Breakout Sessions from NETSL's Spring Conference
Technical Services in the New Millennium: Exploring the Electronic Frontier
Millennial Roles for the Serials Paraprofessional: Different or More of the Same?
Marguerite Horn (State University of New York at Albany), Barbara Figurski (Worcester, Mass. Public Library) and Karen Cook (Bowdoin College)
It was an hour filled with high-spirited discussion -- often punctuated by peals of laughter -- as the enthusiastic group of about thirty participants considered a variety of questions and shared information about the role of the serials paraprofessional. The facilitators for the discussion were Marguerite ("Maggie") Horn, Head of the Cataloging Department at the State University of New York at Albany Library, Karen Cook, Periodicals Coordinator at Bowdoin College Library, and Barbara Figurski, Copy Cataloger at the Worcester Public Library, who set the proceedings in motion and, drawing from their own experiences, frequently responded to queries and offered commentary.
Quickly assessing from a series of questions posed to the group that most participants were, in fact, library paraprofessionals working with serials, Maggie lost no time in introducing everyone to the compilation of Resources for Serials Paraprofessionals which she and Karen had created for this occasion. Offered as a supplement to information gleaned from the present session, this handout provides names and addresses of organizations, listservs, and web sites, as well as titles of publications, that concern themselves with issues of interest to library support staff, generally, or to serials support staff, in particular. Then, encouraged by the facilitators and heartened by the potential of obtaining substantial answers to long-standing concerns, members of the group eagerly began their questioning and commenting.
Sometimes the tone of the discussion surprised and delighted everyone, such as when a poll of the participants disclosed that many support staff were being afforded email access and had their own personal computers in their workplaces. So, too, it was apparent that serials paraprofessionals had or were developing the expertise to handle both the advantages and the problems that automated serials systems presented. Some had even been involved with migrating from one automated system to another and were willing to provide advice to others about the pitfalls they had encountered along the way.
Yet, it was at this juncture in the discussion that many expressed utter frustration over their inability to get enough information from vendors or professional staff about how newly-introduced automated serials systems should be approached. They voiced complaints about lack of adequate training and not being afforded the time to learn the new systems. In this, they and many other library workers seem to be standing on common ground!
Some spoke of working in a team environment, in which professional and paraprofessionals worked together to develop serials management policies and procedures. However, it was observed that frequently, even in this supposedly enlightened setting, support staff suggestions and opinions were not as highly valued as those of the professional staff. In fact, adequate recognition of the highly-skilled services performed by today's paraprofessionals was a major concern for the group, all the more so since it was noted that many paraprofessionals -- serials support staff included -- carry out duties that not too long ago were the sole province of professional library staff.
The session was fast drawing to a close when another major question (some might argue that this was the major question) sprung up: What qualifications should someone filling a support staff position in serials meet? Several agreed that the answer to this question depended on the hiring library. Sometimes a high school diploma with several years of relevant library experience was stipulated; at other times, a college degree and specific language or subject capabilities. Maggie noted that in hiring for serials cataloging paraprofessional positions, she looks for college graduates who are bright, curious, and, above all, flexible enough to deal with the constant changes in the workplace. The possession of an associate's degree in library science or a library technician's certificate was not necessarily seen as advantageous in gaining a support staff position. Rather, relevant work experience was rated much higher in importance by most.
As the participants began considering the plight of part-time support staff, time ran out. In summary, Maggie observed that the discussion highlighted the fact that on the threshold of the New Millennium serials paraprofessionals are doing many of the same things they have always done but are carrying these tasks out very differently. The implication was that this state of affairs, in which support staff, just as much as professional staff, are expected to take on the challenges of constantly changing technology, would continue well into the foreseeable future.
Reported by Carol A. Hryciw-Wing
Head of Technical Services
Rhode Island College
E-Business: The Acquisitions Department in the Electronic Age
Ann McHugo (Dartmouth College)
Ann McHugo, assisted by Pamela Goude, presented an informative session on the various aspects of the acquisition process as they are influenced by the electronic business environment. Ms. McHugo is the Acquisitions Services Librarian at Dartmouth College Library, a position she has held since 1993. She previously served as the Acting Head of Serials and as Head of Cataloging at Dartmouth. Ms. McHugo obtained her M.L.S. from Simmons College in 1979.
Ms. McHugo began by noting that e-business, or the process of acquisition of electronic resources, has not replaced old routines, but rather has supplemented them. Electronic resources include abstracting and indexing services, electronic journals, primary and secondary source databases, article delivery services, and other objects or services. Electronic resources have their strong and weak points; strong points such as linking capability, desk-top delivery, speed, and flexibility in data manipulation, afford certain economies and efficiencies. Weaknesses include archiving, data validation, licensing and technical access issues, pricing concerns and instability, and subscription management.
