Discover Technical Services April 29, 2010

No kittens were harmed in the making of this presentation. (It's okay, because I made a trifold handout.)

Discover Technical ServicesIt's on the third floorAlso in the basementWe've thought about changing our nameGood to have "digital" or "research"Research and Technical Services (RATS)Services, Technical and Research (STAR)Digital, Research, and Technical Services (DRATS)Digital and Research Technical Services (DARTS)Try it! CATS, CARTS, etc.

Discover Technical ServicesThe cycleIdentifying, acquiring, providing access, providing consistency, physical processing and conservation AcquisitionsCatalogingDatabase MaintenancePreservation

Discover Technical ServicesMajor activitiesSerials reviewbibliographic, order, payment, check-in, holdings Pre-inventoryitem-level data in the catalog Outside collectionsCataloging campus collections that are open for use

Discover Technical ServicesLinks and contact information TS wiki o http://libinfo.unl.edu/techser/index.php/Main_Page

Discover Technical ServicesLinks and contact information TS Project list http://libresources.unl.edu/techservices/

Discover Technical ServicesLinks and contact informationSubmit a project requesthttp://libresources.unl.edu/techservices/pages/requestSubmit a list requesthttp://libresources.unl.edu/techservices/pages/create_list_request

Discover Technical ServicesLinks and contact informationMaphttp://libinfo.unl.edu/techser/index.php/Map

Discover Technical ServicesThemesTargeted activityPartnershipTake a glad song and make it better TrackingStrengthsFinderWe're strategic maximizing achieversCollaborative problem-solving

Discover Technical ServicesLearning OrganizationTeam learningCollaborative problem-solvingPersonal masteryHigh level of experience and expertiseSystems thinkingWhole > Sum of the partsParts = Essential to the whole

Discover Technical ServicesTechnical Services Council"New TOG"Representatives from TS faculty and staff, public services, Law Library

Discover Technical ServicesCataloging optionsOCLCSkyRiverZ39.50 public domain searchMARC records from vendorsshelf-ready

Discover Technical ServicesRe-engineering"Next Generation" Technical ServicesTraining New skills and activities Workflow and service

*I want to welcome you to "Discover Technical Services." I want to thank Tom McFarland for asking us to do this. We're happy to have the opportunity to present some information about the department and its activities, so you can get to know us better. You'll have the opportunity later today to visit the department and talk with people there. We have candy, so I hope that will be an added incentive to come and visit. The things I want to talk about are practical information about how we're organized, the major activities we have, how to contact us, and so on, but also to describe the themes and principles that underlie the approach that we take. *You all may be familiar with my hero Edward Tufte, who writes and speaks on the visual display of information. Bob and I went to Minneapolis a couple of years ago to one of his seminars, and it was faaaaabulous, not least of which because the registration fee included a set of all his books, so now we have two of each! Anyway, Edward Tufte hates PowerPoint, and he very entertainingly explains why at the beginning of the seminar, and the main reason is that he finds it authoritarian: the speaker withholds and controls the flow of information. I really doubt he's cruel to animals. I'm sure it's just a metaphor. I really like the visual display of information in this slide, though: that total crap powerpoint that the speaker is showing, and then the audience is on the phone, messing with a laptop, or dead/asleep.*One of the pearls of wisdom from the Tufte seminar was the idea of making a double-sided, trifold handout when you make a presentation, so I always do that now.*Now to discovering technical services. We reside on the 3rd floor of Love, and in the basement, which is where the Preservation area is.Technical Services is a name that is still widely in use, even though it's generic, not very descriptive, kind of old-fashioned, etc. We've had lots of discussions about changing our name to something more space age and exciting, and other library departments have "digital" or "research" in their names, which make good acronyms, so we've toyed with a few of them, but maybe we'd then just have to say, "This is RATS. You know, technical services." "I'm the chair of RATS." etc.

*The work of technical services is a cycle of identifying, acquiring, and providing access to library materials. That includes identifying sources for purchasing things, and creating records that keep track of them, as well as physical processing and repair of print material, microforms, sound and video recordings, and so on.The Millennium software that we use creates records that work together to affect searching and display in the catalog, and to keep track of orders, receipts, invoices, payments, vendor information, serial holdings. etc.

The database is dynamic. We add records from various sources, and we have processes that impose consistency, including authority control for names and subjects, which brings together people, organizations, and concepts under a single authorized version of a name or term.

*In the last several years, our activity has been marked by a number of major projects or areas of focus.In 2008, we began participating in the libraries' serials review project. There was a need to cancel a large number of serials and periodicals, and many people from TS were trained to carry out the steps involved, including gathering information on pricing and subscription costs, working with order records, working with the lists that were produced, working on licensing issues, etc. There were about 20 steps to be taken, and different people had responsibility for different steps. It has turned out to be part of a larger ongoing effort to create more consistency in order records and other kinds of information. We say "serials review" because we know there's going to be another one, and we want to be ready.About 3 years ago, we began partnering with circulation on a process that I call "pre-inventory." It's called that because we purchased an inventory module from Innovative, and to use it, you have to have the entire collection barcoded. So pre-inventory is the process of going through the collection volume by volume and providing barcodes, item records, and serials holdings. In doing that, we accomplish a number of things. The first is that we make it easier to get accurate information out of Millennium about the size of the collection, and so on. The second is that we find things that have not been in the catalog for one reason or another. There has not been a record fora particular title, and the pre-inventory process idenitifies those.The LDRF project had this same effect, and the reclassification projects, such as the 900s project that was just completed does also. All these things make our database better and more complete, and exerts a set of consistent norms that improve access.

