Presented By: Tahir Raza

The Effect of Digital Publishing on Technical Services in University Libraries

Abstract The past decade has brought enormous

changes in scholarly communication, leading many libraries to undertake large-scale digital publishing initiatives. However, no study has investigated how technical services departments are changing to support these new services. Using change management as a theoretical framework, the investigator uses content analysis, surveys, and interviews to analyze how libraries at the cutting edge of library-based digital publishing are utilizing their technical services departments to support these new initiatives and how these changes are being handled. The findings indicate that while many technical services departments are actively supporting library-based digital publishing to some degree, many functions traditionally provided by technical services are being handled by other units within the library.

Introduction This survey examines how technical services

departments in ARL libraries are changing to accommodate library-based digital publishing initiatives, and how they are likely to change in the near future. The results of this survey will be of use to libraries currently involved in digital publishing to compare their own integration of technical services with digital publishing to the efforts of their peers. For libraries not yet involved with digital publishing, this research will provide insight into how other libraries have integrated these new activities into their organization.

Cont…

For the purpose of this survey, “technical services” will be broadly defined as “those services involved in the acquisition or collection, preservation and organization of information in any form or medium for the purpose of eventual dissemination”.

“Digital publishing” encompasses activities including but not limited to creating and maintaining institutional repositories, digitizing of print materials, hosting open access publications, and publishing datasets.

Problem Statement

Technical services departments face both new opportunities and new challenges that how these departments are adapting to support library-based digital publishing initiatives and how university libraries manage those changes. More precisely, are technical services departments assuming new roles and responsibilities, and what is the impact on departmental operations and their organizational structures?

How To Solve These Problems

Library managers should be strategic in their hiring and training to ensure a staff that is qualified and prepared for both present and future responsibilities. Furthermore, library directors and technical services managers will be exposed to different strategies to transform technical services departments to support library-based digital publishing initiatives.

Literature Review Digital publishing is seen as a natural fit

for libraries. Wittenberg notes the need for collaboration and “the creation of new kinds of hybrid organizations and staff” to support digital publishing, but that traditional skills found within libraries including the organization, storage, preservation and delivery of information are important skills that will help position libraries at the forefront of digital publishing.

Simmons–Welburn, Donovan, and Bender state that one of the key roles for libraries will be to integrate digital publishing into their core services

Cont…..

by curating digital collections and supporting institutional repositories.

Thomas notes that the library's role is becoming less passive and more active in leveraging existing areas of library expertise, but notes a need for organizational development of non-traditional skills including “content acquisitions, editorial management, contract negotiation, marketing and subscription management”

The need for close collaboration between library units in supporting digital publishing is an important theme.

Fleming, Mering, and Wolfe note that metadata creation has become the domain of many units across libraries and that catalog librarians typically play the role of overseer or advisor to maintain metadata quality.

Theoretical Framework Lewin describes change process in libraries

undergoing a three-stage process ofunfreezing moving Refreezing Ven and Poole identified four ideal types of

change:Life-cycleEvolutionaryTeleologicalDialectical

Research Questions This study posed the following set of questions to probe

how technical services departments are changing to support digital publishing:

What are the reporting structures for technical services staff involved in digital publishing initiatives?

How do technical services departments support library-based digital publishing initiatives?

What specific roles and responsibilities are they assuming to support digital publishing initiatives?

How are they changing to accommodate digital publishing initiatives?

What strategies are managers using to change the departments to support digital publishing?

What are the generating mechanisms and event progressions for change processes in those departments transforming to accommodate digital publishing?

Procedures or ProjectsThe eight categories of digital publishing initiative within individual

libraries: institutional repository (online platform for collecting, preserving and

disseminating the output of a university) disciplinary repository (online platform for collecting, preserving and

disseminating the work of scholars in a specific discipline) hosted open access journals or books (freely available digitally-born

scholarly books and/or journals) digitized special collections (digitized copies of rare or specialized

physical collections) dataset management and preservation (online platform for collecting,

preserving and disseminating research datasets) digitized orphan or public domain works (digitized versions of physical

items that are in the public domain or qualify as orphan works) digitized university press content (digitized content published by a

university press or a “digital imprint” of the library) print-on-demand (on-demand production of bound, print books from

digitized copies).

Procedures or ProjectsThe eight tasks listed in the survey consisted of

the following: metadata and cataloging scanning and digitization loading content into an online platform technical maintenance of an online platform technical maintenance of servers or hardware working and liaising with partners outside the

library promotion and marketing formatting and editing of content

Conclusion The findings of this research call into

question whether Godden's very broad definition of technical services as “those services involved in the acquisition or collection, preservation and organization of information in any form or medium for the purpose of eventual dissemination”. Digital publishing presents new needs that, in many cases, simply cannot be met by existing technical services departments due to difficulties posed by retraining existing personnel and insufficient staffing.

Cont……

The question remains whether the change we are witnessing in technical services departments is best described by an evolutionary model where the competition for scarce resources (e.g., money and staff time) results in a fundamental change, or a life-cycle model where technical services departments are destined to gradually shrink in both size and importance.

As library directors plan for future library services and adjust library structures to best accommodate these new functions, technical services departments will be fundamentally important to the larger change process and its eventual outcomes.

Thank You