Access Is the Goal: Leslie Feldballe on a Career in Cataloging

by DENISE WOLFE

Access. It’s the single idea Leslie Feldballe returns to when describing what makes cataloging and metadata work satisfying. “When catalogers are doing our jobs well, people don’t know we exist,” she said. “Our job is to make finding what you need as straightforward as possible.”

It’s a trade-off Feldballe has come to see as one of the most rewarding, and least understood, parts of the job. People are often surprised, she said, by how creative and collaborative cataloging really is: behind every easy search result is a librarian maintaining accurate data and authority files, and working closely with colleagues across technical services and collections to smooth out the bumps patrons might otherwise hit. “Access is the goal,” she said.

Feldballe is a cataloging and metadata librarian at the University at Buffalo Libraries, where she has worked in both Discovery Services and the Poetry Collection. She joined UB in 2016 as a visiting assistant librarian doing generalist cataloging, but her connection to the university goes back further. "My BA is in Classics, and I also have an MLS from UB's school of (formerly) Library and Information Science, and a Masters in Classics with a concentration in Archaeology and Ancient History," she said. "UB feels a lot like home."

Not long after she was hired, a position cataloging materials specific to the Poetry Collection opened, and Feldballe spent a few years fully dedicated to that work. It was also during this period that UB Libraries began migrating its library services platform to Alma and Primo, a multiyear effort that Feldballe said gave her a broader view of how and why the library’s catalog functions. 

Today, no two days look quite the same. Feldballe still processes Poetry Collection periodicals, work she calls endlessly fascinating, alongside bibliographic maintenance and data cleanup across the Libraries’ collections. She has also taken on cataloging for UB Libraries’ Music Collection, a substantial undertaking that grew when the Music Library relocated into Lockwood Library and a large volume of items needed review. “Music cataloging has a lot of quirks unique to that discipline, and I really enjoy it,” she said, noting she also works with legacy materials, including vinyl and rare items in unconventional formats.

Since 2019, Feldballe has chaired the SUNY Metadata Standards and Policy Working Group, a role that grew out of the systemwide migration from Aleph to Alma, the library management systems used to catalog and manage collections, which involved all 64 SUNY institutions at once. The group has kept going well past that migration because cataloging standards keep changing. “Collectively we maintain a massive consortial catalog of SUNY library materials for one of the most diverse user groups in the country,” Feldballe said. “When I get bogged down in little day-to-day things, I try to remember this.”

Feldballe has also focused on identifying and addressing harmful or outdated language in bibliographic metadata, work she began at the SUNY level and continues within the Libraries’ Equity, Social Justice and Anti-Racism efforts, alongside her colleagues. The group works to remove harmful language from public display without limiting patrons’ ability to find the resources in question. “Representation matters, and language matters,” she said, “but there is rarely a catch-all solution.” Each change means weighing the consistency of controlled vocabularies against ethical representation for users.

Before coming to libraries, Feldballe worked as a field archaeologist in Portugal and Athens, Greece, and later as a cataloger at the Agora Museum in central Athens. “Somehow, transitioning to libraries seemed like a more sustainable career,” she said.

What she most wishes colleagues, students and the broader community understood, Feldballe said, is just how collaborative library work is. “It really takes a village to make libraries work well for our users,” she said, pointing to the close-knit cataloging team at UB and the wider SUNY network she works with. “Access is the goal” isn’t just her line about the job, it’s the thread running through nearly everything Feldballe described, from the data itself to the people who maintain it together. 

Outside of work, Feldballe and her fiancé are renovating a fixer-upper home they bought nearly two years ago, including a native garden that has already drawn pollinators and hummingbirds. The couple is raising two boys, ages 3 and 9, and planning a wedding this October. When time allows, Feldballe said, the family likes to hike or bike together. And a fun fact: she’s a longtime competitive weightlifter who can deadlift 325 pounds for reps — “and I’m honestly really proud of that,” she said.