[DCRM-L] ALCTS-Creative Ideas in Technical Services Interest Group at ALA Midwinter 2018

[Whitney A Buccicone]

Join ALCTS Creative Ideas in Technical Services Interest Group for several exciting discussions at ALA Midwinter 2018!

Location: Colorado Convention Center, Room 201

Date and time: Saturday, February 10th - 4:30-5:30 pm

Format: Round-table discussions lead by multiple facilitators. Choose the one that interests you most. All tables will summarize their discussions and report back to the larger group at the end of the session.  We are also looking for volunteer note-takers for each of these - please e-mail either  Whitney Buccicone (bucciw at uw.edu<mailto:bucciw at uw.edu>) and Timothy Ryan Mendenhall (tmendenhall at fordham.edu<mailto:tmendenhall at fordham.edu>) if interested.


Round-table Discussion Topics:


Topic: Transforming library metadata into linked data - a new future for technical services

Presenter: Lihong Zhu, Washington State University

Summary: The rise of linked data has sparked discussion, exploration, and development around the intersection of linked data and technical services. "Right now, the information found in both library catalogs and on the web is generally human-readable and understandable, but not optimized for computer understanding. Text is put up on the web without any kind of markup to give it structural and semantic meaning. This prevents the automatic linking of one informational bit to another. Fixing that issue is the focus of the Semantic Web in general and linked data in particular." (Hastings, R. (2015). Linked data in libraries: Status and future direction. Computers in Libraries., 35, 12.)


Topic: Revitalizing the Group Dynamic - Conversations Across Departments and Institutions

Presenters: Susanne Markgren (Manhattan College) and Maureen Clements (Mercy College)

Summary: This roundtable discussion will address the benefits and challenges of building and sustaining relationships with tech services colleagues in other institutions as well as with colleagues in other departments. We will discuss the importance of harnessing a "stronger together" mantra to support and learn from one another, whether we work in a large department or in a department of one. In this discussion, we want to explore how to create and sustain successful relationships outside our own institutions and departments - through consortia, associations, discussion groups, committees, teams - and how we can create new channels of communication (both in-person and online) in order to share expertise, ideas, and innovations with like-minded librarians and staff, and to keep the conversations flowing.


Topic: Reimagining technical services for the 21st century library

Presenter: Sofia Slutskaya, Georgia Tech Library

Summary: The library of the 21st century is service-focused and adaptable to the changing expectations of users. Libraries are retooling their organizational structure, including their traditional technical services functions. The Georgia Tech library has transformed its technical services department, now called Infrastructure, in order to absorb many other "behind the scenes" functions such as patron management, archival collections processing, adding documents to the digital repository, etc. This organizational change brings up two significant questions: how to redesign existing workflows to incorporate new functions, and how to train staff to preform new functions. Georgia Tech's approach is to use a supply chain methodology, with tasks assigned according to needs and staff availability, and with everybody in the department being trained to perform every task. This multi-year endeavor has involved defining basic and advanced tasks and skills required for infrastructure staff, mapping workflows and looking for efficiencies, creating standard work documentation and posting it centrally, and engaging in an intense training and on-the-job practice effort.


Topic: Mentorship as Collaboration for Technical Services Librarians

Presenter: Laura Evans, Binghamton University

Summary: Purposeful mentoring in libraries constitutes an important factor in developing library staff roles and fostering future leaders in the field. More traditional versions of formal and informal mentoring programs are now being augmented with newer types of mentoring such as peer and virtual approaches gaining in popularity. How do mentoring programs facilitate collaboration and relationship-building for technical services librarians? Both library and association-based mentoring programs aim to build relationships between librarians, so let's discuss whether and how librarians in technical services areas can benefit in terms of cross-departmental and cross-institutional collaboration. The discussion will focus on whether the mentor/mentee relationship can be successful in breaking down silos and how to identify possible collaborative interests.


Topic: Supporting technical services staff at all levels

Presenter: Sarah Hovde, Folger Shakespeare Library

Summary: How can technical services workers ensure that all of their coworkers are supported and feel engaged with their work, regardless of experience level or professional credentials?



W. Buccicone
Special Collections Cataloging Librarian
University of Washington Libraries
Cataloging and Metadata Services
206-543-1828
Special Collections
206-543-3803

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