Vital Technical Services in Academic Libraries

1
Vital Technical Services in Academic Libraries

• Leopoldo M. Montoya
• May 1999

2
Past, Present, and Future of Work in Library
Technical Services

• Five issues to be discussed
• access to resources, with emphasis on remote
  storage
• administration of library human resources
• the new ANSI standard for display of holdings of
  monographs and serials
• the restructured MeSH
• cataloging of computer files in disc format.

3
New Ideas on Access to Information

• Making decisions on new forms of information
• Better thinking about the future
• The individual situation at each Library

4
Is There Anything New Under the Sun?

• Philosophy of time
• Remote access to print and electronic resources
• Conservation, reproduction, digitization
• Vertical instead of horizontal thinking

5
Vertical Model for the Management of Resources

• Internet
• Library
• Storage

6
The Library

• Library operations, a process from the past to
  the immediate future
• Library property, an organism in the midst of the
  users collective mental existence
• A physical and intellectual environment to be
  kept healthy

7
Storage

• The role of the storage facility in preserving
  valuable materials
• Quantitative and qualitative criteria to deselect
  titles for storage
• Access to storage materials ensured by proper
  cataloging (or digitizing?)

8
The Vertical Model, Refined

• Management
• Internet
• Library
• Storage

9
Recent Advances in Bibliographic Control

• Vertical and horizontal thinking about
  collections
• Bibliographic control of materials in any format
  and accessible by any means
• Resource locators and records rewritten in
  markup languages

10
Provisional Conclusion

• Bibliographic Instruction and Education in
  relation to Resource Management
• The responsibility of librarians concerning both
  print and electronic resources
• Examples for the application of the vertical
  model to Resource Management

11
Personnel Administration

• Leadership distinct from management
• Team work, retraining, renewal
• Faster and faster change in libraries

12
Vertical Model for the Management of Human
Resources

• Human Resources
• Workers
• Managers
• Leaders
• Organizations History

13
The Z39.71Standard

• New ANSI standard for display of holdings
• Covers serial and nonserial resources
• To be applied to all formats, physical or
  electronic

14
More about Z39.71

• Communication of holdings data in MARC to be
  updated
• Levels of specificity for less and more complex
  materials
• Examples of compressed and itemized holdings
  statements

15
The New MeSH

• A revised structure for headings and subheadings
• Cataloging and indexing will practice in the same
  way
• Only topical subheadings distribute headings

16
More about the New MeSH

• Use of subject fields 651 and 655 for what
  previously were geographic and form subheadings
• Three alternatives offered to medical libraries
• The value of the MeSH trees

17
Cataloging of Nonaudio CDs

• Their preservation and use
• Accompanying material vs. separate bibliographic
  entities
• Notes in the bibliographic record
• LCs interim guidelines for cataloging electronic
  resources

18
Getting Technical about Nonaudio CDS

• Use of fields 007, 300, 516, and 538 for
  descriptive cataloging
• Field 006 for accompanying materials
• Networking of compact discs
• Adjustment of fields 538 and 856 for remote
  access CD

19
Our Excursion, Summarized

• From the general to the specific, or the roots to
  the branches
• Need for continuous pruning
• The prescription, Something old, new, borrowed,
  and blue
• The life of the tree of knowledge in our
  libraries and communities

20
Definitive Conclusion

• Other issues and topics need to be studied need
  for dialog, criticism, and team work
• Practice vertical thinking by way of imagination
• Examples of publications in various formats