CDL: ALA- MW - ALCTS Role of the Professional Librarian in Technical Services IG

ALCTS Role of the Professional Librarian in Technical Services IG at ALA 
Midwinter
From:
Betsy Appleton <eapplet1_at_gmu.edu>


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

Saturday, January 26, 2013, 10:30-11:30

Renaissance Seattle Hotel, Municipal Room

Add this event to your Midwinter schedule: http://alamw13.ala.org/node/9036

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

1) Impact of library-wide reorganization on Technical Services at the 
University of Notre Dame Hesburgh Libraries

Anastasia Guimaraes, Head, Metadata Services/Batchprocessing & Data 
Support units, University of Notre Dame Hesburgh Libraries
Andrea Langhurst, Head, Electronic Resources & Acquisitions Pay unit, 
University of Notre Dame Hesburgh Libraries

Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame have been 
experiencing organizational transition over a number of years -- 
starting with the departure of a long-serving Director of Libraries in 
early 2010, through transitions including introduction of a new 
University Librarian and a university-wide early retirement offering, 
and culminating in a library-wide reorganization with detailed reporting 
lines and structure just announced mid-September 2012. During this 
presentation, we would share observations on how transition and 
reorganization affected us as professional librarians and impacted areas 
of technical services such as Acquisitions, Electronic Resources, 
Cataloging & Metadata, and Licensing -- consolidating areas which had 
fallen within as many as 5 different departments over recent years into 
one large program area that now includes more than 40 library staff and 
faculty. Discussing impact on:

*Current and former roles of technical services librarians within the 
organization
*Internal communications -- integrating formerly independent departments 
to work differently as part of a larger program
*Partnership observations within the larger organization
*Staffing: new roles/new people/new tasks
*Challenges and Opportunities of leadership -- supervising professional 
and para-professional staff in a changing environment
*Approaching training opportunities in a new environment

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2)  Retooling, Reskilling, RDA

Roman S. Panchyshyn, Catalog Librarian & Assistant Professor, Kent State 
University

This presentation will focus on the transformation currently taking 
place with professional librarians in Technical Services at Kent State 
University Libraries. 1) Professional librarians have actively played a 
role in bringing certain workflow processes back into the department. We 
have taken over many of the functions that were previously done by 
systems staff, especially in the area of electronic resource cataloging, 
batch cataloging and management. Professional librarians have undergone 
an active reskilling process to help bring new skills into the 
department. This reskilling process is impacting paraprofessional staff 
as well, since more departmental resources, and budget dollars need to 
be applied to electronic resource management workflows.

  2) The role of the professional librarian as teacher is becoming more 
prominent and crucial, especially with RDA adoption and training. It is 
the professional librarian's role to establish levels of competency and 
develop procedures for both paraprofessional staff and student assistants.

  3) Kent State University Libraries is now a Tier 1 library in the 
OhioLINK consortium regarding cataloging and maintenance of 
bibliographic records in the OhioLINK central catalog; our records are 
prominently visible statewide. Professional librarians are being asked, 
more than ever, to take leadership roles in both OhioLINK and in the 
state. By assuming these leadership roles, it insures that technical 
services librarians are present "at the table" when administrative 
decisions are made, at both local and consortial levels, that impact the 
future roles of the department and its staff.


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

-- 
Betsy Appleton, MSLS
Electronic Resources Librarian
George Mason University Libraries
4400 University Drive, MSN 2FL
Fairfax, VA 22030
Phone: 703-993-3713
Email: eapplet1_at_gmu.edu