Professional development for cataloguers

摘要

Trigger’s cataloguer is my version of a philosophical problem known as Trigger’s Broom (or more classically,the Ship of Theseus). Trigger, as fans of eighties situation comedy will surely know, is a character in Only Foolsand Horses who works as a street sweeper. He once claimed to have had the same broom for 20 years,although it had gone through 17 new heads and 14 new handles. The philosophical question is: can somethingthat’s had all its original parts replaced still be thought of as the same object? So in terms of professionalidentity, can I still be considered a cataloguer if I’m not doing any cataloguing? And what if I AM cataloguing,but I’m called something else altogether? When I used the High Visibility Cataloguing blog to look into ourevolving job titles, as well as what we actually do, it was clear that many of us are having the heads andhandles of our cataloguing brooms gradually replaced.