Midway to automation: Reorganizing technical services prior to online catalog implementation

Faced with the prospect of implementing an online public access catalog, catalog management, and circulation system with little or no additional staff, Indiana University Bloomington Libraries are reorganizing Technical Services departments. The reorganization, which is seen as transitional, is designed to (a) provide management aspects of online systems implementation to a small group of employees whose work is focused on the bibliographic database management, and to (b) take advantage of online catalog system capabilities to streamline acquisitions and copy-cataloging procedures. The prospective plan was conceived and the main features worked out by top administrative personnel before the idea was discussed by the members of the affected departments or other library staff; library-wide response then resulted in some significant changes in the plan. Six months after the initial implementation date, reorganization issues are still being worked out, but the new organization already has begun to achieve its goal of fostering online catalog development planning.