The world of acquisitions, collections, and electronic resources can be complex and intimidating to library faculty who have had little experience in the area. Libraries will often have opportunities for cross-department work, for example on large scale weeding projects, but there are few opportunities for extended learning in non-assigned areas. It is also rare for acquisitions, collections, and electronic resources staff to share their expertise with interested people in long-term settings.
This session will share Albertsons Library’s experience with hosting an access services librarian’s sabbatical in acquisitions and collections. Original goals of the sabbatical were for the librarian to: understand the framework for how the work of acquisitions is structured and executed; and understand the e-resource lifecycle to bring back critical skills to inform better service desk training. Though access services maintains the physical collection, and helps patrons navigate the digital collections through information and reference desks, staff in the area traditionally were not exposed to e-resource workflows, and thinking through how items are purchased, tracked and categorized. During the 5 month long sabbatical, the librarian learned about the ins and outs of the unit and sub-groups that included ordering, receiving, serials, gifts, resource sharing, copy cataloging, budgeting, licensing, and electronic resources.
We will discuss:
- Hosting an intern/sabbatical requires time and effort of acquisitions and collections staff; we will share their perspectives about having a long term house guest and how they opened their doors to her learning.
- Framing and structuring of skills and competencies -- for success of the individual librarian and of the unit.
- What the different unit managers learned about describing their work and processes to someone inexperienced in their field.
- Benefits of using a sabbatical period to learn about how resources are acquired, to inform and strengthen working relationships between units.
- Benefits of exposing traditional public services staff to the work flow and complex work environment of technical services.
- Benefits of intra-library sabbatical/internships to deepen knowledge and support the institution.
Slides (Slideshare)
Recording (YouTube)
Discussion Forum
