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Please join us for the meeting of the ALCTS Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group meeting at ALA Midwinter 2015.


Date: Monday, February 2

Time: 1:00-2:30 p.m.

Location: McCormick Place West, Room W176a

The Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group will be discussing best practices for streamlining workflows for technical services functions and staffing. In addition to the topics below, discussion points include adjusting workflows as staff increase their credentials and exploring efficiencies for tracking workflows with online tools.

“Taking the First Step towards Change; A Workflow Analysis of the Cataloging Functions at the University of Houston Libraries,” presented by Heylicken "Hayley" Moreno.
Institutional practices are sometimes put in place for historical reasons. Sometimes libraries do not even know why certain procedures are performed in a specific manner. With this in mind, it is important that librarians review current practices at their institutions. One of the first steps a librarian should take when analyzing their department’s functions is to perform a workflow analysis. A workflow analysis reviews procedures, identifies inefficiencies, and recommends the adoption of new practices. Performing such analysis can help streamline processes by making them more efficient and cohesive. In this presentation, participants will learn the various steps in workflow analysis and how these steps were applied to the Resource Description Unit’s workflow at the University of Houston Libraries.

“Who Catalogs What?: A Virtual Workflow for Cataloging Electronic Theses & Dissertations,” presented by Joshua Barton & Lucas Mak.
Managing in-house cataloging of electronic resources requires procedures different from existing print-based workflows. A particular challenge is the absence of any physical queue to drive the work. Michigan State University Libraries has devised a workflow for the institution’s electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) that is independent of any workflows for the ETDs’ print counterparts, leveraging automation and cataloger expertise. We will review challenges and efficiencies in the steps, which include repurposing ETD metadata supplied by ETD authors and ProQuest, programmatically creating brief records via XML/XSLT in a local Fedora repository and the local ILS, enhancing brief records in the ILS by original catalogers using Google Sheets as a real-time, virtual workflow management tool, and the uptake of cataloger-enhanced metadata into the Fedora repository.

“Linking E-Resources Management and Metadata Works,” presented by Sherab Chen.
In a recent librarians conference focusing on e-resources management, I heard the buzz words of “ERM replacing cataloging.” This raised the question of what exactly an E-Resources Metadata Librarian’s role is in providing access and enhancing discovery of e-resources provided in today’s academic libraries. In my presentation, I would like to share some of our experiments in designing a more effective workflow that chains up with Acquisition and Collection Management, and strategies on transfer staff expertise from senior to new members. I will talk about how to motivate staff for stewardship in day-to-day works and projects. And I would be most interested in exchanging ideas with colleagues from other institutions in their undertakings and thinking.

“Expanding Technicians’ Work Within and Beyond the ILS: ‘Whoever Has the Item/Information Completes the Work’,” presented by Betty Landesman.
Silos are not limited to big departments.  When I started at University of Baltimore in July 2012, the two technical services technicians did either acquisitions or copy cataloging/physical processing of new materials, but not both.  Their work was limited by system – if it wasn’t done in the ILS [for example, electronic resources management in Serials Solutions], someone else did it.  Following the principle of “whoever has the item/information completes the work”, technicians now add items to WorldCat Lists and create invoices for gifts as part of cataloging; do physical processing of materials as part of acquisitions; and maintain journal holdings in Serials Solutions and ebooks in SFX.  In addition, when the acquisitions technician left in July, the check-in and maintenance of our print journals and the entering and receiving of orders in the ILS passed to the other technician.  We are now advertising for a library technician, without functional distinction.

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Annie and Michael
Co-chairs, Technical Services Workflow Efficiency Interest Group

Annie Glerum
Head of Complex Cataloging
Florida State University
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Michael Winecoff
Associate University Librarian for Technical Services
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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