Re: In support of support staff (2 messages) Ann Ercelawn 16 Oct 1995 13:36 UTC
2 messages: _______ Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 16:13:56 +0400 From: "Naomi K. Kietzke" <nkietzke@EMAIL.UNC.EDU> Subject: Re: Uniform title authorities (Kathleen Thorne) On Fri, 13 Oct 1995, Kathleen Thorne wrote: > Of course, > as is currently happening here, sometimes serials cataloging is handed over > willynilly to support staff with no serials cataloging background and the > whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket remarkably quickly and the support > staff/inexperienced monograph cataloger-dept. head don't have the ability > to even see the chaos they're creating. If you would change the phrase "support staff" above to "inexperienced staff", Kathleen, I'd be in your corner. As it is, though, you seem to be implying that support staff make a greater mess than would an inexperienced person with a Master's degree. I've had to educate enough MLS holders on the intricacies of series and serials (BEFORE I got my degree) to EVER buy that premise. No offense taken, just a clarification, Naomi Kietzke Library Technical Assistant, Serials Cataloging UNC-Chapel Hill nkietzke@email.unc.edu To make a bad day worse, spend it wishing for the impossible. --Bill Watterson ______ Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 12:11:57 -0400 From: Pamela Simpson <pse@PSULIAS.PSU.EDU> Subject: Re: In support of support staff kathleen thorne <KATHLEEN@SJSUVM1.BITNET> wrote: > Of course, >as is currently happening here, sometimes serials cataloging is handed over >willynilly to support staff with no serials cataloging background and the >whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket remarkably quickly and the support >staff/inexperienced monograph cataloger-dept. head don't have the ability >to even see th I don't think Kathleen is trying to say here that the problem is with support staff per se-- after all she mentions the monograph cataloger and the dept. head too, but the problem is with handing things over willy-nilly to anyone who does not have adequate serials training. There is a huge conceptual difference between the bibliographic treatment of materials which are monographic in nature and those which are serial in nature. Serials are not a format. Serials can and do exist in any format: print, computer file, map, video, micro, etc. It is a mistake to assume that switching between monographic work and serials work is as doable as switching between formats within the monographic universe. As Crystal Graham has pointed out so well in her recent paper, cataloging serials requires an entirely different philosophical approach. The way of thinking about a record that must represent many items, some of which are not in hand and some of which have not even been published yet, is fundamentally different from the way of thinking required to represent one static item, or a finite set of static items. I believe that it takes a great deal of training and experience to deal effectively with these varied and capricious items. Anyone with the aptitude and desire to learn to work with serials could learn to do it, but not without a significant commitment to the time necessary for training and not unless it will continue to be a major portion of that person's work load. Trying to do serials for a few hours a week is like trying to learn a foreign language in 15 minutes a day. Contrast this approach with moving to another country and immersing yourself in the language for a year, and you have an idea of the level of commitment I am talking about. Serials represent more than half of many academic library acquisitions budgets. The information published in serials is of vital importance to library users. As both librarians and support staff are being asked to do more and more with less and less, as serialists we need to be sure that the bibliographic control of serials does not become disbursed to people who don't have enough serials training or who don't regularly spend a significant portion of their time working with serials. If we don't do this, I believe that the quality of access to information issued serially will suffer. Pamela Simpson Serials Cataloger Penn State University E506 Pattee Library University Park, PA 16802-1805 (814) 865-1755 FAX: (814) 863-7293 PSE@PSULIAS.PSU.EDU