Association For Library Collections And Technical Services Research Articles

President’s Message: Imagination and Structure in Times of Change

A report on the work of the Steering Committee investigating the proposed merger of LITA with ALCTS (Association for Library Collections and Technical Services) and LLAMA (Library Leadership and Management Association) and the four working groups.

ALCTS President's Annual Report 2017-2018

The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), continues to provide opportunities for members to share their passion, interest, and expertise; to network; to learn and teach; to experiment with new technologies; to create new procedures, policies, and standards; and to research, publish, and create new scholarship. ALCTS members are the leaders and experts in acquisitions, cataloging and metadata, collection management, electronic and continuing resources, and preservation within the library community. This annual report includes a summary of the association’s activities for the 2017–2018 year.

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Annual Report 2016–17

For sixty years, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) has provided opportunities in education, discussion, publishing, and collaboration to the library community. A division of the American Library Association (ALA), ALCTS is the premier organization for professionals in acquisitions, collection management, cataloging and metadata, continuing resources, and preservation. Our engaged members lead the way in developing standards and best practices for creating, identifying, selecting, acquiring, organizing, managing, and preserving recorded knowledge in all formats. This annual report summarizes our activities for the 2016–17 year.

ALCTS Annual Report to ALA Council

The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association, is the premier organization for professionals in acquisitions, collection management, cataloging and metadata, continuing resources, and preservation. Comprising more than three thousand members from throughout the United States and more than forty countries, ALCTS leads the development of principles, standards, and best practices for creating, collecting, organizing, delivering, and preserving information resources in all formats.

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Annual Report 2012–13

Through education, discussion, publishing, and collaboration, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) leads in developing standards and best practices for selecting, identifying, acquiring, organizing, managing, retrieving, and preserving recorded knowledge. In the dynamic library environment, ALCTS’s mission is ambitious. Maintaining effectiveness in its pursuit requires flexibility, creativity, persistence, and an organizational culture of continuing revitalization. ALCTS members’ activities this year demonstrate that brave inventiveness. Below is a summary, arranged under the four Critical Issues Areas identified in ALCTS’s innovative strategic plan.

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Continuing Resources (CRS) Holdings Information Committee/CRS Cataloging Committee Joint Forum (January 26, 2013, Seattle, WA)

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Continuing Resources (CRS) Holdings Information Committee/CRS Cataloging Committee Joint Forum (January 26, 2013, Seattle, WA)

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Annual Report 2011–12

Each year serves as a foundation for future Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) activities, and this was no less tree in 2011-12. ALCTS continued to make progress on several fronts and forged new ground as well. The implementation of an innovative strategic plan to guide ALCTS, effective use of task forces to address significant issues, and creative efforts to broaden virtual participation were among the steps taken during the year to strengthen and energize the association. Strategic Plan At the 2011 American Library Association Annual Conference, the ALCTS board approved a new kind of strategic plan, one that is flexible and focused on critical issues. The Planning Committee, chaired by Norm Medeiros, collaborated across the division to track progress this year and monitor new areas of interest. The current target areas include (1) explaining what we are about and what we do; (2) improving how we operate; (3) sustaining ALCTS as a vibrant, relevant organization; and (4) supporting standards development, implementation, and dissemination. At each Annual Conference, the board will review the plan and adapt it to meet changing needs. The Collections Task Force, chaired by Mary Beth Thomson, made great strides in its first year toward carrying out its charge to examine how ALCTS can complement the ALA Strategic Plan 2011-2015 goal to provide leadership in the transformation of libraries and library services in a dynamic and increasingly digital information environment. (1) To this end, the task force launched a micro-grant program to support and encourage innovative practices, emerging technologies, and innovation in collections. Two micro-grants up to $1,500 will be funded annually for small projects or research initiatives in support of transforming collections. Transforming Collections, a program at the 2012 Annual Conference sponsored by the task force, fostered stimulating discussion about advances affecting library collections. In relation to ALAs 2011-2015 Strategic Plan goal area about advocacy, the ALCTS board formed the Advocacy Task Force in fall 2011, chaired by Mary, Beth Weber, to look at what advocacy means within the context of ALCTS. ALCTS' liaisons to the ALA Advocacy Coordinating Group and the ALA Legislative Assembly are among the task force members. The task force will define ALCTS' role in advocacy and recommend what steps, if any, ALCTS should take to enhance its advocacy efforts. Education ALCTS excelled in its continuing education and program offerings this year. With 3,000 subscribers, ALCTS's monthly e-forums attracted a broad range of practitioners to discuss topics as diverse as data management, telecommuting, and discovery tools. ALCTS's web courses continued to be of great interest, at times sold out. More than thirty webinars, 25 percent dealing with RDA, were presented during the year to sizeable audiences. (2) ALCTS held a five-day Virtual Midwinter Symposium, two three-day Virtual Annual preconferences, an in-person symposium at the 2012 ALA Midwinter Meeting, and two in-person preconferences at the 9.012 ALA Annual Conference. ALCTS; sections and interest groups coordinated a wide variety of conference forums and programs. The ALCTS/Association of College and Research Libraries Joint President's Program featuring Duane Bray, Head of IDEO Global Digital Business, was an excellent example of cross-divisional collaboration. This remarkable track record is a reflection of much hard work on the part of ALCTS' sections, interest groups, and committees, especially the Continuing Education Committee and Program Committee, and, of course, the ALCTS office. The Task Force to Convene a Meeting with Library Educators, co-chaired by Tony Olson and Heather Moulaison, successfully completed its charge to plan and convene a meeting with library and information science educators and ALCTS members to discuss education for bibliographic control. …

