Re: Image Specialist Postings.
mailto:IGribovsky@IDRC.CA
Fri, 29 Sep 1995 08:43:45 EDT
Message-Id: <mailto:199509291302.IAA22806@library.wustl.edu>
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 08:43:45 EDT
From: mailto:IGribovsky@IDRC.CA>
Subject: Re: Image Specialist Postings.
To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
I have one suggestion:
If hiring someone to handle a *library* collection of images, which implies
cataloguing, indexing according to set standards, retrieving and circulating,
it is *strongly* recommended to hire a *librarian*(i.e. someone who has a MLS
or MLIS).
I personally work in an institutions where they hired a few data entry clerks
with minimal training/education/experience to do the subject analysis of the
slides in our older collection. Needles to say, these people, while probably
perfectly suitable for more general data entry type work, had no conception
of the experssion "subject analysis" and, given the Thesaurus which is used
for all items in the library and told to go right ahead, proceeded to index
the said slides to the best of their abilities and/or knowledge. Needless to
say, this was not nearly good enough.
First of all, there were several of them doing it and there was no
consistency. Slides from the *same series* were indexed using different terms
depending on who was working on then at the time. Some had no concept of what
some terms meant, and this resulted in some *very* strange indexing. Example:
DRAINAGE, an environmental/watershed term, was applied to a BEAKER BEING
EMPTIED ;-)... yes, very humerous, except when specifically looking up slides
with that term...it gets *really* frustrating *really* quickly.
Anyway, several years later, when the *new* slide database was installed and
they needed someone to do the indexing and cataloguing of new slides (the old
system, in addition to the shoddy indexing which made retrieval difficult if
not impossible at times, was also technologically passé at this point), they
made it *clear* that they wanted a *librarian*, preferably with an A/V
background (my BA is in MassComm/Journalism), but a librarian none the less.
In their opinion,a librarian can always be trained to work with A/V, while
someone who is not a librarian cannot be trained to become one in a few short
weeks...or even months.
Anyways, for your consideration...
Rina Gribovsky
A/V Resources
IDRC Library
250 Albert
Ottawa, ON
Canada
(613)236-6163 ext. 2063
igribovskmailto:y@idrc.ca