Life Cycle Package Management for Print and Electronic Resources: Cross-training a Customer-oriented Technical Services Team

Abstract

Several years ago, North Carolina State (NC State) University Libraries technical services department, Acquisitions & Discovery (A&D), merged acquisitions, cataloging, and electronic resources management functions and staff. One intended outcome for the merger included integrating and distributing electronic resources management across all staff positions whereby staff would be trained to manage a larger portion of the life cycle for print and electronic resources. The benefits of a life cycle approach for both print and electronic resources included better staff understanding of resources; staff ownership of packages; and improved staff follow-through, consistency, and ability to troubleshoot. Key positions were reimagined to support this effort. This included the creation of a staff package manager role in the serials unit to provide oversight of e-journal packages, distribute work to staff, and create and maintain an information dashboard (the Electronic Resources Hub) for staff as well as for other stakeholder departments across the libraries. The monographs unit has recently adopted a similar integrated approach to manage NC State's growing collection of e-books. This chapter will outline A&D implementation of two package management models, one for serials and one for monographs; describe the associated tools and technologies used for support; and discuss lessons learned. Benefits will be discussed to illustrate how other libraries might transform their electronic resource management operations by using a package management strategy.

Citation

Ashmore, B., Collins, M., Hutchins, C. and Whittenberger, L. (2021), "Life Cycle Package Management for Print and Electronic Resources: Cross-training a Customer-oriented Technical Services Team", Hines, S.S. (Ed.) Technical Services in the 21st Century (Advances in Library Administration and Organization, Vol. 42), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 83-102. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0732-067120210000042008