Technical Services Managers Research Articles

The Renaissance Scholar of Library and Information Science: Professor Linda C. Smith

The Renaissance Scholar of Library and Information Science:Professor Linda C. Smith Anita S. Coleman (bio) and Martha Kyrillidou (bio) This collection of essays is to honor Linda C. Smith, widely recognized as a well-established and dedicated teacher and scholar at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the soul of the iSchool. Smith's contributions to library and information science (LIS) research, teaching, and higher education administration, as an award-winning professor of LIS for the past forty-five years, have been characterized by attention to interdisciplinarity, people, and information technology. From the very beginning of her graduate studies, Smith targeted key aspects of the information revolution that would come to shape our technological world. Her impact on education for the information professions as well as on generations of graduate students has been a richly complex and multithreaded story. It is thus fitting that an issue in her honor recognize and laud Professor Smith as the renaissance scholar of LIS, trace the arc of a relevant past, and reflect on a future that Smith so presciently studied. Smith's oeuvre includes her movement from pretenure basic research in a new area to the integration and transformation of that knowledge through research, teaching, and service as a distinguished and tenured professor. In her early work, Smith focused on how artificial intelligence techniques could be used to improve computerized information retrieval systems. Captured initially by the proliferation of databases and the impact they had on reference work and information behavior in libraries, she co-edited five editions of the key textbook in this area, Reference and Information Services: An Introduction. She has written one of the most highly cited articles on citation analysis (1981), which is also one of the most highly cited articles ever published in Library Trends. Among her many articles and contributions to the research and professional literature, she coedited a Festschrift in honor of her colleague Kathryn Luther Henderson, a book on technical services management (Smith and Carter 1996). Finally, she [End Page 1] has supported numerous students, both domestic and international, in pursuing their passions and achieving their goals. It was Smith's support for her PhD students that brought together the two co-editors of this special issue. Those who know Linda Smith, especially her doctoral students, are cognizant that her editorial skills are unparalleled. As coeditors, we are thankful for her willingness to read and review the contributed articles as they came in. Such meticulous, and often invisible, editorial expertise is the kind of added support that Linda has generously and diligently provided her collaborators, colleagues, students, the iSchool and the University of Illinois over the many years of her work as a researcher. This Festschrift is a testament to Linda Smith. It is done for her and with her. The articles in Linda's Festschrift represent the countless ways she has contributed to the discipline of LIS and helped to structure its evolution and growth as a field of knowledge and practice. "Library and Information Science, Interdisciplinary Perspectives" is a collection of essays based on three central themes of Smith's prodigious work: library systems, intelligent and interdisciplinary services, and information sciences education. Smith's themes were selected from her writings, such as her very first research paper, "Systematic Searching of Abstracts and Indexes in Interdisciplinary Areas," which won the 1974 ASIS Student Paper Award and was published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science. While emerging trends were her motivation, Smith's goal for her research was to build capable computer systems and save the time of researchers and information users. That goal never changed, and it led her to study the different applications of computers beyond the sciences to humanities, engineering, and medicine. In the process she also became an astute administrator and a key influencer of LIS education. The topics covered in this issue include LIS education, accreditation, teaching reference and bibliographic searching, navigating copyright, and serials modeling, concluding with admonitions for new roles in LIS in relation to data stewardship and interdisciplinarity and in relation to artificial intelligence and the responsibilities of LIS roles. Linda's Design Lynne C. Howarth and Eileen G...

Management Practice Changes in Academic Library Technical Services Departments during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about many unexpected changes for academic libraries. Technical services departments were especially disrupted due to the nature of their responsibilities and library operations. In response to these pandemic-induced changes, technical services managers were tasked with maintaining a high level of operations while also navigating sudden workforce changes including evolving job demands and employees working off-site. This study documents and analyzes the responses of technical services managers during the pandemic. Documenting these practice changes will help inform current managers looking to compare themselves to peers and future managers who may experience a similar event that causes a sudden shift in operations. Overall, managers reported a high incidence of change to their typical management practices. Managers made the biggest changes in communications and practices related to work-life balance. A significant theme emerged from the analysis that shows technical services managers adding several new practices to support and care for the mental health of employees.

