Core Competencies in Practice: Exploring Catalogers’ Alignment with Professional Standards

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to report on a recent study that explores how well the self-assessed
knowledge and skills of cataloging and metadata librarians correlate with the knowledge and
skills described in the Core Competencies for Cataloging and Metadata Professional Librarians
that was revised in 2023 by a group formed by the American Library Association’s Core Metadata
& Collections Leadership Team. A questionnaire gathered basic demographic information and
invited participants to rate their understanding of the Knowledge core competencies, as well as rate
how often they utilize the Skill/Ability core competencies. The results suggest that cataloging and
metadata professional librarian participants of this study view themselves as having a good or full
understanding of most Knowledge core competencies, even if many participants did not regularly use
the Skill/Ability core competencies that include that knowledge