The role of the paraprofessional in technical services in libraries

Library Trends, Wntr, 1998 by Lynne C. Howarth

INTRODUCTION

In the Canadian library context, the term paraprofessional normally includes two categories: (1) library technicians who hold a diploma in library and information techniques from a college of applied arts and science and who may also hold an undergraduate degree; and (2) paraprofessionals who hold at least an undergraduate degree but who do not have a diploma in library and information techniques or a degree in library and information science or information studies. The latter are more likely to be hired to work in technical services in libraries because of their subject expertise. For example, some Canadian academic libraries employ paraprofessionals for derived and/or original cataloging within particular subject areas. Paraprofessionals, or library technical assistants, are also employed in a variety of library settings in the United States and play a prominent support role in technical services, in particular, in academic libraries.

Aside from these job classifications and titles, however, what distinguishes a paraprofessional from a clerical support position or a professional librarian, respectively, and what is an appropriate role for the paraprofessional in technical services in libraries? This article will explore these questions, beginning with an overview of technical services as a whole, then moving through each of the component operational units. The changing role of the paraprofessional will be considered across the continuum of past, present, and future, culminating in some predictions about the continued relevance and employability of this level of staff. Within the context of this article, the term paraprofessional will be used to include the three categories of: (1) paraprofessional, (2) library technician, and (3) library technical assistant--terms which are sometimes used interchangeably though not necessarily appropriately so.

TECHNICAL SERVICES: AN OVERVIEW OF OPERATIONS AND STAFFING

Historically, one of two major operational units within the organizational structure of all but small or one-person libraries, technical services has been defined as "services involving the operations and techniques for acquiring, recording, and preserving materials" (Tauber, 1954, p. 4). The administrative organization of technical services--as opposed to the administrative organization of public or readers' services--integrates related operations and techniques which may include several or all of the functional units of selection, acquisitions, cataloging and classification, physical processing, binding and repairs, and circulation (Tauber, 1954, pp. 9-21). While operations associated with technical services have existed since the systematic acquisition and recording of collections, more formalized approaches have been documented only since the mid-nineteenth century. The concept of a separate administrative unit identified as technical services or technical processing was first proposed in 1939 (Coney, 1939). By the mid-1950s, with the establishment of the Resources and Technical Services Division of the American Library Association and the publication of Tauber's (1954) definitive text, Technical Services in Libraries, the concept of a divisional unit incorporating the former acquisitions and cataloging departments had gained wide acceptance.

Over the next few decades, the bifurcation of technical and public services was operationalized and ultimately institutionalized in a number of medium- to large-sized academic, public, and other library settings (Shachtman, 1955; Dougherty et al., 1967; Busch, 1985). With the rise of automated library systems--first circulation control systems in the mid-1970s, then fully integrated systems with online public access catalogs [OPACs] through the 1980s--the distinctions between bibliographic files created, controlled, and accessible only by technical services personnel and those of public services became blurred. Rather than, for example, maintaining a manual card-based Master Shelf List or "official catalog" or union catalog within technical services, and another shelf list within the public services branch or unit, there was one master file of bibliographic records in machine-readable format readily available to anyone with access to a computer on the library's local or wide-area network. The same record that was created for an item at the acquisitions stage would form the basis for the catalog record which, in turn, would support such public services functions as circulation, reference, interlibrary loan, and user inquiry. This "blurring of files" is even more obvious today with Web-based catalogs and ubiquitous access to Internet resources from remote sites.

Along with this "blurring of files" came challenges to the traditional bifurcation of technical and public services. Administrators, such as Gorman (1979, 1980, 1983, 1985), Freedman (1984), Holley (1981), and Malinconico (1983) wrote in favor of administrative reorganization involving greater integration of services arid more effective utilization of staffing resources. For example, Gorman's (1983) concept of the "ecumenical library" advocated utilizing those with subject and bibliography skills (professional librarians) to provide direct services to the public, while having those with technical skills (paraprofessionals and some clerical staff) provide support services (indirect services) to the library's users and to professional staff. The more holistic approach to integrated services is manifested today in the rising number of positions requiring individuals with training in both cataloging and/or bibliography and in reference.