Strategic Realignments: Reorganizing Technical Services and E-Resources Management. A Report from the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference, Austin, TX, March 2020

The presentation, “Strategic Realignments: Reorganizing Technical Services and E-Resources Management”, took place at the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference on March 10th, 2020. The presen...

Report of the ALCTS Technical Services Managers of Academic Libraries Interest Group Meeting. American Library Association Midwinter Conference, Philadelphia, PA, January 2020

The Technical Services Managers in Academic Libraries Interest Group (TSMALIG), chaired by Lauren DeVoe of Columbia University, met at the 2020 ALA Midwinter Conference on Saturday, January 25. Thi...

Transforming Acquisitions and Collection Services: Perspectives on Collaboration Within and Across Libraries. Michelle Flinchbaugh, Chuck Thomas, Rob Tench, Vicki Sipe, Robin Barnard Moskal, Lynda L. Aldana, and Erica A. Owusu, eds. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2019. 442p. $49.99 (ISBN 978-1-55753-845-1).

The Charleston Library Conference is one of the most venerable annual gatherings in librarianship, and one of just a handful whose focus is primarily on issues revolving around collection development. This specific monograph, which is also available electronically in an open access format, is one of at least nine titles that comprise the series Charleston Insights in Library, Archival, and Information Sciences . This volume, as indicated by the title, focuses broadly on change within two areas—Acquisitions and Collection Services—about whose inner workings many public services librarians know little. Not surprisingly, the introduction to the text states explicitly that the primary audience of the text as “library directors, technical services managers, and managers handling acquisitions and collections” (xiii). While it is true that this work relies to some extent upon the reader’s a posteriori knowledge of the world often referred to collectively as Technical Services, and that it is also true that there are variations in quality from chapter to chapter, these case studies offer useful insights to both their intended audience and all those impacted by the critical work done there.

Report of the ALCTS Technical Services Managers in Academic Libraries Interest Group Meeting. American Library Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, June 2018

Report of the ALCTS Technical Services Managers in Academic Libraries Interest Group Meeting. American Library Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, June 2018

Report of the ALCTS Technical Services Managers in Academic Libraries Interest Group Meeting. ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, June 2017

The ALCTS Technical Services Managers in Academic Libraries Interest Group (TSMALIG) meeting at ALA’s 2017 Annual Meeting had 39 attendees present. Following the format used in recent years, meetin...

Assessing Staff Alignment in Technical Services

Technical services units have routinely kept detailed monthly and annual statistics to assess productivity and efficiency, especially regarding functions that are easily measured. However, with the evolution of library user behavior, libraries’ strategic directions, and technical services’ practices, these numbers have become less and less useful in revealing the value of this work. In this paper, the authors introduce a methodology and draft model with which technical services managers can better assess not only their unit’s productivity and efficiency, but the extent to which its activities align with a library’s strategic values and the behavior of its users.

Book Review: Rethinking Technical Services: New Frameworks, New Skill Sets, New Tools, New Roles

This book, the sixth volume in a series on the twenty-first century academic library, joins other books on the present and future of technical services, including Rethinking Library Technical Services (2015) and the much older Technical Services: Today and Tomorrow (1998); it presents a mixture of theory and praxis and includes surveys of the state of the profession, case studies, and think pieces. Unlike the other two volumes mentioned, it does not have chapters specifically devoted to acquisitions or to electronic resources management; metadata creation is the only division discussed in detail. However, it does include two sections aimed at technical services managers, a demographic not often treated separately.

