Collection Development

"Rice, Barry A." Just one of the hundreds of author names that stream before my eyes each week. This one seemed innocuous enough. Verifying forms of names doesn't get much easier than a simple proper name of an individual. But what's this? Not one, but two cross references in the authority record. My eyes jitterbugged through the record. It seems Monsieur Rice was born "Meyers-Rice, Barry." (He's not French. I just wanted to insert something parenthetically here). A compound name requires a 4XX field, in this case, "Rice, Barry Meyers-." Don't ask why Dear Reader. It just does. But wait! There's more. It seems the author prefers "Rice, Barry A." and had his name legally changed to reflect that preference. So, we are left with a 100 and 2 400 fields. All of the preceding would not, and should not warrant a posting here, although it would be quite frivolous and as such fair game to address. No Dear Reader. We are onto something here. I read the 670. Then I re-read the 670. "International Carnivorous Plant Society. Conference (2nd : 1998 : Bonn, Germany). Proceedings ... c1998" This looked promising. What was the title by Herr Rice (again...) that we had added to the catalog? Ooooh! "Growing Carnivorous Plants." I had to see this. I found the book on the shelf, leafed through it, and decided to go buy a copy for My Library. I walked over to the UO Bookstore and learned that it was not in stock. A special order would be necessary. The order was placed and I was told it would be in the next day. Joy! And it was in the next day! As if that weren't enough, I had a 20% off coupon, which beats the standard staff discount of 10% by....well, is the math really necessary? The book was mine. All mine. The next steps are routine for me now. Catalog it for My Library, verifying the bibliographic integrity of the record to be used, paying particular attention to the form of the author's name. The record had the incorrect form. I fixed it, just like I do for a living. I cannot abide invalid headings. Especially in My Library. Then (no, not done yet) scan the cover so I could print a nice color image of the jacket for a display. Best not to ask Dear Reader. Save the scanned image to my 'memory stick.' Later, back at the cave, print the alien-looking image of the cover. Full page print. Lovely. Just lovely. Finally, well, almost, emboss the lower right hand corner of the title page with my personalized stamp. (It was a gift from my mom years ago). "Library of..." Only one thing left to do. Really. Just one. Find a place for it on a shelf. Much easier said than done. Trust me on this point. And that Dearest of Readers is how to buy a book.