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The paper presents an analysis of user tasks in the conceptual models, with an overview of the objectives and functions of the catalogue from Cutter to the International Cataloguing Principles, a critical reflection on user tasks and a proposal for a rethinking of these. The user tasks as presented in the conceptual models present critical aspects, in particular they do not bring out some important aspects concerning the users' motivations for searches and the users' competences. The presentation of some critical aspects of user Ttasks is followed by an initial proposal for a more complex reflection on how users use catalogues to carry out searches of different kinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, taking its cue from the title of a book by Rossella Dini Il parente povero della catalogazione (The poor relative of cataloguing), is intended to be a reflection on the positioning of the cataloguing activity in relation to the other activities of the library, and a reflection on what cataloguing is, or we would like it to be. A quick reconnaissance of the definitions of cataloguing and the changes in cataloguing tout court is followed by a wider-ranging analysis of the question of the role and positioning of catalographic activity in contemporary librarianship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers an overview of ethical issues about cataloguing. After a general introduction about the topic in library science, the paper analyses two principal issues: access to information, in particular about semantic access, and data. Ethical issues are a part of the cataloguing process and affect the way cataloguers create metadata for the users. The last part of the paper presents an analysis of the proposal for a specific code of ethics for cataloguers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents some considerations about the organisation of catalogues and the functionalities of cataloguing tools with respect to the role of a public library. The first section focuses on the definition of the public library and its characteristics in a relationship with the catalogue. The second section deals with some problems of cataloguing organisation, specifically with the peculiarity of a public library catalogue as a bibliographic tool, the issue of cataloguing data types in relation to the users and the catalogue language, and catalogue use and its integration with the physical collection management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]