Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 12:04:53 -0400
From: Susan Zappen <szappen@SCOTT.SKIDMORE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Enumeration question (Mitch Turitz)

Mitch,

I have worked in several libraries, both large and small, public and
private. In all of them we made a deviation from the standards or a shortcut
in one way or another. In all instances those decisions not only came back
to haunt us, but they cost us additional time and money as we corrected the
situations.

I am surprised that your public service librarians are asking you to do
this. Both our public and technical service librarians at Skidmore are
passionate about helping students become information literate. First year
students are not only confused by foreign language enumeration, they are
also unable to differentiate between an article citation and a book
citation. We tell our students at orientation to ask for help in both
finding citations and locating material. It's our job to teach them. It is a
rewarding job when you see the lightbulb turn on in a student's face and you
know you have opened a door for them. Cliched, I know, but so true!

>Date: Sun, 14 Sep 1997 16:33:52 -0700
>From: Mitch Turitz <turitz@SFSU.EDU>
>Subject: Enumeration question
>
>As we are automating our periodical check-in for the first time, I have
>been asked to justify why our online records should use the enumeration
>(volume and issue designators) of the language of the periodicals instead
>of converting everything into the English form (vol., iss., no.).
>
>My argument is that national standards (ANSI, MARC FORMAT FOR HOLDINGS,
>NISO, AACR2) say to use the designation that appears on the item itself.
>I also feel that a student looking up a German periodical will know that
>"Band" or "Bd." means "volume" and not "Bound".  If the student doesn't
>know German, they don't want to read the periodical anyway, IMHO.
>
>Our public services librarians seem to feel that our (medium-sized
>college) patrons would be confused by anything that is not the English
>designation.
>
>I would like to hear opinions from others on this issue.  You may respond
>either directly to me or to the list.
>
>Thank you.
>
>Mitch
>
>
>  _^_                                                 _^_
>( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-( ___ )
> |   |                                               |   |
> |   |     Mitch Turitz, Serials Librarian           |   |
> |   |     San Francisco State University Library    |   |
> |   |     Internet: turitz@sfsu.edu                 |   |
> |   |     http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~turitz           |   |
> |   |                                               |   |
>( ___ )-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-( ___ )
>   V                                                   V
>      "I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather ...
> ... Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car."
>
>

          ********************
Susan H. Zappen
Head of Technical Services
Lucy Scribner Library
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs NY 12866-1632

Phone: 518-580-5521
Fax:      518-580-5540
szappen@skidmore.edu
          ********************