2011 American Library Association Conference

The 2011 American Library Association conference took place June 23–28 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. This report summarizes several programs and forums including the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Continuing Resources Section, Electronic Resources Interest Group program; Holdings Forum: Universal and Repurposed Holdings Information: Emerging Initiatives and Projects; the RDA Update Forum; and the Continuing Resources Cataloging Committee Update Forum.

2011 American Library Association Conference

The 2011 American Library Association conference took place June 23–28 at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. This report summarizes several programs and forums including the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Continuing Resources Section, Electronic Resources Interest Group program; Holdings Forum: Universal and Repurposed Holdings Information: Emerging Initiatives and Projects; the RDA Update Forum; and the Continuing Resources Cataloging Committee Update Forum.

The Network is the Format: PDF and the Long-term Use of Digital Content

The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) defines the goal of digital preservation as “the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time.” To that end, the preservation community has delineated a set of possible approaches (migration, emulation, digital archaeology) to ensure fidelity in rendering, and has developed converging lists of recommended formats for different uses (text, still image, sound, moving image, etc.).Featuring prominently in many such lists is the PDF family of formats. Although it is a commercially developed format, it is widely seen as meeting many of the requirements deemed critical to reducing risk to the long-term viability of a format: it is in wide-spread use; there are many implementations, some of them open-source, of viewer applications; there is a publicly available specification of the format, control of which has been ceded to a public standards body (ISO). Further, there is ongoing work, under the ISO umbrella, to develop an “archiving” profile of PDF (ISO-190005), intended “to define a file format based on PDF, known as PDF/A, which provides a mechanism for representing electronic documents in a manner that preserves their static visual appearance over time, independent of the tools and systems used for creating, storing or rendering the files.”It is the thesis of this paper that these attributes of PDF, the admirable move by Adobe to place the specification of the format under non-commercial control, and even the developing of specifications for an archiving profile of the format, while necessary, are an insufficient warrant for the long-term usability of PDF instances. Further, the reasons why this is so clarify our understanding of what is required fully to characterize a file format. These reasons suggest that the current direction of the development of the PDF/A archiving profile may, ironically, constitute a significant departure from the warranties implicit in terming PDF/A an archival format. These reasons suggest that we not only must characterize a format instance, we must also characterize format renderers. They suggest that such anatomies of the “rendition stack” are important, not just for those who contemplate a strategy of emulation for re-enacting the original experience of an object's rendition, but also for the as-yet unanticipated uses, beyond “fidelity in rendering”, of the digital objects we preserve. They put in relief the challenges of encapsulation, or even multiple possible encapsulations, of a sufficient sub-graph of the network of information about a digital object, for effective future use.

