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A Cataloger's Resolution to Become MoreCreative: How and WhySarah Theimer aa Syracuse University Library , Syracuse , New York , USAPublished online: 17 Aug 2012.

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Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 50:894–902, 2012Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0163-9374 print / 1544-4554 onlineDOI: 10.1080/01639374.2012.711440

A Cataloger’s Resolution to Become MoreCreative: How and Why

SARAH THEIMERSyracuse University Library, Syracuse, New York, USA

Creativity is now a core requirement for successful organizations.Libraries, like all organizations, need to produce and utilize newideas to improve user service and experiences. With changes incataloging such as Resource Description and Access (RDA), theopportunity to rethink cataloging practices is here now. Everyonehas creative potential, although catalogers may have both a per-sonality and work environment that make it more difficult. Tobe able to maximize creative capacity, catalogers need the properwork environment, support from their organization, and a plan foraccomplishing creative goals. Given that environment, catalogersmay create ideas that will shape the future.

KEYWORDS creativity, cataloging, training, innovation, workenvironment, change

CREATIVITY: AMBIGUITY AND IMPORTANCE

Every year, millions of well-intentioned people make and quickly break res-olutions. Facing the challenges of Resource Description and Access (RDA),a MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) replacement, and linked data, cat-alogers need creativity more than ever. Unfortunately the resolution of cre-ativity is similar to the perennially popular resolution: weight loss. We allknow that wanting to lose weight and keeping a refrigerator filled with junkfood will not produce good results. Losing weight requires an intelligentlyconstructed action plan including consistent changes to daily life. Some peo-ple are naturally creative, but for most creativity also requires knowledgecombined with a specific action plan. Before making any drastic changescatalogers may want to know why it is worth getting off the couch.

Received June 2011; revised February 2012; accepted July 2012.Address correspondence to Sarah Theimer, E. S. Bird Library, Syracuse University, 222

Waverly Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA. E-mail: shtheime@syr.edu

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Abraham Maslow, famous for the hierarchy of needs, viewed creativityas the expression of an optimally healthy individual and considered it theuniversal heritage of every human being.1 Increasingly creativity is recog-nized as an essential employee skill. As the Knowledge Economy is eclipsedby the Creativity Economy, creativity has become a core competency becauseit results in increased value.2 The ability to enhance and exploit creativeabilities is a crucial competitive weapon in the arsenal of the modern orga-nization.3 Meisinger states, “as the global playing field becomes increasinglylevel, many business forecasters are predicting that workforce creativity andinnovation will be the most important factors in establishing and maintaininga competitive advantage.”4

Libraries and their employees need to be creative to provide differentand better services. The ability of libraries to harness the creativity of theirstaff by generating ideas is more critical than ever for the survival of allorganizations.5 Despite the importance of creativity, it seems that not onlyindividuals but libraries themselves are still sitting on the couch. This lackof action has consequences. According to a 2010 survey reported in InsideHigher Education, academic librarians are “being sidestepped by faculty whodo all their own research online via e-access to journals and databases. Thelibrary has been disintermediated from the research process. The decliningvisibility and importance of traditional roles for the library and librarians maylead to faculty primarily perceiving the library as a budget line, rather thanas an active intellectual partner.”6 In 2010 an OCLC study detailed risks fac-ing libraries. The report found that the library’s conservative nature inhibitstimely adaptation to change. An organizational culture that inhibits innova-tion was listed as another high risk in libraries.7 In “The McDonaldizationof Academic Libraries,” Quinn discusses how, along with efficiency and thesystematic elimination of unnecessary time or effort, academic libraries alsoadopted predictable culture. The momentum seems to be how can every-thing be similar, not how can we make ourselves unique.8

WHAT WOULD CHANGE LOOK LIKE?

If catalogers decided to get off the couch, what would happen? Does it haveto happen now? Can we not watch another Law & Order? In a time whenlarge cataloging changes such as RDA and a reimagined MARC standard areunderway, creativity efforts could allow us to invent new possibilities. Assomeone who has recently researched in a field unfamiliar to me, I can sayI would have been delighted by any of the following:

• The catalog could operate like Pandora. I should be able to give a resourcea thumbs up or a thumbs down and my future results should be shapedby those likes and dislikes. Pandora is supported by the Music Genome

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Project, which creates hundreds of musical attributes and uses detailedmetadata to personalize the user experience. This idea could be replicatedby libraries for other formats.

