1st Edition

Technical Services Management, 1965-1990 A Quarter Century of Change and a Look to the Future

By Ruth C Carter, Linda C Smith Copyright 1996

    Gain an in-depth understanding of changes in technical services that have taken place over a quarter century and look at future trends and changes that may occur. Technical Services Management surveys and analyzes technical services in libraries from 1965 to 1990, a formative period and one of great change in library operations. The book also identifies trends that continue to impact technical services operations in libraries today. Readers gain a comprehensive knowledge of where the field has been and where it is now to help them plan and prepare more effectively for the future.

    Most chapters are historical, combined with a firm grasp of the present and a glimpse or more at the future. They are grouped to reflect the various aspects of technical services. Trends in technical services are considered in chapters on the development of technical services literature and the major changes in technical services in school libraries. Chapters on the major subdivisions within technical services--acquisitions and collection development, cataloging, and preservation--trace changes in library operations and the impact of automation. Issues in catalog design are explored in chapters on the emergence of online public access catalogs, bibliographic utilities, and approaches to authority control. Efforts to improve subject access are addressed through chapters on subject cataloging, the Dewey Decimal Classification, and indexing in the U.S. and Great Britain. To keep pace with changes in technical services, changes in professional education and development are needed as documented in chapters on cataloging education, continuing education in technical services, and the role of professional organizations. The final chapter outlines new challenges in the future and new roles for librarians in an electronic environment.

    Effective planning for the future includes learning about the past. Technical Services Management, 1965--1990 is a vital resource for library historians, library educators, technical services librarians, and graduate students in library and information science who need to know “how things were” in order to see more clearly “how things will be.”

    Contents Introduction
    • PART I: Trends in Technical Services
    • Technical Services Literature, 1969–1990
    •  From Catalog to OPAC: A Look at 25 Years of Technical Services in School Libraries
    •  PART II: Acquisitions and Collection Development
    • Acquisitions and Collection Development
    • PART III: Catalogs
    • A History of the Online Catalog in North America
    • Automating Access to Bibliographic Information
    •  Authority Control
    •  PART IV: Cataloging
    • Death of a Cataloging Code: Seymour Lubetzky’s Code of Cataloging Rules and the Question of Institutions
    •  Descriptive Cataloging
    •  The Transformation of Serials Cataloging 1965–1990
    •  Minimal Level Cataloging: Past, Present, and Future
    • PART V: Subject Access
    • Subject Cataloging
    • The Dewey Decimal Classification: 1965–1990
    •  PART VI: Indexing
    • Indexing, in Theory and Practice
    •  Some Post-War Developments in Indexing in Great Britain
    •  PART VII: Preservation
    • Preservation: A Quarter Century of Growth
    •  Combining Old World Craftsmanship With New World Technology: A Quarter Century of Library Binding in Review, 1965–1990
    • PART VIII: Education and Professional Development
    • A Quarter Century of Cataloging Education
    • Continuing Education and Technical Services Librarians: Learning for 1965–1990 and the Future
    • Recollections of Two Little-Known Professional Organizations and Their Impact on Technical Services
    •  PART IX: Future
    • The Effect of a Transition in Intellectual Property Rights Caused by Electronic Media on the Human Capital of Librarians
    • Index
    • Reference Notes Included

    Biography

    Ruth C Carter, Linda C Smith