Over the years, we have cataloged a number of campus collections that are open for use by university faculty, staff, and students. These include the Women's Center, Spanish Studies Institute, Great Plains Center, Lentz Center, Kawasaki Reading Room, Confucius Center, and LGBTQ reading room. Those are all now represented in our catalog, and we have a couple of others on the horizon.

*Documentation is important, and in the olden days when three-ring notebooks were the only option, it was very difficult to keep it up-to-date and keep everyone informed. Wikis were invented to document projects, and the TS wiki has certainly been the answer to our need to record and preserve decisions, procedures, projects, etc.*A lot of the work we do is project-based in some way. Reclassification, campus collections, and many other things are projects that are requested by someone outside the deaprtment. About a year ago, TS began compiling a list of all the projects we're involved in. It turned out to be quite a list. I think this is often the way things become operationalized. You can run it out of your back pocket for a while and then suddenly it's a 7-headed monster that's going to eat everyone unless we fence it in and get it some food, etc. So the project list showed us some poor little neglected projects and gave us a way to monitor the progress on all the projects. At first it was just a wiki page, and that was great, but then we began working with CORS, and Stacy turned it into a very lovely database.*You can go to the project list and submit project requests. We used to have quarterly projects, and that worked very well for a number of years. The project database has replaced that. It's a really good tool for planning and prioritizing.

Recently we added a place to submit a "create list" request there as well. Lists and projects are closely related, and you can submit a request for either one at this link.*One reason for having this session is that TS has moved. We reorganized our 3rd floor space and got rid of a lot of giant old bookcases and other similar things. We got rid of the last of the card files and kardex files. There is a map on the wiki, and there are copies of this map hung up here and there in the department, so you can see where everyone is now. Some people didn't move, and a few moved down the way a few feet, and a few moved a little farther. You can go up there later and see what the results are. *TS has a number of themes or principles that guide our work, our prioritizing and decision-making. The first is that targeted activity gives the greatest result. Pre-inventory is an example. We rely on circ to tell us what call number ranges to start on. That can be because of shifting, LDRF transfers, etc. Recently, we changed almost a quarter of a million records in iris, to add or correct the "bcode1" element so that the format would display correctly in Encore. Those two examples show us that while starting at A and going to Z is sometimes the way to go, a better way is often to target areas of immediate greatest need and greatest payoff. Both these examples used partnership, with Circ, with CORS, etc., as a way of feeling certain about goals and priorities. We want to continue building partnerships with all areas of the library and with others on campus as well.

We can take a sad song and make it better, but I feel like what we do more often is take a song that's already good and make it even better. The processes we have are good. We just have the continual need to examine them and make them better.One important theme for this year is "tracking." That's part of the transition from back pocket to fully operationalized for some things, and it's a matter of taking a good tracking system and making it even better in others. The project database is an example of a tracking tool, and the create list request that has been added there is another. We're trying to create and use interactive tools that make it clear to everyone where something is in the process, who's working on it, when it will be finished, etc. The tracking processes include licenses, e-resources in general, list creation, I said a minute ago that we like to make good things better. That's the Gallup strength "maximizer," which a lot of people in TS have. We're also strategic and we're achievers, and that creates the potential for a lot of great collaborative problem-solving that can strengthen service and productivity.

*The StrengthsFinder has shown us the areas to build on. The Learning Organization disciplines are reflected in TS also. Team Learning is very important to us. That is a part of collaborative problem-solving, and it's also reflected in things like Millennium beta testing, and the new partnerships we have that have allowed us to learn about digitization, ContentDM, and so on, and be part of those kinds of activities.

Personal mastery is a Learning Organization discipline that is crucial for TS. We work together, but we also work independently and have to be self-motivated. That requires a high level of experience and expertise, and those are widespread in the department.

Systems thinking is the "5th discipline" that the Learning Organization book refers to. That reflects the relationship between the parts and the whole. We have to see the forest and the trees. We have to pay attention to detail, but not at the expense of the big picture. *One new tool for problem-solving and communication is Technical Services Council, which I no longer call "new TOG," although it is the replacement for TOG. It has representatives from TS faculty and staff, from public services, and from the Law Library. Meg Mering is the chair, and we will have some new members each year, so please let Meg know if you are interested in serving. Current members are Meg, myself, Rebecca Bernthal, Joy Roberts, Peg Brown, Robin McClanahan, John Wiese, Mary Lou Epp, Anita Breckbill, and Brian Striman.*This winter we have been talking about options for finding bibliographic records, given OCLC's emerging policy on the rights to use the records in the database, and given the emergence of new utilities such as SkyRiver. We had a visit from SkyRiver, and have spoken with people at the academic libraries who have left OCLC to join SkyRiver. We're looking at costs, services and features, and options such as the Z39.50 search of public domain records in library OPACs, MARC records from vendors, shelf-ready processing for some titles, and so on.*TS is involved in an ongoing process of re-engineering. We've made changes to deal with retirements, lost vacancies, and so on, and that has been continuous and going on for a long time. We've tried to understand the environment we're in and do things in a way that makes sense in a world where electronic formats are becoming the default. It's a continuous process of reinventing, conceptualizing, taking on new responsibilities, retraining, analyzing workflow, and thinking about service.

We might not change our name (unless the acronym is really awesome) but our unofficial motto (at least I think so) is "We Say Yes." That doesn't change. Everything we do is about remaining able to say yes to requests, ideas, and so on.

I'd be happy to answer any questions, and I hope to see all of you later at the open house. I want to thank the committee that planned the open house: Erik Putens, Shirley Blank, Roddy Humeniak, Peg Brown, John Wiese, Judith Wolfe, and Jim Bellman.