spirited discussion. It was not the purpose to 
arrive at any consensus or final action plan, but rather to consider the 
possibilities (and necessity) of replacing retiring catalogers. No one 
knows exactly what cataloging will look like in the future. Will auto-
mation, artificial intelligence, and machine creation of records make 
traditional cataloging unnecessary? Are library schools providing 
the necessary training for future catalogers? From those who have 



208  ATL A 2018 PROCEEDINGS

recently been in library school, the answer is “yes” when viewed from 
the perspective of working with metadata in general, but “no” when 
viewed from the perspective of working with cataloging codes and the 
MARC records. What skills do catalogers bring to the job that will be 
applicable to any future cataloging position, no matter what it looks 
like? There was a consensus in the group about the importance of the 
cataloger in the theological library, but there was also an uncertainty 
about how much that perception is shared by those who hire library 
staff. In the end, a tentative conclusion was that libraries need to be 
able to spot potential future catalogers and mentor them so that they 
develop the skills and traits needed for theological cataloging.

A second topic that the group considered was the ethical prob-
lems in cataloging: How do one’s biases affect cataloging? This, like 
the previous question, is multifaceted. Although the problems of 
subject cataloging were mentioned, the group did not discuss this 
in detail. It was noted that everything catalogers do has some bias 
in it. For example, the classification of the books of the Bible impose 
an order on them which is not natural to Judaism. The Library of 
Congress provides an alternative classification for the Tanakh, not 
applied at the Library of Congress, at BM450–BM478.8. This provides 
an order for the books quite natural for Jews (starting with Genesis 
and ending with Second Chronicles) but unnatural for non-Jews. 
However, most libraries cannot afford to buy multiple copies of their 
biblical works and place one in each of the two classifications, so that 
everyone finds the books in his or her own “natural” order. Thus, one 
must ultimately be aware of choices and decisions and be ready to 
explain them to others.


