Becky Culbertson to retire after decades of service

June 30, 2026, will mark the end of an era for CDL Shared Collections with the retirement of metadata librarian Becky Culbertson. Becky has worked for CDL since 1999 and for UCSD for thirty-two years before that, making her one of our longest-serving staff members. Over the course of her career, Becky made many significant contributions to CDL, UC Libraries, and the profession, using her expertise in cataloging and metadata to make a positive and lasting impact.

Becky’s many professional accomplishments demonstrate the breadth and depth of her knowledge and highlight the generosity and commitment she brought to her work. Cataloging online resources—especially online serials—always presents a wide range of challenges and often requires different strategies and solutions depending on the needs of each collection. Becky has been consistently proactive and strategic in her approach, preparing title‑level cataloging as CDL gets ready for each launch. She is also highly effective at reaching out to publishers and vendors, often persistently advocating for improved metadata. After we migrated to SILS and relied more on records provided from vendors in Alma Community Zone, she focused much of her original and enhanced cataloging on open access resources, including monographs, journals, and resources in non-English languages. The high-quality records she created enhanced the value of OA content by making it not only open but also discoverable. She showed a similar interest in describing alternative press newspapers, magazines, and journals in the Independent Voices collection.

Becky was one of the principal architects of the Shared Cataloging Program (SCP), helping transform an ambitious vision for shared metadata services into a model of systemwide collaboration that continues to support researchers across all ten UC campuses more than twenty-five years later.

The work of cataloging is inherently collaborative and cross-institutional, and the development and maintenance of standards and authorities is vital to the organization of knowledge at the core of librarianship. Becky excelled at this part of her job, as she developed and communicated  cataloging policies and standards including AACR (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules) and RDA (Resource, Description, and Access) and the CONSER (Cooperative Online Serials Program) cataloging manual. On account of her expertise in name authorities, she trained catalogers for the inaugural CSU (California State University) NACO (Name Authority Cooperative) funnel. Becky was also a leading force behind the development of provider-neutral cataloging practices for electronic resources, work that fundamentally changed how libraries create, share, and maintain bibliographic records worldwide. She intends to keep contributing to cataloging by continuing to serve as co-chair of the CONSER Documentation Modernization Task Group, which is charged with identifying current CONSER documentation needing correction, clarification, or possible elimination, to be aligned with Official RDA. 

As a skilled cataloger with a strong service commitment, Becky was active in several professional associations, including the NISO E-Book Metadata Working Group, which resulted in national recommended practices that vendors and libraries use today; the HathiTrust Bibliographic Corrections Group; and the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) Standing Committee on Standards, which she chaired. She also co-authored articles on the Shared Cataloging Program (“One for Nine: The Shared Cataloging Program of the California Digital Library”) and the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (“The History and Development of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging”). Her outstanding contributions to the profession were recognized by the American Library Association in 2015 when she received the Ulrich’s Serials Librarianship Award for her development of cataloging standards and her training and mentoring of catalogers.

Over the course of her long career, Becky has built strong relationships with colleagues throughout UC Libraries, and many of them have shared their appreciation for her at events celebrating her career. I invited a few to offer their thoughts for this post, and these serve as but a small sample of all the good things people have had to say about our wonderful colleague.

“Working with Becky has been one of the great privileges of my career. There are many outstanding catalogers, but very few who fundamentally change how an entire profession approaches its work. Through her leadership in provider-neutral cataloging, the Shared Cataloging Program, and national standards development, Becky has had that kind of impact. Just as important, she has always shared her expertise generously with colleagues, with new catalogers, and with the broader profession. Becky leaves behind not only an extraordinary body of work, but generations of metadata librarians who are better because of her mentorship. It is difficult to imagine the cataloging community without her influence, and it has been an honor to learn from and work alongside her.” – Aislinn Sotelo, Director, Metadata Services, UC San Diego Library

“Becky is a strategist, always with vision, fresh ideas and sustained effort, not just about her own job duties but also look out for the effectiveness and efficiencies of the SCP’s overall operations. For example, SCP initially used print composite records to represent both the print and online versions of a title for many years. As several campuses migrated to Alma and started to keep SCP records separate, Becky anticipated the need to shift to separate online records for SILS migration and began coordinating the conversation with SCP-AC members. With their support, she actively involved in developing a phased plan to transition from print to online records and re‑cataloged titles flagged for manual review. Her leadership in this critical step and her collaboration with her colleagues ensured SCP migrated with a clean, accurate set of online records.” – Shi Deng, Head, CJK Cataloging & Metadata Unit, UC San Diego Library; Former Head of SCP

“Becky has made innumerable contributions to the foundational documents governing serial and e-resource cataloging. She has also made a lasting impact on the profession, both for her contributions to cataloging policies and for her accomplishments in cataloging education. It’s been an honor getting to work with Becky through her work in SCP and CONSER.” – Kevin Balster, Continuing Resources Management Team Leader, UCLA Library

“Becky’s deep expertise as a cataloger and her unwavering commitment to excellence have left a lasting impact on all of us and our users. Her knowledge, thoughtful approach, and generosity in sharing her expertise have made her an invaluable colleague who will be greatly missed. We wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement!” – Li Ma, Assistant Director of Systemwide Licensing, CDL

CDL Shared Collections is grateful for Becky’s many years of excellent work and the collegiality, curiosity, and good humor she brought to our team. We will miss her!