Ms. McHugo defined e-business as the "transformation of key business processes through Internet technologies." While all of the major modes of business communication (voice, paper, and electronic) may be employed at one time or another, the relative frequency with which each mode is employed is changing. A shift to electronic modes is occurring, with much of the shift expected to be towards e-fax, e-mail, and EDI. Benefits of e-business include cost savings, accuracy of transmission, reduction in the time needed, and currency of information. Drawbacks include cost requirements, as for special programs or system modules, systems incompatibility, start-up time and training, and objects that are "lost in space." Also, standards for e-business are not fixed.
The implications of e-business for acquisitions staffing and management include new relationships with publishers and vendors, new staffing requirements for the library (involving internal staff as well as external), new roles for the acquisitions department, and new relationships with users. Ms. McHugo noted that acquisitions librarians are more frequently negotiating directly with publishers for their products and communicating directly with the publisher's technical staff to solve problems. There is less reliance on vendors overall. Library staff relationships are changing from a linear workflow model, where each step of the process is performed by one individual, to a non-linear process, which requires team-based decision-making and action at many points in the acquisitions process. In addition, collective funding models are often employed for the more expensive and cross-disciplinary products, requiring increased internal and external communication. The customary departmental division lines are blurring. Ms. McHugo noted that it is not unusual to have a bibliographer, an acquisitions librarian, and a systems librarian working together throughout the process. She recommended the writings of Ellen Duranceau for further reading on changing work models as a result of e-products.
Ms. McHugo then described the new staffing requirements brought about by e-business. New skills required include technical knowledge and vocabulary, hardware and software expertise, awareness of licensing terms and contracts, Web research skills, knowledge of new business processes, and Web authoring skills. Acquisitions librarians need adaptability and tolerance for change. New tools that are coming into use include new vendor systems, Web sites for commercial transactions, Web sites for other business transactions (FedEx), enhancements to local processing systems, and other tools such as the Cataloger's Workstation and local databases. Ms. McHugo noted that the Acquisitions Department holds an intermediary position, dealing on the one hand with the rapid change in the commercial world, and on the other with the slower moving library culture and library operations.
New roles for acquisitions librarians include education of and communication with the rest of the other library staff regarding specifications for the use of Web products, ILL restrictions on e-products, update notifications, and information and access management, from receipt tracking to access tracking. Acquisitions also has detailed information about electronic collections, and can provide password assistance, contact referrals, and technical contact information. Negotiation and contract evaluation is another area in which acquisitions librarians can develop expertise. Dartmouth Library is forming a complete file of licenses and contracts for the library, and maintains statistical usage reports.
Finally, there is more direct contact with users by acquisitions librarians, through the provision of direct services. Public exposure is increased though the Acquisitions Department's page on the library's website, which contains a list of new electronic resources and active e-mail links. Dartmouth Library has "E-J Help", an electronic mailbox, for those users who cannot access various resources. This mailbox is monitored throughout the day by designated acquisitions staff, who troubleshoot the problems and communicate back to patrons. The Dartmouth staff uses Checkbot, developed by the systems staff to scan and test all URLs in the catalog on a weekly basis. Dead URLs are researched by the staff and resolved.
Ms. McHugo concluded the formal portion of her presentation by contemplating the future for acquisitions librarians. Having previously noted the importance of flexibility and adaptability, she quoted Wayne Gretsky (speaking on the secret of his success): "I don't skate to where the puck is. I skate to where I think the puck will be."
Following a short question and answer session, the session concluded with a warm round of applause for Ms. McHugo and Ms. Goude.
Reported by:
Pamela Kelly, M.S., Conference Intern
Southern Connecticut State University
Steven Riel (Harvard University) and David Van Hoy (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
This session was presented by Steven Riel, Senior Serials Cataloger in the CONSER Office of Harvard, and David Van Hoy, Principal Serials Cataloger at MIT. The session was primarily a workshop on cataloging standards according to the CONSER Cataloging Manual. David first reviewed the use of uniform titles in serials cataloging, and then directed the participants' attention to the Serials Cataloging Cooperating Training Program (SCCTP), with which he is involved. The program is a cooperative venture with NASIG, some OCLC regional networks and some ALA committees. Its training manuals are available through the Cataloging Distribution Service of the Library of Congress. Steven then covered the basic types of designations, providing some complex examples. Next, David discussed the cataloging of electronic serials, noting that libraries are using both the single-record approach (one record used for both print and electronic versions) and the individual record approach (a separate record for each version). He provided many examples. Steven continued with a presentation on linking relationships, including title changes and chronological vs. horizontal relationships. David concluded the workshop with a CONSER Potpourri, which included a detailed discussion of the authentication codes used in the 039 and 042 tags. An extraordinary amount of information was covered within the one-hour time slot, but the presenters were able to answer a few questions from the audience.