• I should be able to click on a button that says “this resource is over myhead” and the system should provide a list of more basic resources on thesubject. I should also be able to click on a button that says “this resourceis too basic” and be given related resources on that topic that are moretechnical or in depth. This could be made possible through the additionof metadata fields describing reading level and degree of specificity withinan area of research.

• The library should know that I have multiple resources in use or checkedout on a particular subject so if another title is received I should get ane-mail (or a Facebook message or Tweet) that a new title in my area ofinterest just became available.

• The system should be able to tell me if the resource I am looking at isa classic in the field or if it was later disproved. The system should alsogive me a list of books that present the other side of the issue. This featurecould be supported by additional metadata fields describing the reputationand history of the title.

Say I come across The Tyranny of Words by Stuart Chase, published in1938. I know nothing about this book except that it was cited by anothergood source and it is covered in shrink wrap, which in my library means thatit has not been checked out in a very long time. An improved catalog mighttell me that Chase was a popular economist and an engineer educated at MIT.This could be accomplished through additional fields in the authority file,which would display under the author’s name in the catalog. The informationmight also appear when the user’s cursor hovers over the name. Widelypublicized and reviewed, The Tyranny of Words was the first popular bookto deal with Korzybski’s general semantics. The bibliographic record for theitem could have had a link to the New York Times Book Review, January 23,1938, “On the Importance of Meanings: Stuart Chase attempts to popularizerecent studies in the Relationship of words, thoughts and things.” Perhapsthe catalog also lets me know that the library also owns Korzybski’s Scienceand Sanity. Imagine these and other possibilities that additional metadatacould create.

It is true those would be large changes requiring cooperation from sys-tems people. An easier change to make might involve RDA training. Whatis the most effective way to communicate these concepts? I have observedmock trials of Goldilocks (breaking and entering) and the Big Bad Wolf(manslaughter) used to explain the concepts of hearsay, circumstantial ev-idence, and reasonable doubt. RDA could be put on trial for making un-necessary changes to the cataloging code. Lawyers could debate what isneeded and not needed in a metadata record. Expert witnesses could clearly

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explain what changes are coming and why they are important. A sterncross-examination would allow for a full examination of the facts. Maybeeven the jury would be allowed to ask questions.

JUST WHAT HAS BEEN SITTING IN THE CATALOGERS’REFRIGERATOR?

The average cataloging environment is not naturally conducive to creativity.It is a profession of standards and judgment based on rules that describe howdata is selected and formatted. Although specific rules change, the demandto adhere to the rules has remained constant. Creating quality records, andrecords that may be able to migrate and crosswalk correctly, relies on con-sistency of data, which requires adherence to standards, both national andlocal. “Creative cataloging” is often referred to in the same way as “creativeaccounting,” meaning something that is done by bending the rules in orderto hide or make things look better to shareholders, or in the case of libraries,patrons.

The nature of cataloging work attracts a certain personality type. Accord-ing to a study of personality traits, technical service librarians were found tobe introverts with an operational work style and low customer service ori-entation.9 Although not necessarily accurate, the stereotype of a cataloger isnot that of a creative innovator. “The image of the cataloguer as a backroomisolationist has damaged the reputation of cataloging and reduced the abilityof catalogers to interact effectively within the library environment.”10 SanfordBerman attributed assumptions about the perfection or insanity of catalogingcodes, coupled with a growing almost religious faith in automation as re-sulting in fewer, and generally less creative and autonomous, catalogers.11

Michael Gorman commented, “It is unfortunate that cataloging and catalogersare plagued by a continuing crisis promulgated by a lack of imagination, theneed for minute prescriptiveness, the inability to make judgments, and apartly self-imposed feeling of defensiveness and isolation.”12

Nothing is more harmful to a creative attitude than fears, uncertainty,doubts, and a negative attitude.13 Negativity suppresses creativity. Otheringredients of a non-creative state include: fear of failure, rule following,over reliance on logic, laziness, and over seriousness.14 Many people havethese self-imposed barriers to creativity. They accept conformity, give theexpected answer, do not challenge the obvious, evaluate too quickly, andfear embarrassment. Creativity flourishes in an atmosphere of safety andself-acceptance. Creativity “arises from the synergy of many sources and notonly from the mind of a single person. It is easier to enhance creativity bychanging conditions in the environment, than by trying to make people thinkmore creatively.”15

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WHAT IS IN THE CREATIVITY REFRIGERATOR?

