Collection manager's comment

[Una Smith]

"Not In Heaven" wrote:

> [...] The secret to solving the cataloging problem, of course, is having
> the money to hire sufficient lower wage help to do the cataloging, but
> not have the wages so low that you cannot retain a trained workforce.

Yes, I think you are right.  And while cataloging may be part of curation,
and/or vice versa, I think it is important to isolate the various tasks
so that they can be treated separately, in whatever manner is practical
and efficient, given conditions within your institution.

> This is definitely not an impossibility.  [...]

In some institutions, paying anyone other than a fully trained curator
for any part of this task, however simple, is absolutely *not allowed*.
This appears to be due to the conflation, in the minds of some senior
administrators, of the various tasks into one whole:  "proper curation".

Data, anecdotes, references to position papers, grant abstracts, and any
other items that present a more pragmatic view of cataloging as a part
of curation would perhaps be useful to some readers of this discussion.
(hint, hint)

        Una Smith                       una.smith at yale.edu

Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT  06520-8104