ALCTS Role of the Professional Librarian in Technical Services Interest Group (RPLTS)

Saturday, June 29, 2013, 10:30-11:30

Hyatt Regency McCormick, Place Jackson Park 10A

Add this event to your ALA Annual schedule: http://ala13.ala.org/node/10825

 

Please join the RPLTS Interest Group for the following two presentations:

 

Do Traditional “Technical Services” Librarians still exist in Academic Libraries?

 

Karen Rogers-Collins, Electronic Resources and Serials Librarian – Eastern Michigan University

Rhonda Fowler, Government Documents and Public Services Librarian – Eastern Michigan University

 

This presentation will discuss the new job titles/postings seen on listservs and library association sites. Today’s job posting titles and descriptions are ostentatious /flashy, but are the duties and responsibilities the same as they always have been? For example, what’s the difference between a cataloging librarian and a metadata librarian?  Has the role of the technical services librarian really changed, or has the profession just glamorized the job titles? 

 

What Technical Services? How to Manage and Adapt to BIG Change!    

 

Roy A. Ziegler, Associate Dean of Collections – Florida State University  

Ruth S. Ziegler, Authorities/Catalog Management Librarian - Florida State University

 

Even after experiencing several years of lost positions due to attrition and reassignment of staff and librarians to other divisions, when the news finally came that Technical Services didn’t exist as a library division, it still came as a surprise. In 2012, based on changing organizational priorities, Florida State University Libraries dissolved Technical Services and reset priorities for these departments and units in their new divisions. This presentation will cover organizational realities, steps in planning, the need to incorporate greater efficiencies, and ceasing activities that do not have a direct improvement on the user’s experience.  In the end, the changes have been beneficial to the entire organization.

 

Allison Yanos and Charles McElroy, RPLTS IG Co-Chairs
Betsy Appleton and Stephanie Gehring, RPLTS IG Co-Chairs Elect