Directors views on the future of cataloguing

As the discussion continues about the likely shape of the "next generation catalogue", it is a good time to ask directors of information resources departments in Australian and New Zealand libraries how they see cataloguing fitting within the resource discovery frameworks of their libraries. In May 2007, 68 directors completed a 20-question survey. The survey was intended to gauge views, perceptions and attitudes rather than comprehensive statistics. Topics included the value of original cataloguing, transitioning to metadata work, attitudes to multi-skilling, quality vs. quantity, cataloguing education and "What is the future of cataloguing?" Survey results are summarised, some trends are found to be emerging, and some of the thought-provoking and representative comments made by directors are presented.