Legendary Cataloger Berman Reacts to Hennepin County Reprimand

Staff -- Library Journal, 3/8/1999

In a stern "Written Reprimand" issued February 8, Sanford Berman, the well-known Head Cataloger in charge of the Cataloging Section of the Hennepin County Library (HCL), Edina, MN was told that "further counterproductive behavior...type or not activelysupporting the implementation of both OCLC and AACR2 will be consideredinsubordination and be cause for further discipline." The memo, signed byHCL director Charles Brown, and Berman's immediate boss, ElizabethFeinberg, instructed the famous cataloging reformer that "your active supportof these changes is required."

Berman has devoted his professional career to catalog reform, and is widely credited with the massive modernization of library subject headings. His efforts with the HCL catalogers have made the cataloging at HCL a model for others, and licensing of HCL catalogingto commercial vendors produces substantial revenue for the library.

At immediate issue was a January 18 letter from Berman to Bill DeJohn and Carla Dewey of MINITEX thanking the two for "affirming that local deviations in punctuation and abbreviation practice, as well as main entry choice for collections and anthologies" would not "inhibit or impede" HCL's interlibrary and inter-network sharing of cataloging data. Berman shared the exchange with his cataloging staff, as he has routinely done with professional correspondence for his entire career at HCL.

"You have the right as a citizen to express your opinion," wrote Brown and Feinberg. "You may not initiate discussion of that opinion on work time nor route that opinion to staff at work. Your letter to MINITEX, which was subsequently routed to cataloging staff, is inappropriate."

In a response on February 10, Berman said, "there is no just cause" for the reprimand and asked Brown to rescind it and remove it from the HCL files. He went on to assert that the had expressed "frequent and explicit" support for OCLC, and AACR2, even though he had opposed payment of "unjust royalties" from HCL to OCLC for fiction records. HCLstill receives substantial royalties on fiction records it licenses to commercial firms.

Berman assured Brown and Feinberg that "absolutely no one" had seen his response, and that he would not make the matter public if the reprimand was rescinded. Brown responded on February 22, reiterating that the MINITEX letter was "inappropriate as well as divisive."

He told Berman that "as one of the Department's senior managers, it is expected that youwill lend informed input during the decision-making process and then provide full support once a decision has been reached."

The HCL director went on to say that he felt support had not been forthcoming and that "the written reprimand is appropriate." Berman then decided publicize the controversy with colleagues and the professional press, releasing copies of all relevant documents.

Commenting on Brown's decision not to rescind the reprimand, Berman told LJ that the matter "spotlights a pattern of arbitrary and secretive policy-making" and that neitherhe nor other catalogers were consulted on the decision to implement OCLC or AACR2.

"This transcends a mere personnel issue. I do want justice for myself, but now I want a stated guarantee that the staff at HCL can speak on professional and library issues without fear of reprisal."

HCL director Brown, who spoke off the record with LJ, was unable to comment, "I have to respect Sandy Berman's privacy, and the fact that it is really a pending internal personnel matter." In a follow-up voice mail message to LJ, Brown said he was "astounded" at messages on the web and Internet dealing with the incident.