Brian Schottlaender writes:
"ARL supports the Library of Congress' efforts to redesign its services
in order to focus better on the needs of the end-user-the individual
researcher-and to streamline processes in order to make information
accessible more conveniently and more quickly."
How do we know what benefits the end-user? Where is the research on use
of series in cataloging records? Where is the evidence that supports
statements about how important or unimportant controlled series access
points are?
Someone said (or wrote) that it isn't important how much cataloging
costs, but how much it would cost if we didn't. Determining costs of
non-action is probably impossibly elusive, but we should have
*something* to go on. Regardless of whether LC's decision turns out to
be a good one or not, surely it is precipitant.
______________________________________________________
Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S.
Chair, RBMS Bibliographic Standards Committee
Head of Cataloging, Folger Shakespeare Library
201 East Capitol St., S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003
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