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Annual Report 2010–11

This was a productive year for the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), with some outstanding offerings in continuing education that energized and engaged the membership. Second Annual Preservation Week April 24-30, 2011, was the second annual Preservation Week, sponsored by ALCTS in cooperation with the Library of Congress and the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Preservation Week aims primarily to advocate for preserving the cultural heritage of families and individuals, thus helping to preserve the nation's cultural heritage. More than one hundred libraries (up from seventy the first year) contributed their events to the Preservation Week website (www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/preswk), and more than 1,800 people attended the free webinars on selecting and preserving digital memories, protecting and saving family treasures, and protecting future access. These webinar recordings continue to be available free on the ALCTS webinar site (www .ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar). The third annual Preservation Week will be held April 22-29, 2012. Continuing Education The ALCTS webinars have been extremely popular. Twenty-nine webinars on a wide variety of topics, including Resource Discovery and Access (RDA), institutional repositories, intellectual property issues, collection management, weeding, copyright, electronic resources, and linked library data, were held this year, with more than 4,000 attendees. ALCTS continues to offer four online web courses throughout the year, which also have been well-attended. Most popular by far have been the ALCTS e-forums, held about once per month. These two-day online chats with defined topics are free and open to all. They have attracted participation from both members and nonmembers and covered topics such as job hunting, patron-driven acquisitions, digital preservation, and cataloging research. This model for engaging the library community in discussions has now been emulated by our colleagues in the United Kingdom, who initiated their own Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Cataloging Interest Group (CIG) e-forum to discuss RDA after consulting with the ALCTS e-forum coordinator. ALCTS Serials: Library Resources and Technical Services and ALCTS Newsletter Online ALCTS' peer reviewed journal, Library Resources and Technical Services (LRTS), is making strides toward becoming available electronically. We hope to announce its availability to members in the fall. Peggy Johnson continues as editor. The ALCTS Newsletter Online (ANO) is issued quarterly to provide news to the ALCTS membership. Mary Beth Weber completed her two terms (six years) as editor in June 2011. Division Reorganization The results of last year's member survey on reshaping the division structure were examined by a task group, which recommended moving forward with incremental steps rather than drastic changes. The steps taken this year include reorganization and streamlining the Collection Management and Development Section (CMDS), which became the Collection Management Section (CMS) in June 2011. The Council on Regional Groups disbanded and reformed as the ALCTS Affiliate Relations Committee effective July 2011. The Cataloging and Classification Section (CCS) became the Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS) at the same time. Dale Swensen accepted appointment as the first ALCTS Interest Group Coordinator for a three-year term. …

Results of the CRCC Informal RDA Testing Task Force

This article summarizes the informal Resource Description and Access (RDA) testing done by twenty-five continuing resources catalogers under the auspices of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Continuing Resources Section's Continuing Resources Cataloging Committee.