Just as everyone has the ability to lose weight, everyone has the capacity tobe creative, but some take to it more naturally than others. A creative personhas an inquiring mind, persistence, a need for diversity, a need for autonomy,a tolerance for ambiguity, and a need for mastery of a problem.16 They findnew connections, seek other perspectives, use their imagination, look for theunexpected, take risks, and harness their intuition.17 Highly creative peoplealso redefine problems, analyze their ideas, attempt to persuade others ofthe values of their ideas rather than expecting others to readily accept them,and realize that existing knowledge can be a hindrance as much as it is ahelp in generating creative ideas.18 Amabile writes that three areas combineto identify the level of creativity within the individual: expertise, creativethinking skills, and motivation. The effective management of these areasmay enhance an organization’s creative capacity.19

Creativity requires focus and a solid background in a subject. Peopleneed to possess a strong base of knowledge. Knowledge also includestacit knowledge such as subjective insights, intuition, and hunches. Cre-ativity requires a depth and breadth of knowledge, and the ability to in-tegrate and synthesize relevant information from across various areas andcombine it in novel ways. In addition to a base of knowledge, creativityalso requires opening your mind to a wide range of ideas. Simple changesin daily life such as driving to work different ways, listening to a differ-ent radio station, eating different things for dinner, reading a genre yougenerally do not, visiting places you have never been before or visitinga museum, all encourage looking at familiar things differently. Absorbinginformation that is “off topic” creates the possibility of making differentconnections.

Creative people need the inner strength and self-confidence to gen-erate ideas and then fight for them. Creative people can feel underap-preciated and attacked for their ideas, which is to be expected becausecrowd-defying ideas are incompatible with conventional ways of thinkingand vested interests.20 How that fight goes may be determined by the en-vironment. The creative individual is not enough to ensure success. Biol-ogy contributes to creativity, but the environment determines how much ofthat potential we fulfill.21 Creativity relies on the interplay between a mindand the environment. Both can be improved and are crucial. More creativ-ity exists where there are diverse backgrounds and where new ideas aremore readily accepted. Less creativity appears in less diverse, uniform, rigidcultures.22

If we believe as Maslow did, that creativity is the right of every person,there must be a way to uncover it. Like any other ability it may lie dormantif not needed or practiced. Once the decision is made, it has to be exercisedand strengthened.23 When given a problem, most people can find a usual

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answer. Creative people come up with multiple answers and work on dif-ferent ways to solve the problem.

CREATING A CREATIVE CATALOGER: RESTOCKINGTHE REFRIGERATOR

Are you convinced creativity is important? Are you ready to get off the couchand jump into creativity? What do you do next? You need a plan.

Do Your Research

Read up on the subject. Much has been written and different opinions existon best practices. Be prepared for the doubters. You may need to convincethem to give creativity a chance. Some may believe creativity is only impor-tant to artists and musicians, while actually creativity could enhance manyareas of both personal and work life.

Make It Part of the Job

It’s not a diet, it’s a way of life. Articulate creativity and innovation expecta-tions and support them. Creativity comes with practice, like learning a foreignlanguage or a musical instrument. It requires thinking a different way andthis change must be supported and encouraged. Once catalogers choose tohave creativity as a core value, it must be clear that they have permissionand support from their administration to be creative. Cunningham lists ThePermission Culture and Excessive Control by Management as practices thatsuffocate creativity.24

Focus Your Effort

You cannot be creative about everything all the time. Focus your energy.Catalogers should identify the category of innovation where they feel theyare best positioned to excel and the area that would have the biggest impacton the most people. You could also consider doing a small pilot creativ-ity project as a warm up. You do not start running marathons the firstweek.

