A Look at Fifty Years of <i>Library Resources & Technical Services</i>

Abstract

This year, Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS) celebrates fifty years of publication as the official journal representing the collections and technical services interests of American Library Association (ALA) members. During its fifty years, LRTS has been highly regarded by the library and science profession as scholarly voice for the field. (1) Such an achievement encourages reflection--reflection on who we are, where we have been, and even, perhaps, where we see ourselves going. LRTS comes from long tradition, going back even farther than its official beginning. ALA's Resources and Technical Services Division (RTSD) had been formed as merger in 1956 of ALA's Cataloging and Classification Section and Serials Round Table. Between 1956 and 1957, section of acquisitions and resources and the Reproduction of Library Materials Section were added to the division. (2) In 1957, the Journal of Cataloging and Classification, which had been the official organ of the Division of Cataloging and Classification since 1948, merged with Serials Slants to form LRTS. The scope of the new journal was defined to reflect the expanded scope of RTSD. Over the years, other changes in scope have occurred as new sections have developed within RTSD: the Resources Section, formed in 1973; and the Preservation of Library Materials, in 1979. In 1991, both the Acquisition Section and the Collection Management and Development Section were founded within the organization. (3) A major change in focus occurred in 1976, when the RTSD Newsletter was created to disseminate the news of the division. This action freed the LRTS editors to concentrate on advancing scholarship in the field. In 1989, RTSD changed its name to the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) and the RTSD Newsletter became the ALCTS Newsletter In 1991, a new editorial policy was approved, explicitly stating that research reports were to be included in LRTS and that news items were not. (4) Also in 1991, an online version of the newsletter, ALCTS Newsletter Online (ANO), was launched. Besides this fiftieth anniversary, other milestones in the life of LRTS have also spurred analysis. In 1981, on the occasion of LRTS's silver anniversary, Tate, who was editor at the time, looked at gender patterns of authorship, the occupations of authors (for example, academic librarians, public librarians), and the geographic distribution of all papers in terms of their source (for example, the Northeast, Southeast). She also looked at the distribution of papers submitted to LRTS over twelve-month period during 1979 and 1980. (5) Predicting the future is another way that LRTS has celebrated milestones. Williamson wrote an article in 1982, Is there catalog in your future? Access to in the year 2006. (6) The statement from this article that information seekers may be much more finely tuned to the possibilities available in accessing ... factor to which libraries and agencies of the future must inevitably respond accurately predicts our current environment. (7) Williamson's observations are timely for librarians today and were echoed across numerous programs about Google, institutional repositories, digital collections, and possible moves from local catalogs that occurred during the 2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. In 1982, Williamson concluded that: I see catalog in our future, but catalog which will not be the major focal point in gaining access to information.... [L]ibrarians must consider ways and means of developing services as opposed to providing access to specific collections or particular databases. (8) Another prediction, Horny's paper, Turns for New Century, was selected for publication in the Best of 1986 Conference issue--an issue marking thirty years of LRTS. (9) It is interesting to see how on-target some of these twenty-year-old predictions have been. …