Technical Services includes a wide range of behind the scenes duties ranging from all aspects of cataloging, serials, acquisitions, title updates, repairs, maintaining the library’s databases, and managing the organization of the collection. The easiest explanation of technical services is that if a task does not fall under public services or administration it is part of technical services. While Chapter 7 covers collection development, this chapter addresses classification options, cataloging, and collection maintenance (repairs and preservation). Security and theft control, though not technical services per se, are also considered to be a vital behind the scenes responsibility.
It is a sad reality that racist bias is inherent in cataloging standards and collection development practices. Whether racism in cataloging and collection development practices is intentional or not, Technical Service librarians can be intentional about combatting it. This article presents three antiracist projects implemented to address racism in collection development and classification. Leslie Engelson discusses the results of an effort initiated by the music faculty to determine the representation of BIPOC in the music score collection at Waterfield Library. Brinna Michael demonstrates how racist language is represented in the Library of Congress Classification schedule and her efforts at Pitts Theology Library to update call numbers. Finally, Caitlin Soma details a diversity audit of the books assigned on course reserve at Candler School of Theology to identify potential collection gaps and to encourage faculty to develop curricula that include more diverse voices.
The Columbia and Cornell University Libraries’ partnership is now in its fourth year. Its composite acronym (2CUL), which condenses a doubling of the two participating libraries’ initial letters, in itself reflects the very nature of the collaboration’s strategic purpose: a broad integration of library activities in a number of areas – including collection development, acquisitions and cataloging, e-resources and digital management, and digital preservation. In what is perhaps their boldest, most ambitious 2CUL initiative to date, the two libraries have begun planning for and have taken the first steps towards an integration of their substantial technical services operations. In this paper, the authors outline the goals of 2CUL Technical Services Integration (TSI), report on the first phase of the work, reflect on what they have learned so far in planning for this operational union, and look forward to the next steps of the project in which the two institutions will initiate incrementally the functional integration of the two divisions. The period covered in Phase 1 of TSI is September 2012-December 2013.
Although I have worked in libraries since I was in high school (which was much longer ago than I care to admit), I did not become a librarian until 2007. Why I chose to wait so long before going to library school is a story for another time. But there are some advantages to working as a student employee and then as a full-time paraprofessional in a large academic library—in my case, the University of Minnesota Libraries—before going to library school. One is that over the years I have done just about everything there is to do in a library. I have shelved books, worked in circulation, answered reference questions, done collection development, worked in technical services, shifted collections, done preservation work . . . the list goes on. As first a branch manager and now as a library administrator, the depth and breadth of my work experience in libraries has been invaluable; my work as a paraprofessional in particular has had a profound impact on how I approach librarianship in general.
What happens when an experienced subject liaison is teamed with a veteran technical services librarian? You get a slim but informative volume that details the fine points of technical services in a way that anyone can understand.The Subject Liaison’s Survival Guide to Technical Services is divided into chapters corresponding to different aspects of library technical services: “Collection Development,” “Budgets and Budgeting,” “Submitting Orders” (from the subject liaison’s perspective), “Acquisitions Ordering” (what the technical services department does with those submitted orders), “Receiving and Processing,” “Cataloging,” and “Collections Maintenance.” While the guide could be read in a single sitting, the way it is arranged also makes it useful as a reference tool. A subject liaison can consult each of the chapters as needed. Each chapter contains a section titled “Questions You Should Be Asking,” which serves as a concise summary of the most important things subject liaisons will need to know during the course of their daily duties.
Case Studies in Collection and Technical Services -- Case Study One: I am not the Expert! Or, How to Approach Doing Collection Development in a Subject in Which You Have No Expertise
