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 • Organization’s 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 • LC’s 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