habitually probing generalist

Please consider this a sort of thought experiment. And, please, I beg you, do not do this to any one!

Need to either train or assist someone in training themselves to do Slavic/Cyrillic cataloging?

Do NOT:

• dump, without warning, a cataloger of Western European languages into Slavic/Cyrillic cataloging.
• give them, willy-nilly, a complete mixture, randomly assorted, of Slavic languages to catalog.
• give them absolutely no training.
• provide absolutely no feedback.
• give them pre-revolutionary materials so they have additional characters to consider.
• give them materials that need original cataloging.
• give them materials by authors with no authority records.
• expect the work to be done quickly.
• give them translations; especially those from one Slavic language to another.
• forget that the issue is “simply” language and script but that a host of other rules and other knowledge is required.

Now all of these things are not of the same importance, nor do they all need sequenced at the same time. If you are going to provide some honest and quality training and feedback then many of them recede to be of much less importance.

But if you are just going to dump this sort of cataloging on someone and you expect quality results then you had best pay attention to the above list and give them plenty of time to learn on their own. And, if you do dump this kind of work on someone then, except in the rarest of circumstance, you are not qualified to be a supervisor of catalogers.

And here my little thought experiment ends.