Page 21 - Cataloging and Classification for Library Technicians, 2nd Edition

Introduction 3

shorter period of time. (2) It refers to materials kept behind the cir cu-
lation desk that may be checked out only by the requester.

tech ni cal ser vices: Services per formed behind the scenes in the library
for the con venience of the library users. These activities include, but are
not lim ited to, selecting and order ing mate rials, cat aloging and pro cess-
ing mate rials, and main taining the databases.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE LIBRARY

First, let us ex plore how li braries are or ganized. Just as ev ery per -
son is an in di vid ual, so ev ery li brary is or ga nized in di vid u ally. How-
ever, one gen eral pat tern emerges as a model. Tra ditionally, all
library func tions are placed un der two sec tions: tech ni cal ser vices
and pub lic ser vices. Tech nical ser vices usually in clude all the be -
hind-the-scenes work, such as ac qui si tions, cat a log ing, pro cess ing,
binding, and book re pair. Pub lic ser vices, also called reader’s ser -
vices, usu ally em brace ref er ence, cir cu la tion, re serve, and inter-
library loan. As men tioned ear lier, each li brary is or ganized a little
differently, so in terlibrary loan might be cat egorized by some libraries
under tech nical ser vices. Also, with the increasing use of on line cata-
logs, more li brar ies are clas si fy ing cir cu la tion un der tech ni cal ser vices
as well. The line be tween tech nical and pub lic ser vices is be coming less
defined, and many libraries have abol ished the di vision, group ing to -
gether per sonnel who per form re lated func tions. For ex ample, the du ties
of li brary per sonnel who spe cialize in fine arts may in clude se lecting and
ac quir ing ma te ri als in that sub ject area, cat a log ing and pro cess ing them,
as well as an swering re lated ref erence ques tions from the users. Some li -
brar ies have merged the cat a log ing de part ment with ac qui si tions and se-
rials, along with computer tech nology, into a de partment of au tomation
and bib liographic con trol. Al ways keep in mind that over lapping func -
tions oc cur in some ar eas, de pending on the or ganizational culture and
policies of in dividual li braries. There is no right or wrong way of or ga-
niz ing li brar ies func tions.
The or ganizational chart shown in Fig ure 1.1 il lustrates the divi-
sion of func tions for most li braries. As seen in the chart, the func tion
of cat a log ing and clas si fi ca tion falls un der the tech ni cal ser vices di-