Re: Why are you a cataloger?

OK, I held off for as long as I could, but after all, it's Friday...

I started haunting the local public library at about 7 years of age, 
and continued to haul out armloads of books until I finished college 
and moved away to start working as a public school teacher. In high 
school, I spent every study hall period that I possibly could in the 
school library. While in college, I worked in the library. Since it 
was/is a small school, I did a little of everything *except* 
cataloging. That was considered far too complex and mysterious a 
subject for a mere student to handle.

After five years of teaching English and art at the secondary level, 
I decided to go to graduate school, but what subject? Take a wild 
guess. I liked libraries, I enjoyed the quiet atmosphere, and of 
course, I loved books, so it was pretty much a no-brainer. I was 
fortunate enough to receive a fellowship and also worked at the 
university library at Texas Woman's U.

Since I'd had no bachelor's-level library courses, I had to take 
"baby Cat" and a ref course in the summer session, and that was it! I 
fell in love with cataloging immediately. Suddenly it didn't seem so 
complex or mysterious any more. I went on to take regular cataloging 
(a required course then, I don't know if it still is) and Library of 
Congress Classification. The only thing I regretted was that there 
were so few courses about cataloging available even then (1969-70). I 
could really have used courses in cataloging and technical services 
management, but I took the management courses available and hoped 
they'd have some relevance to cataloging. (Most didn't.)

One thing that hasn't been mentioned a lot is that, IMO, different