Hi Rachel:  Although I am a paraprofessional at a 2-year community college (which does not grant BA degrees)  and am therefore exempt from this study,  I would be very interested in the results. 

 

It seems to me I’ve been doing more and more of what librarians used to do.  When working with link-resolving, locating  EZ Proxy stanzas,  troubleshooting database problems and managing electronic serials,  I am often working with little information or guidance.  My work has become much more technical and also more investigative, since each publisher or provider operates so differently.

 

I am retiring in a couple of months, but if there is way keep in touch, I can be reached at  caitdown215@gmail.com .

Good luck to you in your research!

 

Caitlin Downing

Library Tech III Periodicals & ILL

 

 

 

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

My name Rachel Erb and I am a researcher from Colorado State University in the University Libraries. We are conducting a research study on library paraprofessionals who are assisting with managing electronic resources in technical services departments of academic libraries. The title of this project is: The Role of Library Paraprofessionals in Managing Electronic Resources.  I am the Principal Investigator of this project.

 

The literature has many discussions detailing diminishing print serial collections, and the need to divest of managing them in order to focus on managing electronic resources. Electronic resources are defined as subscription-­based and purchased electronic journals, electronic journal backfiles, electronic books, A&I (abstracting and indexing) databases, full text databases, digital image databases, etc. The purpose of this survey is to assess the type and levels of responsibilities assigned to paraprofessional staff to assist with managing electronic resources. During the past thirty years, the status of the paraprofessional in technical services has been discussed in the literature only germane to cataloging and classification.

 

We would like you to take an anonymous online survey. Please feel free to distribute this email to any of your colleagues. Participation will take approximately 35 minutes. Your participation in this research is voluntary. If you decide to participate in the study, you may withdraw your consent and stop participation at any time without penalty. We will not collect your name or personal identifiers. When we report and share the data to others, we will combine the data from all participants.  While there are no direct benefits to you, we hope to gain more knowledge on how paraprofessionals are assisting with managing electronic resources in academic libraries.  Library paraprofessional positions are defined as those not requiring a masters in library and information science or equivalent. Also, for the purposes of this survey, academic libraries are affiliated with bachelor’s degree ­granting colleges or universities, or masters/doctoral degree granting colleges or universities.

 

There are no known risks to participating in this survey. It is not possible to identify all potential risks in research procedures, but the researcher(s) have taken reasonable safeguards to minimize any known and potential (but unknown) risks.

To indicate your consent to participate in this research and to continue on to the survey, please click here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ERMPARA . The survey will be open until June 20, 2014.

 

If you have any questions about the research, please contact Rachel Erb at rachel.erb@colostate.edu. If you have any questions about your rights as a volunteer in this research, contact the CSU IRB, at RICRO_IRB@mail.colostate.edu

 

 

*****************************************

Rachel A. Erb

Electronic Resources Management Librarian

Colorado State University Libraries

1019 Campus Delivery

Fort Collins, CO 80523-1019

Email: Rachel.Erb@colostate.edu

Email: electronic.admin@Library.colostate.edu

 

Phone: 970-491-1855

Fax: 970-491-4611

 

 

***********************************************
* You are subscribed to the SERIALST listserv (Serials in Libraries discussion forum)
* To post a message: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
* For additional information, see SERIALST Scope, Purpose and Usage Guidelines.
***********************************************