Hope A. Olson’s research while affiliated with University of Alberta and other places

Cataloguing education has been the focus of definition and debate for over a century. Moving beyond cataloguing theory and the creation of records, to the management and process of producing catalogues, increases the complexity of demands placed on professionals and educators. As this article will argue, graduates need to understand their catalogues and integrated systems holisti-cally. This requires a knowledge of each element, of standards governing the creation and maintenance of records, and of the relationship between the record and the catalogue and/or its constituent network. Moreover, the professional must know these things critically, and beyond mere acceptance of standards, so that the catalogue can effectively perform its mediating function between the collection and users.