janet perry wrote:
> Am I the only one who has never done an inventory in all the years
> I've been a librarian, and don't intend to start now? Is inventory a
> sacred cow we learn about, or hear rumors and horror stories about in
> library school, and are too afraid to change? What does doing a
> formal inventory do for us?
No, you aren't the only one who doesn't do a formal inventory. For 10
years I was the only librarian (and part-time at that) at a library that
had more than 31,000 books. During those 10 years I did some shelf
reading, but that was about it. I had no money to buy books, the
administration thought that all books were equal in value, so therefore
weeding was forbidden, and in general the library was considered a
necessary nuisance. I left there in 1998, and I'm still a one-man show,
but at least I'm a full-time librarian in a library with less than 6000
books. Like Janet, I've got a pretty good idea of what is here and what
isn't. Eventually, I get around to deleting books that have been missing
for several years, but often, the book shows up a week after I deleted
it, so I'm not in much of a hurry.
Probably the best argument for doing a proper inventory is when you are
leaving. It is frustrating for a new librarian to look up something in
the catalog, see that the computer says it is on the shelf, and then
find that it isn't there. Is it out of place, "borrowed," lost, stolen,
or what? I'm planning to retire in 2015 (+/- a year or two), and I hope
to have a good inventory done then. Until then, I'll settle for some
thorough, partial inventories that actually help me weed and purchase.
--
David Lininger, kb0zke,
MS/HS librarian
Hickory County R-1 Schools
Urbana, MO 65767
417-993-4226
tss003 at tnp dot more dot net
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