[Metadatalibrarians] Exciting discussions at ALCTS Creative Ideas in Tech Services IG during ALA 2017

[Amber Billey]

*Join the discussion! Meet peers with similar issues. Think creatively
about solutions together. Join the Creative Ideas in Technical Services
Interest Group. *

We're excited to announce our ALA Annual 2017 Program of roundtable
discussions:












*Sunday, June 25, 2017 1-2:30PM at McCormick Place, W190bProviding
Textbooks for your students (Beth Bernhardt, UNC Greensboro)In the past two
years UNC Greensboro University Libraries technical services staff have be
working with the bookstore to identify textbooks that the library can
purchase as ebooks.  Many libraries across the country are doing this also,
so this roundtable discussion would look at what works and best
practices. Archivists and metadata librarians, library reorganization, and
new understandings for archival description and discovery (Ivey Glendon,
University of Virginia Library)In 2015, the University of Virginia Library
conducted an organizational restructuring resulting in greater integration
among special collections and non-special collections technical services
staff, thus matching together groups with related but unique motivations:
 careful stewardship for collections (important to the archivist) and
broader access to the widest array of materials (energizing to the metadata
librarians). This roundtable discussion will be an open discussion on
changing organizational structures, exploring overlapping skillsets among
technical services staff, and identifying opportunities for future
collaboration.  Cataloging & metadata outreach (Sarah Hovde, Folger
Shakespeare Library)Current trends (increasing prevalence of non-MARC
metadata, transitions to linked data, shrinking staff and budgets)
represent new challenges for cataloging and metadata professionals, but can
also offer interesting opportunities for collaboration and relationship
building across a library community. Outreach efforts (for instance,
lunchtime presentations, listening sessions, reading discussion groups,
social media presence, flyers, etc.) by cataloging and metadata
professionals can produce a number of outcomes: keep both users and fellow
staff members informed and engaged with technical services departments,
ensure that the time and effort of technical services staff are meeting
users' needs, encourage support for metadata activities such as ILS
upgrades, create opportunities for cross-departmental collaborations, and
above all underscore the importance and relevance of metadata and
cataloging work within an institution. The Changing Nature of
Paraprofessional Labor in Technical Services (Dejah Rubel, Ferris State
University)Technical services is changing very rapidly and tasks that were
once the sole purview of professionals, such as complex copy cataloging or
batch metadata editing, are now being assigned to para-professionals. There
are many ways this can both positively and negatively impact the
information profession, so I would like to discuss how we can positively
embrace these changes while still awarding an appropriate level of
recognition and support to these key organizational positions.  Application
of project management in Technical Services (Nastia Guimaraes, University
of Notre Dame)ALA’s LLAMA lists project management as one of its 14
Foundational Leadership and Management Competencies
(http://www.ala.org/llama/leadership-and-management-competencies
<http://www.ala.org/llama/leadership-and-management-competencies>), yet
very few librarians have official project management (PM) training or have
time to learn techniques used in the PM discipline. In addition, with the
changing nature of the work TS departments are asked to perform and with
the increasing level of cross-departmental collaboration on new
library-wide initiatives, how ready are TS to manage additional projects
more efficiently? This discussion topic will help participants examine
possible ways of implementing PM in TS areas in a more meaningful way and
offer some solutions to introducing added efficiency when running
projects. Building a better toolbox: when to create our own solutions and
when to use vendor tools? (Morag Stewart, University of Washington)The
shift to cloud computing and library service platforms (LSPs), while a
brave step for library systems technology, has not necessarily resolved
issues in technical services processing.  According to Marshall Breeding in
his 2017 library systems report, “Real progress depends on building out
these platforms to support the new areas of service emerging within each
type of library." However, the services he references may not include
ordering, receiving, and cataloging of physical materials.  What software
and other tools, library-born and otherwise, do staff turn to in order to
process, track, and catalog a diverse array of formats and materials when
the vendor system just won’t do? Crowdsourcing for technical services
projects (Regina Romano Reynolds, U.S. ISSN Center, Library of
Congress)Technical services staffs are challenged by the need to take on
new projects to bring existing collections under control and new types and
sources of resources to acquire and catalog, all with often inadequate
staffing. Crowdsourcing can help cover these gaps. The Library of Congress
Flickr project and a developing Law Library of Congress project will be
used as examples, along with some library menu transcription projects
available for online participation.  Consortial Technical Services
(Christine Dulaney, American University Library)In order to increase
efficiency and reduce redundancy, many libraries which are members of
consortia are encouraging their technical services departments to work more
collaboratively.  This type of collaboration can take many forms including
sharing expertise, sharing workloads, sharing personnel, or centralizing
technical services within a consortia. This roundtable will discuss
consortial projects which technical services departments have completed as
well as the challenges which were overcome. Are consortial technical
services projects threatening or do they create
opportunities? Data-oriented technical services in academic libraries
(Haiqing Lin, C.V. Starr East AsianUniversity of California Berkeley; Karen
Yu, University of Chicago Library)To response to the growing field of
data-driven scholarship, academic libraries have begun to develop data
collection and provide data-related services to researchers. However, how
to organize data collection in order to make those research data accessible
becomes paramount importance and presents a challenge to academic library
community, in particular, technical services community. The emerging data
collection and data-related service model are so different with traditional
library resources and services, it is impossible to simply apply existing
resources description methods to organize data collection. A new data
description and access framework and service model, data-oriented technical
service, need to be developed to meet the requirements of data-related
services. This discussion will be conceived as a brainstorming session
where participants will be able to present their idea about this new
service model at academic libraries. The discussion will be focused on
following issues,• How to describe data, including data set and single
piece of data• How to represent data combining with metadata• How to
publish data, including data sets and single piece of data• How to bring
our existing  experiences to new data-oriented services modelAbout
CITS-IG:Housed within the Association for Library Collections and Technical
Services division of ALA, the Creative Ideas in Technical Services Interest
Group was created to provide a forum to discuss issues related to the
evolution of technical services. The group is especially interested in
exploring the interdependency between departments and the ways in which
technical services affects, and is affected by, technology and publishing
trends.Roundtable discussions are small, informal group discussions
intended to give participants the opportunity to network, discuss best
practices, and share information. Table size for roundtable discussions is
capped at 10 participants per table. Discussion facilitators are
responsible for identifying and developing a topic, creating discussion
questions, and facilitating a discussion at the American Library
Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta in January 2017. If similar
proposals are submitted and accepted, facilitators may be asked to
co-facilitate. See you there!Amber Billey (CITS-IG Chair)Whitney Buccicone
(CITS-IG Vice-Chair, Incoming Chair)*