“Redesigning Technical Services for the 21st Century Library” was held during the 2017 ALA Annual Conference on June 24. It was co-sponsored by the ALCTS Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group and the Technical Services Managers in Academic Libraries Interest Group.
The University of Alabama had a rapidly growing student population and a healthy library budget in the early 2000s. Still, the University Libraries found itself in a position that many similar institutions have – they wanted to bring their collections and workflows into the digital age. Millie Jackson (Associate Dean for Collections) and Michael Arthur (Department Head for Resource Acquisition and Discovery) presented on how the University Libraries redesigned their technical services to achieve this goal.
User expectations were at the core of the redesign. Therefore, the focus was on outreach, the liaison program, improved stewardship, enhanced discovery, improved access, and faster delivery to students and faculty. In preparation, they performed a workflow analysis of their operations. The workflow analysis was looking to identify inefficient operations, single points of failure, and training needs. They charted current workflows and included everyone in discussions to get feedback. Arthur cautioned about the dangers of workflow analysis. Problems could be found, there might be resistance to change, and people could be reluctant to speak out.
The Libraries merged three units (Cataloging, Acquisitions, and Electronic Resources) into a new unit called Resource, Acquisitions & Discovery in an effort to remove workflow silos. This unit had one department head. Additional improvements were: developing a new fund structure, moving their approval plan profile from YBP to GOBI, starting shelf ready processing, and blending duties across existing positions. They eventually began a demand driven acquisitions (DDA) program.
The Libraries also reevaluated their liaison program. The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Immersion Program came to campus to work with re-envisioning the liaison program. Now liaisons engage in more outreach. They teach people about what the library has, and they seek out gaps in resources.
Jackson and Arthur gave several key takeaways from this process. They felt that reorganization and analysis is critical in any change, and that changes should be connected to new strategic directions. The analysis highlighted strengths and identified inefficiencies. It is important to build support for change among the staff and to empower staff at all levels. Space will need to be reconfigured. Additional suggestions for positive change were: use open positions to focus on new initiatives, explore ways to work with vendors to make operations more efficient (such as DDA), follow-up with regular department meetings, and create new policies and procedures.
Many of the goals of the redesign were met, including a reduction in legacy materials. Future plans include: improved discovery, streamlining the gathering and reporting of usage data, continuing to monitor DDA, finding balance between selection and auto purchases, and continuing to review procedures and priorities.
