Rethinking Library Technical Services

Mary Beth Weber is the Head of Central Technical Services at Rutgers University. She began at Rutgers as the Special Formats Catalog Librarian, progressed to Head of Cataloging and Metadata Services, and assumed her current role when Acquisitions and Cataloging/Metadata Services merged. The department has undergone numerous changes under her leadership, including switching the library’s primary monographs and approval vendor, instituting two patron driven acquisitions plans for e-books, establishing cross-functional virtual teams with other departments to coordinate the acquisition and cataloging of e-books and media.

The roller coaster of technology-driven change continues to challenge 21st-century librarians. Weber provides an overview of technical services and the impact electronic resources are having on this aspect of librarianship. Contributors are drawn from academic and public libraries to discuss technical services’ contributions to the profession and suggest ways in which the often behind-the-scenes staff may continue to lead the way in developing user-friendly access to a growing variety of digital resources. Collaboration, refocusing, advocacy, and ongoing professional development are recurring themes for coping with profound transitions currently underway in resource management and data curation. Interviews of six practitioners address career advice, speculation about the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard, and skills needed for technical services workers. This collection provides thoughtful, in-depth analyses of technical services, going beyond the basics provided by John Sandstrom’s and Liz Miller’s Fundamentals of Technical Services. While the climate of perpetual change may sometimes seem daunting, these experts attest to the rewards of engagement in rising to the challenge. VERDICT Recommended for administrators, technical services staff, and information technology faculty.

• IntroductionChapter 1: The Future of Traditional Technical ServicesJulie Renee Moore and James L. Weinheimer Chapter 2: The State of Technical Services TodayMary Beth Weber Chapter 3: Metadata, MARC, and MoreSylvia Hall-EllisChapter 4: Restructuring Monograph Acquisitions in Academic Libraries: Innovative Strategies for the Twenty-First CenturyMichael LuesebrinkChapter 5: The Management of Electronic Resources: An OverviewAlice CrosettoChapter 6: Research Data and Linked Data: A New Future for Technical Services?Sherry VellucciChapter 7: Skills for the Future of Technical ServicesErin E. Boyd and Elyssa GouldChapter 8: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: The End of Technical Services?: A Think Piece on the Future of Technical Services Amy Weiss Chapter 9: Interviews/feedback from the profession IndexAbout the ContributorsAbout the Editor