I had my PDR accepted in July, and I didn't include contents page, footnotes
or appendices in the word count - even then I was close to the limit. I
sneakily put some of the "required" info. in appendices, e.g. not only the
job descriptions and organisational charts, but also my comments on them, on
how far the libraries were meeting their mission statements, and what
problems there were such as staff shortages/ lack of funding etc., etc. I
wasn't sure if I was technically allowed to do this, but figured it was
worth a try as, with 3 posts to cover, I had a lot to say. I also had some
quite lengthy footnotes, particularly in my chapter covering wider
professional issues, where I wrote about collaborative cataloguing projects
and their positive and negative impact on the profession - but these often
included some hefty quotes, so I figured they shouldn't be counting as "my"
work.
My impression is that, providing it's obvious you're not relying heavily on
long footnotes, appendices, etc. because you are unable to be sufficiently
selective in presenting your information in the main body of the text, then
the some licence in how the word count is calculated is probably OK.
Good luck to you all!
Wendy
(now back in employment - hooray!)
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