Citation for published article

McCormick, Kathaleen, White, Kristy, and Tracie Ballock. "Rightsizing Technical Services: Practical Adaptations for Rapidly Evolving LIbraries." In Innovative Library Workplaces: Transformative Human Resource Strategies, edited by Lisa Kallman Hopkins and Bridgit McCafferty, 345-360. Association of College & Research Libraries, 2024.

Document Type

Book Chapter

School

Gumberg Library

Abstract

After years of downsizing physical collections and upsizing electronic collections, the traditional technical services areas at Duquesne University’s Gumberg Library reinvented and streamlined workflows and job responsibilities. As traditional technical services functions changed or faded away, duties in support of access and management of both electronic resources and unique special collections continued to grow and change at a rapid pace. Duties that supported physical collections had to be transitioned to the access and management of electronic resources and unique digitized content. To make these electronic collections accessible, new systems and other emerging technologies were investigated, mastered, and integrated with existing systems, such as EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS); Sierra, the integrated library system (ILS); ArchivesSpace, the open-source archives information management application; CONTENTdm, the digital assess management software; and LibInsight, the library analytics tool, to mention a few. Unlike the physical collections, we found that the electronic resource life cycle required continuous monitoring. Additionally, turnover that occurred during COVID-19 increased opportunities to reevaluate positions and responsibilities. Throughout this process, we discovered that our technical services department was not dissolving but evolving.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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