Technical Services and the Internet

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Technical Services and the Internet

• James Seamans
• Presented at
• The University of Cincinnati
• Langsam Library
• April 12, 2004

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Key effects

• Context in which we do our jobs
• Quality of the work we produce
• Catalyst for innovation and challenge
• Financial effects

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What Has Happened Briefly Looking Back on
Technical Services
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The 1960s

• Beginning of the application of computers and
  automation in libraries
• Development of MARC
• Formation of catalogs and databases
• Technology beginning to take hold on culture-wide
  level
• Services and use still centralized
• Print and hierarchical model still dominant

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1970s

• Time of cooperative achievements in libraries
• CIP OCLC CONSER
• Services are still centralized and provided by
  librarians, if offered at all
• Users, except academics and research facilities,
  are still entrenched in print

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1980s

• Automation moves into the work environment
• New skills being demanded - 1st generation of
  computer systems arrive increase in work
• User behavior begins to shift computers
  prevalent in their lives and institutions
• Microcomputer revolution
• the Internet makes its appearance

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1990s

• Rapid changes in systems, technology, and vendor
  developments
• Meeting challenges creatively
• Practical and financial expansion of consortia
  and networking agreements
• E-commerce emerges
• THE Internet began to provide services
• Users coming to us with mixed computer and
  Internet skills younger users becoming more
  sophisticated

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Where We Are Now
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Financial effects

• Spiraling costs of services, resources, and tools
• Impact on library budgets are often catalyst for
  decisions
• Economic changes manifest themselves in the
  context of our jobs
• Finances often determine training and shifts in
  duties
• We become good at working within problematic
  frameworks

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Context of Our Work the Netcentric Environment

• Circumstances and daily routines have changed as
  well as the nature of our institutions
• Adjusting, adapting and accommodating new
  techniques and skills
• New models and organizational structures balanced
  against traditional
• Nature of collections and formats force need for
  changes
• Competition from private vendors and dot.coms
• Internet has brought an overwhelming amount of
  tasks to technical services

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Quality of the Work We Produce

• Essential character and nature of our work as
  well as the standards developed have been
  affected
• Amount of information and materials may lead us
  to opt for speed and quicker managerial tools to
  accomplish tasks perception that it is in a
  database somewhere
• Technical services staff have witnessed not only
  the quality of their work questioned but the
  value as well viewed often as clerical in
  nature
• To produce quality work one has to feel that work
  is valued
• Technical services skills are crucial in the
  management of online resources

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The Internet as a Catalyst for Innovation and
Change
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• Internet was designed to accommodate innovation
  and change
• We continue to learn and adapt to these changes
• Communication is a necessary attribute in dealing
  with innovation
• Need to be adaptable and flexible in approach
• Step outside comfort zones
• Balancing the traditional and the new

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Where We Are Going
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In the foreseeable future

• Still not be able to compete with the budgets
  that commercial firms and services have
• Networking to cut the rising costs of materials
  and access to these resources will continue
• Library users continuing to expect and demand
  these resources
• Internet will continue to challenge print
  resources, and online services and resources will
  continue to challenge the work in technical
  services

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• The always on aspect of the Internet will
  challenge technical services in providing access
• Libraries will continue to expand beyond the
  traditional services and balance this with
  traditional functions
• Security concerns for access will continue to be
  a major concern
• Libraries will continue to use the Internet as a
  resource to increase productivity

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• How we learn and do our jobs will continue to
  change
• Using technology to eliminate and help control
  the information-explosion will continue to be an
  important tool
• MARC will stay until a cheaper viable way to
  transfer data into a code more suitable to the
  Internet environment

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• The Internets use as a communication tool will
  continue to be tapped to supply information at
  just about every level from individual to
  institutional
• Recognize the need to understand our users better
  and make this a focus of our activities
• Training will remain a crucial requirement and
  unless the economic situation improves, training
  will be at a premium

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• It might take a decade or two to put all the
  worlds information into Google and do things
  with it But its an achievable goal.
• Wayne Rosing Google
  engineering VP

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• The ultimate goal is to have a computer that
  has the kind of semantic knowledge that a
  reference librarian has.
• Craig Silverstein Googles
  Director of Technology

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Who knows what the future will bring
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Thank you.

• Questions and comments.