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Annual Report 2009–10

This year's primary goal of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) has been Creating Our Future as we have continued our focus on reshaping the organization to meet the needs of those working in the rap icily changing fields of technical services, collections, and preservation. At both the division and section levels, we have sought to decrease the barriers to performance and increase the opportunities for participation. Our effort is all the more urgent in the face of economic challenges that demand we provide products and services of significant value to attract and retain members. While this is an ongoing task, we have made significant strides in a number of areas this year. Reshaping Our Organization Member input gathered over the last several years through surveys, focus groups, and discussions led the ALCTS executive committee to conclude we need to reshape our organization. Our members expressed the following concerns: * ALCTS no longer reflects the diversity of job functions performed by those employed in collections and technical services. * Members are frustrated by competing and overlapping programming. * Processes are slow and not always clear in part because of redundancy in governance. The executive committee, with input from the board, worked this year to construct alternative organizational scenarios that we have now shared with the entire membership for comment. In developing the scenarios, we were looking at options to achieve the following goals: * Members must be able to find a community of colleagues doing the same work or with similar interests. * The structure and processes must be transparent. * The structure must be flexible enough to respond quickly to emerging trends. * The organization must provide opportunities for service and leadership. We look forward to reviewing the feedback from the member survey and from the animated discussions at the 2010 ALA Annual Conference and plan to present a refined plan for a member vote sometime next year. Bylaws Changes In the meantime, the division undertook a process to revise its bylaws so future changes resulting from reorganization would not be slowed by outdated and ambiguous documentation. While the Organization and Bylaws Committee accomplished most of its work in 2008-9 under the leadership of Dale Swensen, the bylaws were put to a membership vote in fall 2009. The new bylaws passed with an overwhelmingly positive vote. Expanding Continuing Education While working toward a reorganization of the division, the executive committee recognized a need and an opportunity to address continuing-education issues. In-person workshops were no longer drawing an audience unless attached to a conference, members were expressing concerns about travel support from their institutions, and the multilayered education committee structure of the division and sections slowed the move of new ideas and products to market. We decided that a change to the education committee structure could move forward before changing the entire organization and might serve as a model for streamlining other product-driven committees, such as the publication committees. To this end, the ALCTS board approved the dissolution of the ALCTS Education Committee and the creation of a new Continuing Education (CE) Committee that began work in summer 2009. Chaired by Pamela Bluh, this committee has quickly coordinated a robust program of Web courses and webinars that complement programming at conferences. Web courses, offered by ALCTS for several years now, continue to be popular. These four-week modules cover acquisitions, electronic resource acquisitions, collection development and management, and new this year, preservation. Under development are courses in collections assessment, cataloging, and serials. With the energetic shepherding of CE members, sixteen webinars were offered this year, almost tripling the number presented last year. …

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Annual Report 2008–9

This year was full of accomplishments new initiatives, and the start of a thorough review of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) organizational structure. The effect of the current global economy has been far-reaching and has affected members, their libraries and organizations, membership renewals, division participation, conference attendance, and the operation and financial management of the division. Data Gathering The survey of the membership conducted in 2007-8, based on The 7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don't, continued to provide valuable insight into member needs, concerns, perceptions, and expectations. (1) Additional analysis, including the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) study titled Changing PARS Discussion/Interest Group Structure and the Committee review of members in public libraries provided additional useful information. The Membership Research Study, conducted by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Research and Statistics also revealed demographic and employment data. Communication Increasing and improving communication with and between the membership and implementing new modes of communication were accomplished. The Newsletter Online and a rejuvenated ALCTS@aGlance featured conference and meeting previews as well as reports, news, and announcements of education opportunities. An assortment of discussion lists enabled members to examine topics ranging from digital preservation to the future of subject headings. The E-forum, which debuted in May 2008, has attracted more than nine hundred subscribers for lively discussions on subjects including disaster preparedness, coping with shrinking resources, and national cataloging standards versus local policies. The ALA Connect introduction, in spring 2009, offers another communication tool that members will find very useful for sharing documents and information. 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference Forums during the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver attracted large audiences listening to experts discuss a variety of hot topics. Particularly noteworthy were RDA [Resource Description and Access] Update Forum and Who's at the Wheel? What We've Learned About Patron-Driven Collection Development. Creating and Sustaining Communities around Shared Library Data, a forum that focused on OCLC's proposed change to its record use policy, drew more than 150 attendees. The 2009 Annual Conference in Chicago featured an excellent schedule of events. ALCTS 101 Primer: We Are, What We Do, and How You Fit provided new members with an overview of the opportunities the division offers. Programs included Leadership Development in Transition: Steering the Ship from the Helm and Deck, Swingin' with the Pendulum: Facing Cancellations in the Age of E-Journal Packages, and the President's program, Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage, featuring James Cuno, president and Eloise W. Martin director, from the Art Institute of Chicago. The recipient of the 2009 Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award, Cindy Hepfer, was recognized at the awards ceremony for her exceptional service to and to the library profession at-large, as a library leader, educator, author, scholar, and mentor. Library Resources and Technical Services The division's highly respected peer-reviewed journal, Library Resources and Technical Services (LRTS), adds to its deserved reputation for quality articles under the leadership of Editor Peggy Johnson. The LRTS article Approaches to Selection, Access, and Collection Development in the Web World: A Case Study with Fugitive Literature, by Karen Schmidt, Wendy Allen Shelburne, and David Steven Vess, won the 2009 Blackwell's Scholarship Award and the 2009 Best of LRTS Award. (2) LRTS has seen slowly declining subscriptions over the last several years. …