The Time Management Study as a Tool for New Technical Services Managers

Inexperienced technical services managers and those new to their departments or organizations have many challenges, including building rapport and trust with staff, assessing workloads, and prioritizing assignments. Additionally, middle managers of libraries are often not adequately prepared for management through formal education or on-the-job training and workshops. Time management studies are a simple tool for shedding light on work habits, time allocations, and labor expenditures. This is critical information for new managers, and can demonstrate whether priorities, assignments or workflows need to be redirected. At the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Montana libraries two librarians in middle management undertook separate time management studies to increase knowledge and improve management of their departments.

Editorial: Advocacy for Technical Services

The term when used in reference to libraries, does not immediately bring to mind technical services. In 2011, I was invited to chair the ALCTS Task Force. (1) The task force was created in response to comments made by respondents to the Reshaping membership survey, (2) suggesting that advocacy is an area that ALCTS should examine. My colleagues Erin Boyd, Eleanor Cook, Louise Ratliff, and Duncan Stewart also served on the task force. During the course of the task force's work (which included many conference calls, countless email exchanges, and reports from various meetings), I came to realize that there is indeed a need for advocacy for technical services. It can be subtle and on a small scale, and within one's library, institution, or consortium. Or it can be on a larger scale, such as within a professional organization or the profession at large. The task force hosted a successful e-forum titled Advocacy: What Does it Mean for Technical Services? in 2012. (3) A total of 208 messages from fifty-four participants were exchanged during the e-forum, which covered a variety of topics, including how participants defined advocacy and what it meant to them; elevator speeches for technical services; what ALCTS can do for individuals and our profession in terms of advocacy; and critical areas of need that ALCTS can serve through publications and documentation to enable members to meet the needs of their libraries and to facilitate collaborative problem solving. As I prepared the task force's report, I researched existing advocacy resources within the American Library Association (ALA) and its divisions. ALA provides a wealth of resources, particularly the Office for Library (OLA) (www.ala.org/offices/ola) and the Clearinghouse (www.ala.org/advocacy/ advleg/advocacyuniversity/advclearinghouse). Notably, one of the key action areas of the ALA 2015 Strategic Plan is Advocacy for Libraries and the Profession: The association actively works to increase public awareness of the crucial value of libraries and librarians, to promote state and national legislation beneficial to libraries and library users, and to supply the resources, training and support networks needed by local advocates seeking to increase support for libraries of all types. (4) ALA divisions that provide advocacy resources for members include the American Association of School Librarians, the Association of College and Research Libraries, the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations, the Association for Library Service to Children, the Library Information and Technology Association, the Public Library Association, and the Young Adult Library Services Association. It seems that technical services librarians often do not think of advocating for their work. The task force proposed the idea of backroom advocacy, which takes place at one's job, institution and community, and involves advocating for the work of technical services, not for a particular type of library or aspect of technical services. Certain aspects of technical services (collection development and management, for example) have a public component and have greater interaction with other parts of the library and user community. Catalogers sometimes interact with the public when there is a major culture change, such as RDA implementation. While all of the technical services areas represented by ALCTS affect our institutions' ability to provide services to our respective user communities, technical services librarians may lack mechanisms to advocate for their contributions. This in turn diminishes our ability to attract new librarians to the work we do and to ALCTS, and ultimately may be detrimental to technical services as a career path. …

Application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to Technical Services in Libraries

The term technical services is used in this paper to refer to the major operations that are common to all Technical Services Divisions in libraries – namely, cataloguing, classification, indexing and abstracting. These activities have many repetitive components which used to be done manually. But today the new technology has changed that trend. These major technical services operations, the application of ICT to them, the obvious advantages of ICT and the challenges are examined in this paper. Implementable recommendations are made in the areas of management of electronic resources, library school curricula, funding and training and re–training of librarians. KEYWORD Information and Communication Technology – Libraries – Technical Services Management – Electronic Resources

Fundamentals of Technical Services Management

"Fundamentals of Technical Services Management." Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services, 32(3-4), pp. 160–

