cataloging fun.

I Really Love It When:

Some bozo decides to insert a hyphen into the title field which is not actually printed on the title page. Because we do not accept OCLC records into our catalog as-is unless they are identical to the book in hand (actually, a little fudging is allowed in the way the publisher name or location is abbreviated or punctuated, but not in the title), this means that a single character spoils the record for us and I have to stick it on the Problem New Books shelf, where it becomes Just Another Damn Thing for the real cataloger to deal with.

In some cases the errors themselves - no matter how annoying they may be to me, as a copy cataloger - are fairly understandable. In the hyphen case above, someone decided to spell "bestselling" as "best-selling". Reasonable enough, I suppose. Their eyes probably filled it in when they were entering the data and there wasn't sufficient double-checking in place to catch it. But I don't see how it's possible to spell what is clearly "hijacking" as "high-jacking" when it's right there in front of you on the bloody title page.

back to the grind.

cataloging fun.

I Really Love It When:

Some bozo decides to insert a hyphen into the title field which is not actually printed on the title page. Because we do not accept OCLC records into our catalog as-is unless they are identical to the book in hand (actually, a little fudging is allowed in the way the publisher name or location is abbreviated or punctuated, but not in the title), this means that a single character spoils the record for us and I have to stick it on the Problem New Books shelf, where it becomes Just Another Damn Thing for the real cataloger to deal with.

In some cases the errors themselves - no matter how annoying they may be to me, as a copy cataloger - are fairly understandable. In the hyphen case above, someone decided to spell "bestselling" as "best-selling". Reasonable enough, I suppose. Their eyes probably filled it in when they were entering the data and there wasn't sufficient double-checking in place to catch it. But I don't see how it's possible to spell what is clearly "hijacking" as "high-jacking" when it's right there in front of you on the bloody title page.

back to the grind.

(no subject)

Apparently these guys have contracted with the city of Sunnyvale to install their wifi transmitters on streetlights around the city (starting with a couple square-mile areas at Lawrence and El Camino, and a vaguer location "southwest Sunnyvale near 280" that might barely include my house), and the "franchised" service will be offered at $14.95/mo. Service could be available in November. If this works out, this could solve all our internet problems in this house*. When I read the article in the city newsletter I was heard to remark, "Welcome to the 21st century."

According to my dad, in Philadelphia they are looking into doing this using city money, installing it like the other utilities it is considered a city's duty to provide, such as water and garbage. Of course the actual Internet service businesses want to stop it, for the obvious reason. I don't like the idea of losing any jobs, but then there's a hint of the whole utopian, abolition-of-money-and-materialism, Star-Trek thing in it which is rather appealing...

* - Namely, two or three people contending for dial-up line at once (and of course the suckiness of dial-up); being probably outside DSL service area and the fact that DSL worth having (1.5 Mbps) cost something like $75/mo the last time I checked; and cable requiring removing alterations we've done to improve signal and that whole ugliness about Comcast charging you for each computer if they find out you're splitting your cable connection to multiple computers.

(no subject)

Apparently these guys have contracted with the city of Sunnyvale to install their wifi transmitters on streetlights around the city (starting with a couple square-mile areas at Lawrence and El Camino, and a vaguer location "southwest Sunnyvale near 280" that might barely include my house), and the "franchised" service will be offered at $14.95/mo. Service could be available in November. If this works out, this could solve all our internet problems in this house*. When I read the article in the city newsletter I was heard to remark, "Welcome to the 21st century."

According to my dad, in Philadelphia they are looking into doing this using city money, installing it like the other utilities it is considered a city's duty to provide, such as water and garbage. Of course the actual Internet service businesses want to stop it, for the obvious reason. I don't like the idea of losing any jobs, but then there's a hint of the whole utopian, abolition-of-money-and-materialism, Star-Trek thing in it which is rather appealing...

* - Namely, two or three people contending for dial-up line at once (and of course the suckiness of dial-up); being probably outside DSL service area and the fact that DSL worth having (1.5 Mbps) cost something like $75/mo the last time I checked; and cable requiring removing alterations we've done to improve signal and that whole ugliness about Comcast charging you for each computer if they find out you're splitting your cable connection to multiple computers.