Blogs

In the spring of 2009 I started my current job on the heels of a major reorganization of Technical Services, which was soon followed by a merging of public services and collection development. As a result of both of those large-scale reorganizations, we have demanded that staff specialize less and become generalists. In Technical Services, this means that our staff are in charge of entire processes more than working on something resembling an assembly line. In Public Services, bibliographers and reference librarians alike have become subject librarians, no longer specializing in collection development or reference, but managing a whole suite of services, each librarian
working with and on behalf of a few campus academic units.

I may have already mentioned that our library has cut dozens of positions in the two-plus years I have been working here as a librarian. Reorganizations and downsizing--in the private sector, redundant--have had profound impacts on the day-to-day work of library staff. Today, I want to focus on one process and how it has evolved in light of these changes: pre-order bibliographic searching.

I just learned that some of the links in my posts are broken. This is a formatting issue and I'm working on it. Please let me know if you come across any that need fixing.

Thanks!

In a nutshell, the first sale doctrine means that if a library in the United States buys a book, it may lend the book, give it away, or—at least according to federal law—resell it.

Libraries are in the business of sharing: We share with our patrons, we provide a nexus for researchers to share information and develop new ideas in tandem, and we share with other libraries’ patrons.

In my family, we have had a Netflix membership since 2005 and it was the best thing since sliced bread.

My fascination with approval plans developed long before my interest in becoming a librarian.

The two weeks since my vacation have been hectic. I have had little time to focus on one topic. There are 63 unread messages in my email. I’ve been in 19 meetings ranging from fiscal planning to managing e-resources, improving technical services processes, reprising a diversity climate survey for library staff and receiving a conference update from colleagues. I have been preparing for meetings ad hoc, beginning about 20 minutes before their start, if at all. I have begun analyzing data for the department’s annual report. I have worked through three lunch breaks. Some important issues have not received my adequate attention and some have.

In Part 1 of this topic, I wrote about the sudden abundance of access to out-of-print titles for sale and its impact for libraries’ gifts-in-kind program. This led to a decline in academic libraries’ investment of staff time in managing gifts-in-kind. My library accomplished this by restructuring its handling of gifts-in-kind, aligning it with its development efforts.

This is the first of two posts on changes in gifts-in-kind in libraries. This week I discuss the out-of-print market and rise of Internet technology, and the impact on library donations as a collection development tool. In two weeks I will describe how our library has adjusted to these changes and realigned gifts-in-kind with its mission.

As the flagship institution for a large state university system, our library operates in an environment of scrutiny from university auditors and journalists alike. We have diligently imposed auditing controls to demonstrate we are responsible stewards of taxpayers’ money. If your library has implemented PDA, how comfortable are your accounting staff with the fact that the vendor—-and only the vendor—-has the capability of counting uses?