I'd second Lori's comments on focusing on quality and training rather than
on quantity.  While I recognize that a small number of us do most of the
work, I would like to see SACO remain open to any library that is willing
to take the time to learn to do good proposals, even if they only do 1 or
5 a year.

I see subject headings as very different things than name headings (OK,
that's stating the obvious).  What I'm trying to articulate is that, for a
user looking for resources on a certain topic, having the right subject
heading is really helpful and I would hate to dissuade libraries that only
occasionally have the need to create a new heading that will help users
find things from doing.  I think it's much less important whether a
particular name heading gets set up in one form or another; users are
still probably more likely to be able to find a work by an author whether
or not her full name or initials have been chosen by the cataloger as the
form of the heading.  But if a user is looking for a book on a specific
species of fish, I don't want to make them wade through all the items that
were entered under the heading Fishes simply because the library that has
that book was not permitted to make a SACO proposal.  Regardless of
whether they've done just that one proposal or 20 over a year, retrieval
of that specific item is greatly enhanced by having done that one
proposal.

Adam

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* Adam L. Schiff                     *
* Principal Cataloger                *
* University of Washington Libraries *
* Box 352900                         *
* Seattle, WA 98195-2900             *
* (206) 543-8409                     *
* (206) 685-8782 fax                 *
* [log in to unmask]           *
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