We are All Winners: Training Silents to Millennials to Work as a Team

ABSTRACT In today's rapidly changing environment, technical services managers and supervisors are challenged to keep up with the latest advances in technology and standards. The serials department is always in a constant state of change, but often the personnel within the department either remains the same or decreases in number due to downsizing. As many department heads know, daily duties can change dramatically from year to year as we are asked to do more with less while embracing new technology and standards. This leads us to the question, what is the best method of teaching personnel how to use the upgraded and new software? How do you prepare your staff if the library purchases a new ILS (integrated library system) or they have to learn a new standard such as RDA (Resource Description and Access) that will affect cataloging? How do you get everyone to understand the new ERM (electronic resource management) system or an upgraded version of the library-integrated system with a new interface? In our workforce today, we are dealing with as many as four different generations, including the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X and the Millennials. In addition to generational differences, we have to consider there are also learning differences such as auditory, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic learners.

“Going with the Flow: New Realities in Technical Services and Serials Management,” Canadian Library Association 2007 Pre-conference

On May 23, 2007, approximately forty-five people attended “Going with the Flow: New Realities in Technical Services and Serials Management,” a Canadian Library Association 2007 pre-conference, held at the Delta St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. The aim of the pre-conference was to provide a forum for speakers and attendees to discuss new realities in the world of technical services and serials management. The pre-conference included a keynote address, a vendor panel, three presentations, and several roundtable discussions. Topics included new ideas about workflows, electronic resource management system (ERMS) issues, Resource Description and Access (RDA), collection budget allocation formulae, and the eight “Rs” human resources report as it relates to technical services. There were also roundtable discussions about serials, acquisitions, and cataloging. Jane Binksma (Ryerson University) convened the pre-conference and introduced speakers.

Language Proficiencies Among Catalogers and Technical Services Librarians

ABSTRACT Employers and technical services managers recognize the importance of hiring catalogers who possess reading and writing proficiencies in multiple languages. This empirical research study reveals how 289 survey respondents use languages other than English. Respondents indicated their multilingual proficiencies, the tasks for which these skills are needed, and the most frequently used languages. Findings suggest that these librarians acquire language proficiencies independently of library education and read or translate data elements for the construction and enhancement of English-language bibliographic records. The identification of catalogers who bring language proficiencies with them is essential for maximizing access to multilingual resources available locally and globally.

Revolution or Revelation? Acquisitions for the Digital Library

Libraries are responding to customer preferences for electronic research materials through the acquisition and management of these products. Electronic resources have significantly different characteristics than print resources when it comes to technical services management. This paper addresses aspects of a corporate research library's evaluation of its collection development and maintenance practices as related to electronic materials: selection, contract negotiations, orders, cataloging, access management, and staff development.

Getting Digitization Projects Done in a Medium-Sized Academic Library: A Collaborative Effort Between Technical Services, Systems, Special Collections, and Collection Management

ABSTRACT Cleveland State University Library, a medium-sized academic library serving approximately 15,000 students, is engaged in large-scale efforts to digitize and make accessible online collections of unique Cleveland-related materials. The Cleveland State University Library Special Collections digitization and cataloging efforts use staff from several different library organizational units. The collaboration of staff with specific expertise in long-standing library functions-special collections, cataloging, systems, archives, selection-to create two Web databases is described. The collaborative effort has proven effective in getting resources processed, archived, digitized, described, promoted, and made accessible in a highly efficient and effective manner. The responsibilities of the different library units involved in the digitization project are described.

Book Review: Technical Services Management, 1965-1990: A Quarter Century of Change and a Look to the Future: Festschrift for Kathryn Luther Henderson

Book Review: Technical Services Management, 1965-1990: A Quarter Century of Change and a Look to the Future: Festschrift for Kathryn Luther Henderson

Technical Services Management Problems in Small and Medium-Sized Academic Libraries in North Carolina

Technical Services Management Problems in Small and Medium-Sized Academic Libraries in North Carolina