Encourage Experimentation

Talk about how creativity could be introduced into cataloging content andprocess. Consider whether additional steps are required to lessen fear, un-certainty, and doubt. Accept the fact that not all new ideas will work andfailure is a part of the process. Internal barriers to creativity exist in most

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people. The cataloging personality type seems more likely to seek perfectionand thus may be naturally more uncomfortable with ambiguity. In diet jar-gon this can be called having a slow metabolism. If creativity was explicitlyspelled out as a performance expectation, staff could reasonably be expectedto make changes in their thinking and adapt their performance.25

Group Work

Research has differed on whether group or solo efforts produce highercreativity. Both methods should be tried. Groups can be good placesfor exchanges of perspectives and ideas. They can facilitate cross-culturalinteractions and introduce members to new and different ideas. Becausecataloging is usually done solo, catalogers may not be used to groups. Beaware that group work has a downside. Group creativity is not the sum of allparticipants. It is influenced by the group composition, characteristics, andprocesses. Groups using typical brainstorming rules generate substantiallyfewer ideas than the same number of individuals brainstorming in isolation.Groups can result in social freeloading, fear of negative evaluation, and pro-duction blocking when one cannot express oneself when another is talking.The competing demands of generating ideas and listening to other people’sideas may divide attention and limit the benefits of sharing ideas.26

In order to ameliorate these problems, groups should be carefully struc-tured. When individuals are provided an opportunity to generate additionalideas on their own after meeting, benefits may be experienced. Brainwriting,the practice of sharing written ideas in groups, also enhances creativity.27 Itmay take time to absorb ideas and synthesize them with one’s own ideas. Ifparticipants are provided with a subsequent session to reflect on new ideasand continue to generate new ideas the benefits of group processing maybecome evident.

Plan for Implementation

Planning can become endless. Ideas in some organizations need to be ap-proved by a large number of higher committees before any action is taken.Creativity may pass from one committee and die in the next as every aspectis painstakingly examined. Creative ideas are not an end unto themselves.This only works if ideas are put into action. Catalogers should move ideasinto practice quickly. Ideas that sit in a committee often kill motivation.There must be commitment to act. Knowing that you need to go to the gymis different than actually going. You can compare gyms, look at the ma-chines, analyze membership cost and hours, but eventually you need to takeaction.

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SUMMARY

1. Educate yourself. There is a lot of literature on group creativity and busi-ness creativity. Read it and get up to speed about the challenges.

2. If it is important, make it routine. Catalogers need to articulate creativityand innovation expectations in all levels and areas and the support theywill provide for the program.

3. Instead of trying to build a better mousetrap, we might ask whether thereis a better use for the mice. Can we produce the same results in totallydifferent ways, or do we need to produce totally different results?

4. Focus your energy. Catalogers should identify the category of innovationwhere they feel they are best positioned to excel and the area that wouldhave the biggest impact on the most people.

5. Brainstorming creative new future projects should be accomplished by adiverse group working together and catalogers should be included, insteadof, or perhaps in addition to, debating the strengths and weaknessesof square brackets. Creativity also requires an in-depth knowledge soadministrators may not always be the best group to produce ideas. Fearinhibits creativity so try to foster a supportive atmosphere.

6. Practice, practice, practice. Catalogers can hold creativity sessions to dis-cuss creative approaches to metadata. Possible topics include: how meta-data is created, what kind of metadata is created, how metadata is used,best training methods, and internal and external communication methodsand content.

7. Test effectively and quickly. Libraries should create a process where thebest ideas move quickly into trial concrete reality.

CONCLUSION

Life would be more interesting if everyone came up with new ideas. Theinternal obstacles that exist for catalogers are the same obstacles that ex-ist for everyone. These can be overcome with effort on the part of theindividual and the institution. Our current cataloging work flow is impor-tant, but to get ahead we really need to start swimming instead of simplytreading water. Catalogers need to research creativity, and take concretesteps in institutionalizing and recognizing it as a core competency for theorganization. Just as it is harder for individuals to lose weight without thesupport of their family, it is hard for a creative individual to thrive withouta supportive environment, but it is not impossible. No matter what environ-ment you find yourself in, creativity is possible on an individual level. Thesearch for better work through creative changes will eventually improve yourwork.

