FROM THE EDITOR
Jain Fletcher
I am pleased to note that this issue has a full complement of contributions. There are two book reviews, three conference reports and two liaison reports. Announcements can be found in the column for that purpose, as well as beyond that, where some new Conference announcements (including information about this year’s scholarship recipient) and news about the Nancy Olson Award can be found under their own headings. There are messages about OLAC itself, such as the posting of the new Executive Board, the call for candidates and the Treasurer’s report. And, this being the beginning of the OLAC year, we have the first column from the new President.
We are also seeing a new contributor to the "Questions and Answers" column, a perennial favorite of OLAC readers and a centerpiece for so many of us. After Nancy Olson’s announcement in the last issue of her well-deserved retirement from the "Q & A" column, there has been a bustle of activity behind the scenes to fill her position. We were aware just how big her shoes were to fill--as indeed, were those of the others who had previously edited this column--and we did not take this responsibility lightly. Therefore, we were extremely pleased when Jay Weitz was available and willing to take on the assignment. His first column appears in this issue.
However, if you look for Jay’s column under the familiar title Nancy used, you may well miss it. In what has become a kind of tradition for the "Q & A" column, the title has been changed along with the change of editor. For his column title, Jay wanted to incorporate the concept of "cataloger’s judgment", which resonates so well (in both of our opinions) with the quality of cataloging allied with OLAC. But we were stuck on how to precede that phrase with a characterization of the range of cataloging material that OLAC members tackle. As an example of the types of title strings we were rejecting, I give you: "Non-book, Electronic, Serial, Media Materials Cataloger’s Judgment". After putting forth more of these ideas than we care to remember, we realized that our organization’s very name--even with its own limitations in fully describing all the materials cataloged by its members--was the perfect solution. (Jay only had one small reservation due to, as he called it, the "Department of Redundancy Department" aspect of the title if the acronym were ever protracted into a phrase; in that case it would be: "OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers Cataloger’s Judgment".) Since that will never happen here, the title will be: "OLAC Cataloger’s Judgment". Jay says that this solution "leaves it all to the acronymic imagination".
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Last updated: September 22, 2004
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