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Annual Report 2007–08

past year has been one of contrasts. nostalgia and excitement of the fiftieth anniversary celebration in the summer of 2007 was followed by period of tranquility throughout the fall and winter, culminating in renewed energy and enthusiasm in the spring of 2008. Future of Bibliographic Control Throughout 2007-08, attention was focused on activities related to the Library of Congress Working Group (LCWG) on the Future of Bibliographic Control, particularly drafting testimony for the working group's public hearings and preparing a detailed response to the final report On the Record on behalf of the American Library Association (ALA). In the spring of 2008, a task group appointed by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) board analyzed the recommendations in the Working Group's report and identified and prioritized those recommendations that ALCTS is best suited to address. (1) A second task group will continue the work by overseeing the implementation of these recommendations in the coming year. Non-English Access A steering committee appointed to oversee the implementation of recommendations made by the Task Force on Non-English Access began its work in the summer of 2007. work is complex and time-consuming and requires collaboration and consultation with numerous groups within ALCTS as well as in the information community at large. An implementation plan developed by the committee provides structure and focus and has helped clarify the committee's role within the community. An electronic discussion list (NonEnglish@ala.org), initially designed to facilitate discussion among steering committee members, is now open to the entire library community and has greatly enhanced the committee's visibility. Organizational Effectiveness The role of libraries is certainly in a state of transformation ... [as is] the change in library user expectations. (2) Recognizing the validity of this statement, the ALCTS Board of Directors surveyed the membership using 7 Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don't. (3) Response was outstanding and revealed that the members consider ALCTS to be a remarkably successful organization. survey pointed out, however, that improvements in the areas of communication, effective utilization of data, and organizational adaptability are highly desirable. To address the concerns that were voiced about communication, an electronic discussion forum (alcts-eforum@ ala.org) was launched to give members and nonmembers a vehicle where topics of immediate interest could be discussed for brief periods of time. inaugural discussion, on communication, attracted 112 subscribers and indicated very clearly that perceptions about the suitability and effectiveness of the association's communication channels differ widely and there is a definite need for different forms of communication depending on the audience. Nearly two hundred subscribers have registered for the e-forum and a second discussion on the use of vendor~~~~- and publisher-supplied cataloging records generated enthusiastic responses. New discussion topics will be featured on a regular basis and will be announced in advance. After a careful review of the association's organizational structure, the Organization and Bylaws Committee submitted a ballot proposal to convert all discussion groups to interest groups. proposal was approved by an overwhelming margin, a clear indication that ALCTS members are eager to support changes that will create a more nimble organization where emerging issues and changing industry conditions can be addressed spontaneously. Legislative Affairs Throughout 2007-08, ALCTS was invited to comment on a variety of matters of national significance, ranging from the ALA Preservation Policy to increased funding for cataloging at the Library of Congress to support for shared regional depositories. …

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

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. …

The ALCTS Networked Resources and Metadata Committee: setting course in a sea of change

This article describes the work of the Networked Resources and Metadata Committee (NRMC), a committee within ALA’s Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS). The article discusses NRMC’s history, initiatives, and program highlights, gleaned from an interview held with the present and past chairs of the committee. Numerous details about NRMC’s role within the larger metadata community are shared, as are future directions for the committee.

ALCTS Acquisitions Section Preconference, American Library Association Annual Meeting, June 1999 “Advancing Acquisitions: Services, Standards, and Skills”

More than 100 participants gathered for the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Acquisitions Section preconference on the Business of Acquisitions in the Morial Conve...