serial shelflists (Kathleen Thorne) Marcia Tuttle 16 Feb 1999 00:01 UTC
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 10:27:31 -0700 From: kathleen <kathleen@SJSUVM1.SJSU.EDU> Subject: serial shelflists I'm not really sure we're doing ourselves a favor by discarding serials shelflists -- maybe I'm overly pessimistic because of abuses I see happening here in my library, but I find myself wondering whether we may be setting ourselves up for some problems further down the years... Our serials shelflist was summarily tossed when I was relieved of my serials cataloging duties nearly 4 years ago -- my leaving of the shelflist (for the next cataloger[s]) was seen as an indication of its lack of value. Since then, there have been many instances where either a call number is known but can't be located in the online catalog or on the shelves (and many of us are positive we owned the item); or the call number has been changed in the catalog by the new catalogers but the items have not been re-labeled & remain lost somewhere in the stacks under the old, now unknown call number; or... numerous other little gems of the same general kind. In a couple of instances, electronic records were apparently accidentally erased of necessary elements or completely deleted in error. Unless the staff who build and maintain the electronic records are meticulous, it won't be many years before our electronic catalogs and our collections are completely out of sync with each other. We may be able to do a little backtracking if there are backup tapes, but with no permanent records it may prove to be too big a problem. Surely I'm not the only one who finds it embarrassing when faculty or students can't find materials they used only a semester or two before; somehow the answer of "yes, you may have used it here, we may have had that title then but maybe we've since discarded it" is as unacceptable to me as it is to them. Please, my friends, assure me that I'm totally silly to worry about these problems, that such things can't happen -- this is certainly one case where I will be delighted to be proven wrong!! Kathleen Thorne still a serials cataloger...?... -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kathleen Thorne Serials Cataloger Creator of the world, keep me sane San Jose State University Keep my sense and my wisdom San Jose, CA 95192-0028 until you come for me. ph: (408) 924-2826 fax: (408) 924-2701 email: kathleen@email.sjsu.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~