All~Would you please share with appropriate lists and colleagues?Many thanks.--------------------This message has been cross-posted to several lists.

In the past few years, I've been noticing a trend amongst many of the smart, talented cataloging colleagues that I know -- they are are leaving the Cataloging profession.I think there are many factors at work, but I see a few trends:

• The shifted job: Their jobs have shifted even if their job descriptions or titles have not.
• The evolved job: Their jobs and official job descriptions have shifted from "Cataloger" to something involving bibliographic services, metadata, electronic resources, digital initiatives, etc.

Although a good portion of what I read in terms of change in libraries is cataloging/metadata/systems related (metadata for electronic & digital objects, nex-gen catalogs, rda, opensource ILS, products to enhance user experience that work with the existing catalog (e.g., vufind, etc.), changes in LC policy, etc.), occasionally an article which is more reference oriented wanders across my desk.

Although the introduction of this article is overly simplified in terms of the changes in library technology (I couldn't help but laugh a little in a couple of places) , once you're past that, the rest is a good little overview of some of the more popular opensource products.