2026 Core Forum

Bobby Bothmann is catalog & metadata librarian in Library Services at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and holds the rank of professor. Bobby catalogs analog and digital resources of all kinds, including books, serials, moving images, objects, cartographic resources, musical and spoken word audio recordings, and music in between too many meetings. He is a member of the editorial board for Cataloging & Classification Quarterly and an active member of OLAC (OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers) where he has served in various leadership roles including treasurer and president. Bobby is a past chair of the Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS) of the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) and a past delegate on the Cataloguing Section Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutes (IFLA), where he contributed to the recent revision of the International Cataloguing Principles. He holds an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee and an MS in Geography and English Technical Communication from MSU Mankato. Bobby is the recipient of the 2007 Esther J. Piercy Award from ALCTS, the 2009 Graduate of the Last Decade Award from UW Milwaukee, and the 2012 Nancy B. Olson Award from OLAC. Bobby moonlights as an adjunct instructor for the iSchool at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he teaches cataloging and classification courses and tries to convert one student per semester to the cataloging side of the Force. Bobby is a Trekker (aka Star Trek superfan!), goes crazy over all the dogs, and misses travel to exotic locales. Bobby and his partner are owned by four dogs and they are a frequent host of the dogs’ many dog friends.