Blurring the boundaries between professional and para-professional catalogers at California State University,Northridge

What used to be a clear-cut division between the duties of professional and para-professional catalogers has become blurred in many libraries. The authors will illustrate this point by discussing the evolution of responsibilities held by para-professional and professional catalogers over the course of a 10-year period in the Cataloging Department at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Comparisons will be made among organization charts and workflow patterns during this 10-year period. CSUN′s evolution has been dramatic as a result of the January 1994 Northridge Earthquake, and will be described in terms of pre-earthquake and post-earthquake. Of the several contributing factors responsible for blurring the boundaries, technology played the major role. Para-professional catalogers have more responsibilities with streamlined workflow. The results of these changes at CSUN have been mostly positive, and have provided lessons in organizational change from which other libraries may benefit.