1. Welcome Aboard, Now Get to Work!
Starting a new position in technical services
Intro (framing/format) - goal of this presentation is to us to present our experiences started two different positions in technical services, but more importantly, our goal is to have a conversation with you all on the topic of starting a new position in technical services.
We have lots of advice, but we will reiterate at the end that not all our advice will be useful in all libraries, nor in all departments. We’d like this to be like a chat, We’ll go first, and hopefully you’ll chime in at the end with your experiences and drops of wisdom.
Just like trouble shooting a problem it may look the same, but there always seems to be something new and unique about every one
Photo by Lachlan Dempsey
Photo by Julian Paul

2. Two Perspectives Electronic Resources Discovery Services E-resources
Half technical, half systems (coder)
Although my role is reporting through technical services, much of my responsibilities and challenges are challenges experienced by librarians who spend most of their coding
Difficulty getting time to do lots of deep thinking work
Photo by invisiblepower

3. Discovery Services Finding the files
One of the biggest hurdles you may face when you start a position like discovery services librarian may be finding the right files.
Are the files on the network drive? Are they on google drive? Are they on Github? Are they on a flash drive?
In my position I have the responsibility of updating thousands of lines of locally developed cataloging scripts or macros which help our catalogers do their jobs better.
Look for internal dept wikis. Chances are, there is an internal wiki or documentation that details all of your internal policies
But often you may find that that wiki also hosts files you need to download and backup in some other method
Photo by Valeriy Andrushko on Unsplash
Photo by Valeriy Andrushko

4. Electronic Resources Where is that? Photo by Me
Photo by Cara Calabrese

5. Discovery Services Communicating your needs
When you run into difficulties, many times your ability to overcome your hurdles and be successful may depend on your ability to express your needs.
If you need something, say something.
Expressing your needs may involve looking for professional development opportunities
Maybe you need to refactor all of your code from visual basic to python, and you really need to go to a Python Conference.
Photo by Valeriy Andrushko on Unsplash

6. Electronic Resources
Expectations
Photo by Me

7. Discovery Services Finding your path
One major factor in my ability to be successful was to find my path.
What do I mean by this?
When you start at a new library, what they were attempting to hire may not always be what they hired.
For instance perhaps the job description preferred one particular skill which they were not fully able to find
You have to know your strengths; know where you may be able to fulfill your job requirements by completing a task in another manner
Your new dept will train you, but unless you are being trained by the person who was doing your job previously, there will always limits their ability to fully train you for your position
Photo by Valeriy Andrushko on Unsplash

8. Electronic Resources
Finding you niche
Photo by Me

9. Discovery Services Competing interests
You may get hired, and feel yourself pulled in multiple directions.
This may be because of various reasons
Perhaps you are being pulled in lots of direction b/c your manager hasn’t clearly defined your job (responsibility/job/role creep)
Perhaps you are being pulled b/c you are in a smaller library and you literally have to do everything (it is your job)
This can be good and bad
Perhaps you applied to a smaller library so that you can get to wear all those hats
Perhaps your new role was clearly defined, but you also bring a lot of skills or technical knowledge in some other facet of your role
You may be able to provide value to your library in a manner which they had not considered
Describe my responsibilities in my last role, coming from a purely systems role, troubleshooting issues; especially patron and loan rule troubleshooting
This means I may be able to help my new library with their loan rules, but is that really my responsibility?
Hopefully you may have a conversation about this with your boss
If you feel that you are being asked to do things that should be someone else’s responsibility say something; have that conversation;
don’t wait until you’ve been doing someone else’s for a year already; then it is your responsibility (“
“path dependency” in systems thinking: this describes the difficulty organizations and individuals experience changing responsibilities after they have already been doing something a specific way for some time
Elaborate...
Photo by Valeriy Andrushko on Unsplash

10. Electronic Resources
Navigating the waters
Photo by Me

11. Discovery Services Growth and change
All of our advice comes down to your experience and what is best for you in your library context
If you are in a larger library with very clearly defined job responsibilities, you may have less freedom to more explore changing or expanding your job responsibilities
You will need to tailor our experiences to your organization’s cultures and local practices
Photo by Valeriy Andrushko
Photo by Valeriy Andrushko

12. Thanks! Now get to work! Cara Mia Calabrese cara.calabrese@wisc.edu
Craig Boman
Intro (framing/format) - goal of this presentation is to us to present our experiences started two different positions in technical services, but more importantly, our goal is to have a conversation with you all on the topic of starting a new position in technical services.
We have lots of advice, but we will reiterate at the end that not all our advice will be useful in all libraries, nor in all departments. We want this to be more of a chat and if you see that we are missing an aspect or you know of better way to handle it let’s talk at the end.
Photo by Lachlan Dempsey
Photo by Julian Paul