As a library technician who is responsible for checking in
and binding periodicals/serials/etc, i really take exception
to someone who doesn't deal with my job on a daily basis
saying 'a little inaccuracy isn't important.'  Your
acceptance of inaccuracy makes MY job a lot harder.  On one
hand, you say it saves time to not check in whatever it is
that you aren't checking in...on the other hand, when a piece
is missing and a faculty member needing information is
screaming and I have no clue if we received the piece or
not...it's my butt on the line and I will be taking the blame
because I am the one who hasn't done my job properly (given
that my job is to make sure that the periodical is on the
shelf and available because I am the technical staff dealing
with periodicals).

What we are REALLY dealing with here is that old bugaboo
of "professionalism."  Should I, as a library tech, not treat
my job with the respect that it deserves because I am not
getting paid a faculty salary nor wearing the
title "librarian"?  I don't think so.

Barbara Trumpinski-Roberts
Funk ACES Library Technical Assistant
MSLS Eastern Illinois University, 1979

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 10:52:53 -0700
>From: Rick Anderson <rickand@UNR.EDU>
>Subject: [SERIALST] Accuracy (RE: [SERIALST] dropping serial
check-in?)
>To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
>
>> My library administration doesn't really think claiming or
>> inventorying
>> periodical collection is really necessary.  As the
administration puts
>> it "a little inaccuracy, disorder and instability are not
always bad."
>> Personally, I found it is very difficult to persuade
library
>> administration why it is important to be accurate.
>
>At the risk of starting another argument, I think it's worth
pointing
>out that the question isn't whether we should be accurate or
not, but
>rather how much a unit of accuracy is worth.  If you
employed one person
>and said "Handle serials any way you want," you'd probably
end up with a
>completely unacceptable level of inaccuracy.  On the other
hand, if you
>wanted perfect accuracy, you'd probably have to hire 100
professional
>librarians and create endless manuals for them.  We can
probably all
>agree that that's too high a price to pay.  So where's the
balance
>between those two extremes?  Cynthia, you're not wrong to
say that
>accuracy is important.  But your administration is also not
wrong to say
>that "a little inaccuracy... is not always bad."  The
question is, how
>little?
>
>----
>Rick Anderson
>Dir. of Resource Acquisition
>University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
>(775) 784-6500 x273
>rickand@unr.edu

barbara trumpinski-roberts (smotu) 217-333-2416   kittent@uiuc.edu
Funk ACES Library-UIUC
200 LIAC  1101 S. Goodwin  Urbana, IL  61801 mc-633

"the one thing you can't give up for your heart's desire is your heart."
mitch burnside-clapp