Every profession has its lingo and Libraries are no differnt. Even those who have been in the field a while don't always know the meaning of a particular term, even if they know the term itself.
Thanks to AUTOCAT, I've added 3 sites to the CMRLS Cataloger's Pages under Miscellaneous Helpful Sites. They all contain definitions of Library Science terms and are very handy to have bookmarked.
I've been concerned about the fate of my pages since last fall when I learned that CMRLS was to be merged with the other 5 Regional Library Systems into one statewide Massachusetts Library System. I still don't know the ultimate destination of my pages, but for the immediate future they will be available in two different places. CMRLS will have a static website at www.cmrls.net so that CMRLS information will still be accessible until things settle down and people see what needs to be forwarded to the Mass. Library System's website.
The second place is at my delicious account. I've tagged every site Catalogers_Pages. I've also tagged each site with it's specific page name such as Cataloger's_Sites, Discussion_Lists, Professional_Organizations, Tutorials&Games, Blogs and Lighter_Side.
I have a workshop called "Must-See Sites for Tech. Services" and I've used my pages from CMRLS website to show people all of the nifty sources I've found over the years. I need to have the pages available to conduct the workshop regardless of what happens with my association with the Mass. Library System. (I should find out in the next day or two if I am one of the regional consultants "moving forward" with the "new entity".)
This is a good opportunity for me to develop my delicious skills. I'm hoping delicious allows hierarchies so that I can reconstruct my pages more like they are on the CMRLS site.
Do I sound like a cataloger?
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Technical Service is Customer Service
Last week was the Mass. Library Association's annual conference in Hyannis. All of the Tech. Services programs were held on Thursday; that is the day I was there.
The MLA/TSS Executive Board organized 4 programs. All were very different and all were full of really good information. I hope to blog about the other programs (especially about the eXtensible Catalog), but my favorite program was Improving Communication Between Technical and Public Services.
Sara Simpson is the Technical Services Manager for the Tulsa City-County Library. Tulsa is one of those large systems where the library in a town is a branch of the county library. The Tech Services functions (Acquisitions, Cataloging, Processing) are centralized in the main facility. The traditional Public Services occur in every branch. The communication project began about 8 years ago and the situation has finally gotten to the point where TS people no longer consider every PS request an interruption and PS people no longer view TS staff as people who say "no" to every request.
Lots of things happened during those 8 years including TSers working with PSers and vice versa to see what it was like to be one of "them" and PS staff being able to make some of the changes they once forwarded on to TS (and didn't get returned for a long time). Something that really struck me was the revised attitude that the staff in Public Services are the customers of Technical Services. When someone in Public Services has a request, it is not an interruption for Tech Services staff, but part of the job. That alone makes a difference.
If you have a less than wonderful relationship with the Public Services staff in your library, perhaps you should evaluate your view of PS. Do you consider the people in Public Services your customers?
The MLA/TSS Executive Board organized 4 programs. All were very different and all were full of really good information. I hope to blog about the other programs (especially about the eXtensible Catalog), but my favorite program was Improving Communication Between Technical and Public Services.
Sara Simpson is the Technical Services Manager for the Tulsa City-County Library. Tulsa is one of those large systems where the library in a town is a branch of the county library. The Tech Services functions (Acquisitions, Cataloging, Processing) are centralized in the main facility. The traditional Public Services occur in every branch. The communication project began about 8 years ago and the situation has finally gotten to the point where TS people no longer consider every PS request an interruption and PS people no longer view TS staff as people who say "no" to every request.
Lots of things happened during those 8 years including TSers working with PSers and vice versa to see what it was like to be one of "them" and PS staff being able to make some of the changes they once forwarded on to TS (and didn't get returned for a long time). Something that really struck me was the revised attitude that the staff in Public Services are the customers of Technical Services. When someone in Public Services has a request, it is not an interruption for Tech Services staff, but part of the job. That alone makes a difference.
If you have a less than wonderful relationship with the Public Services staff in your library, perhaps you should evaluate your view of PS. Do you consider the people in Public Services your customers?
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