Holistic Statistics: managing rare materials cataloging at KU during times of change

When thinking about the typical ways that the work of catalogers is described, statistics play a vital role. However, most statistics focus on the number of items cataloged or the time it takes to catalog an individual item. Though these statistics can be useful for internal processes or reporting for vendors, they don’t convey the value of cataloging work to an external audience, even those within the library. This is in part because the materials catalogers work with can exhibit variable needs, and there are additional impacts when working with rare materials that can make statistics seem unbalanced when looking at them broadly. Catalogers use terms like original, complex copy, or copy cataloging to de-scribe the level of complexity of the work they do to attempt to get at this variability, yet this still does not provide a clear understanding of the work. By considering the work catalogers do in a human-centered, holistic manner, pro-vides pathways for developing understanding across departments and the library, strengthening collaboration, highlighting achievements, and bringing visibility to the cataloging unit.