Explores the future of technical services through a number of interesting surveys and research essays If there is one area of the modern-day library that has undergone radical redesign and reorganization not just once but many times in the last thirty years, it would be technical services. Shrinking budgets, new electronic formats, the internet, and technological innovations have drastically changed the size, workflows, personnel, and job duties of library technical services departments and their staff. For many technical services departments, the challenges are numerous: finding and hiring qualified cataloguers, dealing with a wide range of print and electronic formats that have grown exponentially every decade, reorganizing workflows on an almost yearly basis due to staff reductions and working through the quality vs. quantity issues, and trying to find answers for organizing and describing information in its many emanations, are only a few of the challenges. In part one, this book explores the future of technical services through a number of interesting surveys and research essays, combined with insightful opinion pieces.
Part two contains a number of fascinating case studies, the majority from academic library technical services, which focus on redesign and reorganization efforts in library technical services departments to meet and deal with the challenges of reduced staff, increased work, new electronic formats, metadata, quality vs. quantity of work, professional vs. support staff assignments, as well as a myriad of other options. The editor, Brad Eden, has been involved in technical services for over twenty years, and this book will provide food for thought, as well as practical lessons and experiences, to anyone involved in the day-to-day supervision, management, and future of a library technical services department. Explores the future of library technical services Contains fascinating case studies