Susan

It would seem from your statement that the staff are already cross-trained,
as Michael Maiers puts it.  My suggestion is to keep with the broad based
tasks but don't restrict your staff or yourself by breakdowns of
subscriptions by title or by vendors.  Certainly the staff can specialize in
some tasks, such as cataloging, and these staff can be the first contact for
questions & problems from other areas regarding this process.

The Technical Services Branch of the Library moved to multifunctional work
teams during 1996/97 and although we are still refining some areas, overall
the change has worked out well.  Units now control the acquisition,
cataloging, processing etc. of a particular type of material (eg. O/S
Serials). Managers have a newfound flexibility and staff have found an
opportunity to learn a variety of tasks and processes rather than being
stuck within one process with limited tasks.

I am unable to find my notes regarding relevant reading material but there
are many titles which have been published in the US about multifunctional
work teams, especially in libraries.

Regards

Steve
Stephen Lacey
Manager, Serial Orders
National Library of Australia
Tel: +61 (02) 6262 1321
Fax: + 61(02) 6273 4322
e-mail: slacey@nla.gov.au

---------- Original message ----------
> From:         Susan Scheiberg[SMTP:scheiber@USC.EDU]
> Sent:         Friday, September 10, 1999 9:39 AM
> To:   SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
> Subject:      Organizational structure in serials acquisition units
>
> Dear all,
>
> We are at the stage where we need to restructure our serials acquisitions
> operation, and I am wondering if you'd be willing to share/discuss how
> your serials acquisitions units are organized.  We are a large research
> university, and I have 5 staff members (with hopefully another one added
> at some point) in my department, and each has a rather complicated array of
> responsibility, based on alphabetical breakdowns of titles (subscriptions)
> and vendors (standing orders), as well as a few things thrown in at
> random.
>  This is very complicated not only for us internally (!), but the units we
> serve are never quite sure who does what, and it is frustrating for them
> as well.  I'd be curious to see how others assign or divide up the
> work/responsibilities in their departments.  In addition, does anyone know
> of good reading on the subject?  Most of what I'm finding is too general
> for my purposes.
>
> *Thanks* in advance,
>
> Susan
>
> Susan Scheiberg
> Team Leader, Serials Acquisitions (aka Serials Librarian)
> Doheny Library G24A
> University of Southern California
> Los Angeles, CA 90089-0182
> Telephone: (213)740-7355
> FAX: (213)740-0959
> E-mail:  scheiber@usc.edu