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NOTES

1. Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper, 1954).2. Bruce Nussbaum, “Get Creative! How to Build Innovative Companies,” Bloomberg Business-

week (August 1, 2005), http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_31/b3945401.htm3. David Johnson, “What is Innovation and Entrepreneurship? Lessons for Larger Organizations,”

Industrial and Commercial Training 33, no. 4 (2001): 135–140.4. Susan Meisinger, “Creativity and Innovation: Key Drivers for Success,” HR Magazine (May

2007), http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_5_52/ai_n19170717/5. Nancy A. Cunningham and Rick Robison, “Creating an Ecosystem of Creativity in your Library:

Traps and Tips,” College and Undergraduate Libraries 14, no. 2 (2007): 104.6. Steve Kolowich, “Eroding Library Role?,” Inside Higher Education (April 7, 2010).7. James Michalko, Constance Malpas, and Arnold Arcolio, Research Libraries, Risk and Systemic

Change (Dublin, Ohio: OCLC, 2010): 15.8. Brian Quinn, “The McDonaldinzation of Academic Libraries?” College & Research Libraries 61,

no. 3 (2000): 248–261.9. J. M. Williamson, A. E. Pemberton, and J. W. Lounsbury, “Personality Traits of Individuals in

Different Specialties of Librarianship,” Journal of Documentation 64, no. 2 (2008): 273–286.10. Sherry L. Vellucci, “Future Cataloguers: Essential Colleagues or Anachronisms?” College and

Research Library News 7 (July/August 1996): 442–443.11. Sanford Berman, The Joy of Cataloging: Essays, Letters Reviews and Other Explosions (Phoenix:

Oryx Press, 1981), xi.12. Michael Gorman, “1941: An Analysis and Appreciation of Andrew Osborn’s The Crisis in

Cataloging,” The Serials Librarian 6, no. 2/3 (1981): 127–131.13. Michael Michalko, Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques (New York, Ten

Speed Press, 2006): 3.14. Elspeth McFadzean and Andrew O’Loughlin, “Five Strategies for Improving Group Effective-

ness,” Strategic Change 9, no. 2 (2000): 103–114.15. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (New

York: HarperCollins, 1996), 1.16. “Personality Traits” in The Dictionary of Creativity. Ed. Eugene Gorny (2007), http://creativity.

netslova.ru/Personal_traits.html17. Harry Bobonich, Seeing Around Corner’s: How Creative People Think (New York, Dorrance

Publishing Company, 2002): xv.18. Robert Sternberg, “What is the Common Thread of Creativity: Its Dialectical Relation to Intelli-

gence and Wisdom,” American Psychologist 56, no 4 (2002): 360.19. Teresa M. Amabile, “Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and

Loving What You Do,” California Management Review 40, no. 1 (1997): 39.20. Robert Sternberg, “What is the Common Thread of Creativity: Its Dialectical Relation to Intelli-

gence and Wisdom,” American Psychologist 56, no. 4 (2002): 360.21. “Creativity,” in Encyclopedia of the Human Brain (New York: Academic Press, 2002): 83–87.22. Barbara Kerr and Corissa Chopp, “Families and Creativity,” in Encyclopedia of Creativity Volume

1, ed. Mark A. Runco et al. (San Diego: Academic Press, 1999): 709.23. Julia Cameron, The Artists Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (New York: Jeremy P.

Tarcher/Putnam, 2002), 1.24. Nancy A. Cunningham and Rick Robison, “Creating an Ecosystem of Creativity in Your Library:

Traps and Tips,” College and Undergraduate Libraries 14, no. 2 (2007): 104.25. Paul B. Paulus and Huei-Chuan Yang, “Idea Generation in Groups: A Basis for Creativity in

Organizations,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 82, no. 1 (2000): 76–87.26. Eleanor D. Glor, “What Do We Know about Enhancing Creativity and Innovation? A Review

of the Literature,” The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal (1998), http://www.innovation.cc/peer-reviewed/creativ7.htm

27. CreatingMinds.org. Brainwriting, http://creatingminds.org/tools/brainwriting.htm

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