With the advent of computerized check-in, one advantage should be that
we no longer have to sort incoming issues alphabetically and divide them
among staff, right?  This should save time in the mailroom and check-in
process.  And yet my experience has been to the contrary.  When we stopped
sorting and pooled all issues together, I found that staff did not face
the problems like claiming or title changes uniformly, that they did not
feel the necessity for keeping current or feel pressured by a backlog,
that Russian or Greek titles tended to sit until a supervisor assigned
them, that first-in-first-out was harder to maintain and monitor, and
that job satisfaction suffered.  The work seemed endless, never caught
up, and one was bothered by others' mistakes or oversights.  People seemed
to prefer maintaining their own identifiable segments, that they were
familiar with, accountable for, and could keep caught up with.  Has any
one had a good experience with not sorting?  If so, how did you do it?
Please send responses to:
CEARLY@ASRR.ARSUSDA.GOV

Caroline Early
National Agricultural Library