Utilizing the Technical Services Staff on a Public Service Desk

Abstract

The Governors State University Library in Illinois has a strong commitment to providing service to students, faculty and community. In an effort to provide additional public service access points, the technical services staff is being utilized at a public service desk. This article presents the results of a survey concerning the technical services employees staffing a public services desk. The practice of utilizing technical services staff to serve at a public desk (in this case, a Serials/Documents Information Desk) may become more prevalent as other university libraries contend with increasing student enrollments and stagnant, or decreasing, library staff size. The participants in this survey also provide information about the negative and positive impact this is having on job performance and morale.