Innovative Roles for Technical Services Librarians: Extending Our Reach

Gregory, Joan; Weber, Alice; Dippie, Shona R.

doi:10.1080/07317130802128064

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Our coteaching experience has created "new opportunities for collaboration and new ideas for improving services" (Gregory, Weber & Dippie, 2008). The partnership has opened up other scholarly and creative possibilities for us to consider that we never imagined.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing the information literacy classroom experience

McCallum

Collins

2011

Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services

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This article examines the collaborative teaching approaches between a cataloger and reference librarian. It discusses the role of instruction in liaison and collection development work, skills required to teach information literacy classes, and reviews case studies that inform the question of what skills and roles these two fields of librarianship contribute to information literacy instruction. Case studies describe the cooperative teaching partnership, examine each librarian's contribution to the collaborative effort, and discuss the benefits of partnering with other colleagues. Moreover, this study suggests liaison duties that include collection development responsibilities are enhanced by participating in instructional activities for assigned academic departments.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing the information literacy classroom experience

McCallum

Collins

2011

Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services

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“…In a survey on managing digital collections, Bishoff and Smith (2015) found that digital library programs are fundamentally challenged by the lack funding, expertise, administrative support and knowledge on how or where to start building such a program. This is a common theme among library literature where “shoestring” budgets, repurposed librarian responsibilities and digital pilot projects undergo trial and error approaches (Boyd and Creighton, 2006; Gregory et al , 2008; Mindel and Russell, 2014; Woodley, 2002).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reasons for this include unmotivated or lacking stakeholders and development matters including “copyright issues, technology complexities, infrastructure threats, diverse publication types, multiplicity of digital object formats and above all the publishers’ stringent policies and monopolies (p. 383)”. Cross-department teams at the University of Utah Health Science Library developed workflow procedures to combat such sustainable management challenges (Gregory et al , 2008). This library was particularly concerned with how to manage its institutional repository (IR).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative management strategies for building and sustaining a digital initiatives department with limited resources

Miller

2018

DLP

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer and explore innovative strategies for building and sustaining digital initiatives at information organizations. Although the examples provided are based on case studies at an academic library, the practices are rooted in project management principles and therefore applicable to all library types, museums, archives and other information organizations. The innovative strategies on staffing and funding will be particularly useful to organizations faced with monetary and staffing shortages and highlights collaborative management practices. Design/methodology/approach Concept of strategic and collaborative management practices led by an experienced project manager cross-trained in management, technical and soft skills enables the successful development and sustainability of digital initiatives. A cross-trained librarian’s management practices of leading the Digital Scholarship Initiatives at a particular university will be examined as a case study and aided with literature supporting the need for digital initiatives leaders to have training beyond the credentials of librarian, curator, archivist or historian in the technologically savvy twenty-first century ecology of information centers. Findings The innovative strategies implemented in the case study yielded increases in the number of hours of digital lab usage, digital projects developed, seminars or workshops presented, attendance of library hosted events, number of programs implemented and awareness on campus, all with limited staff and funding. The variety and level of production and marketing is instrumental to the growth and sustainability of digital initiatives. Practical implications The innovative strategies emphasized in this paper use the concept of borrowed or shared time to start staffing needs and is particularly helpful to organizations that do not have a strong line of dedicated staffing or funding to begin building digital initiatives. Offers small ways to start immediately while setting the stage to plan for big ideas for the future. Originality/value This paper suggests a credentialed information expert, such as a librarian, archivist or curator, that is, also cross-trained in project management and technology is the key to not only successfully leading digital initiatives but is instrumental for its sustainability and the marketing, growth and future of digital initiatives.

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“…Professional library organizations such as the American Library Association (ALA) ( 2008), the Special Libraries Association, and the Medical Library Association (MLA) ( 2007) have identified and defined groups of major professional and personal skills applicable both to librarianship in general (Jones, 2003) and to more narrowly focused specialties such as reference (American Library Association, n.d.; Digital Reference Education Initiative, 2004; Munson and Walton, 2004), VR (Luo, 2007(Luo, , 2008Tu, 2007), instruction (Botts and Emmons, 2002;Peacock, 2001;Robinson et al, 2005), cataloging (Glasser, 2007;Gregory et al, 2008;Hsieh-Lee, 2008), and acquisitions (Diedrichs, 1998;Fisher, 2001). These skill sets are also referred to as competencies, with competency defined as "a generic knowledge, skill, or attitude of a person that is causally related to effective behavior as demonstrated through external performance criteria" (Griffiths and King, 1986).…”

Section: Core Competenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

E‐resource helpdesk into virtual reference: identifying core competencies

Resnick

Ugaz²,

Burford³

2010

Reference Services Review

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to determine core competencies, for use as a foundation for staffing and training, and necessary to provide effective electronic resource (ER) access support. Design/methodology/approach -The authors analyzed 580 ER access problem reports in a large academic library system to measure the specific skill(s) required for effective problem resolution. Problem reports were drawn equally from two different reporting systems: one using web forms and e-mail and the other featuring real-time user interaction. Findings -Abilities fostered in reference work related to communication with users, staff, and vendors were by far the most crucial and highly used in successful problem solving, followed by the knowledge to make appropriate referrals within the organization. Research limitations/implications -Results reported are from one institution, albeit one which serves a very large user population with diverse information needs which provided a broad range of users and problem types. Practical implications -Staffing for an access support service should draw upon employees whose skill set includes assisting users with more traditional information access, such as reference, as well as employees with expertise in areas such as licensing. Originality/value -Resolving user-reported online access issues is a mission-critical library service function. The paper offers an objective demonstration that the skills leading to success in access support are the same communication skills valued in reference services and that the mechanism used for providing a virtual reference service can also be used for handling user-access problems. Identifying and ranking these skills provides structure and best practice standards for continuous training and staff assessment.

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Innovative Roles for Technical Services Librarians: Extending Our Reach

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Enhancing the information literacy classroom experience

Enhancing the information literacy classroom experience

Innovative management strategies for building and sustaining a digital initiatives department with limited resources

E‐resource helpdesk into virtual reference: identifying core competencies

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