Vital Technical Services in
Academic Libraries
Leopoldo M. Montoya
May 1999
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.
New Ideas on Access to
Information
Making decisions on new forms of
information
 Better thinking about the future
 The individual situation at each
Library

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

Vertical Model for the
Management of Resources



Internet
Library
Storage
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

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?)

The Vertical Model, Refined




Management
Internet
Library
Storage
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”

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

Personnel Administration
Leadership distinct from
management
 Team work, retraining, renewal
 Faster and faster change in libraries

Vertical Model for the
Management of Human
Resources





Human Resources
Workers
Managers
Leaders
Organization’s History
The Z39.71Standard
New ANSI standard for display of
holdings
 Covers serial and nonserial
resources
 To be applied to all formats, physical
or electronic

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

The New MeSH
A revised structure for headings and
subheadings
 Cataloging and indexing will practice
in the same way
 Only topical subheadings distribute
headings

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

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

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

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

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