Reported by John DeSantis
Assistant Bibliographic Control Services Librarian
Dartmouth College
Marilyn Wood (Harvard University)
Marilyn Wood, the Information and Document Delivery Services Librarian, Harvard University, presented a thorough overview of the Digital Contents Pilot Project (DCPP) currently underway at the Widener Library.
The DCPP is a collaborative effort between the Office for Information Systems and the Widener Library to test the concept that online tables of contents pages for journals stored at the Harvard Depository, high-density storage facility located in Southboro, Massachusetts, will serve as an adequate substitute for browsing the printed journals, especially if these journals are not well-indexed in secondary sources.
This project evolved from two separate needs. The first is the need for space in the Widener Library, which has been at full capacity for some time. Long before this project was conceived, the library had begun to send seldom-used materials in a variety of media formats (books, journals, maps, videos, etc.) to the Harvard Depository. Under the DCPP, the library would begin sending whole collections of journals in specific subject areas that take up large amounts of shelf space to storage. The second is the need to provide access for researchers who are not physically at Harvard University. Prior to being sent to storage, the table of contents for each journal would be digitized to provide a browsing function accessible from the item's bibliographic record for researchers, who could than fill out an online request to have the item(s) sent to them.
There were many variables to be considered as the Digital Contents Pilot Project evolved from the original concept:
The second item on the agenda was to develop the procedures and guidelines for selecting journals to be included in the project, input the metadata, scan the material, check quality control, establish workflow and the responsibilities of specific departments for different procedures, and set an evaluation timeline. After much discussion between the DCPP staff and the involved departments the following workflow diagram was implemented:
| DCPP Project Staff | Widener Cataloging Staff |
| 1a. Select/prepare journal run | 1b. Print HOLLIS record and identify journal title to use |
| 2. Input metadata for volume | |
| 3a. Print volume report and give volume report to Imaging services | Imaging Services Staff 3b. Scan volume, clean images, ftp images to NT Server, return volume and report to DCPP project staff |
| 4. Export metadata for bound volume to NT Server | |
| 5. Perform Quality Control checking on web site for the journal | |
| 6. Release run to Harvard Depository staff | Harvard Depository Staff 6b. Update HOLLIS item records, send volumes to storage |
| 7. Add URL to 856 field in HOLLIS record |
The DCPP staff, in conjunction with collection development librarians at Widener, select the journals to be included in the project. The first subject area chosen was 19th-century European journals, beginning with French local histories, and then expanding to include German and Italian local histories. After these sections were completed, it was agreed that the project would be temporarily placed on hiatus while it was evaluated and to begin stack renovation to utilize the newly available space. Procedures already in place between the Widener Library and the Harvard Depository for the retrieval and delivery of items in storage would be utilized by the DCPP. An acceptable delivery time of 24 hours was set.
Ms. Wood then went on to state that the project is currently in this evaluation stage. She presented a recap of what has been achieved to this point, some problems that occurred, and possible changes that are being considered. Within the subject area of 19th-century European journals, 254 periodical titles have been selected as part of the Digital Contents Pilot Project. The total number of pages scanned equals 12,265. During the process the DCPP staff found many anomalies, especially in the French local histories journals. Some of the volumes have no table of contents, or else they were disassociated from the periodical. It was decided that any volumes with this type of anomaly would be maintained in the library rather than being sent to storage. Another problem arose with title changes, since there is no linking option available at this time. There were far fewer anomalies in the German and Italian periodicals, which made them easier for the DCPP staff to process. With the way the metadata system is currently set up, patrons can only search the journals by issue, and then must use the computer's scroll function. There is no subject or keyword searching. The workflow has now developed into an efficient routine, with approximately 50% of the time devoted to metadata input and 50% to scanning once a periodical title has been selected. To date there has been minimal research feedback and only a small number of requests for any of the items sent to storage, as the project is just in its early stages of implementation. However, faculty support of the project has been high and very positive.
In conclusion, the overall evaluation of the project has been positive and is considered very successful. The greatest concern at the beginning was that the scanner would damage some of the periodicals, especially the more fragile ones. This concern has proven unfounded, as no physical damage was caused to any of the volumes scanned thus far. The stack renovation phase is still ongoing. Additionally, the Widener Library is in the process of creating and implementing a new cataloging system. The digitizing aspect of the project will remain on hiatus for the foreseeable future, in order to see what impact, if any, this new system will have and make any necessary adjustments. The DCPP staff are currently considering what subject area to include in the project next, when it resumes.
Reported by:
Linda LeBlanc
Conference Intern
University of Rhode Island