Rethinking Technical Services: New Frameworks, New Skill Sets, New Tools, New Roles

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Volume 6 of the series Creating the 21st-Century Academic Library is focused on academic library technical services operations, and ways that they have been transformed and reimagined for working in todays higher education environment. The literature on the place and role of technical services, technical services librarians, technical services staff, and technical services operations has expanded and grown in the last few years as decreased budgets, a focus on essential public services, and information discovery on the Internet has driven the profession to re-examine the need or importance of this back-end (or hidden) library department. Topics discussed in this book include frameworks for the networked environment, roles for metadata librarians in the areas of research data and digital initiatives, the renewed focus on the discovery of information and its place in academic libraries, the new normal in academic library technical services operations, emerging roles and opportunities for technical services managers, the re-training and re-skilling of technical services staff, hidden collections and needed or unexplored areas of expertise with technical services librarians and staff, the faceted application of subject headings (FAST) and obsolete or outdated subject terminology within Library of Congress Subject Headings, and a conversation about downsizing and moving forward within a law library technical services unit.

Reviews

Edens Rethinking Technical Services is specific and practical, and describes some interesting innovative projects. If you are reading to find out where technical services experiments are going on and might continue (without guarantees its forecasts are correct), Edens book is revealing. [This book] merit[s] a serious readers attention. * Technicalities *
Every chapter in this book...is useful and offers solid advice and tips in the practice of technical services librarianship. Each chapter ends with a thorough list of references that will be most useful to the readers. This is a very relevant and useful book that is a must-read for those librarians with a passion for technical services and it will make a valuable addition to any technical services departments collection. * Technical Services Quarterly *
The repeated evocations of a 'brave new world' in the titles of the articles may seem alarming, but the authors have more of Shakespeares Mirandas wonder than Huxleys irony; the pieces in this collection portray twenty-first century technical services as a land of opportunity rather than a dystopia.... Those interested in the evolution of metadata creation and creators should find this book useful. * Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS) *

Author Bio

Bradford Lee Eden is Dean of Library Services at Valparaiso University. Previous positions include Associate University Librarian for Technical Services and Scholarly Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Head, Web and Digitization Services, and Head, Bibliographic and Metadata Services for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries. He is editor of OCLC Systems & Services: Digital Library Perspectives International and The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances, and is on the editorial boards of Library Hi Tech and The Journal of Film Music. He has recently been named associate editor/editor-designate of Library Leadership & Management, the journal of the Library Leadership & Management Association (LLAMA) within ALA.