Teams Are Now Used by Many Technical Services Departments in Academic Libraries

• Main Author: Kirsty Thomson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Alberta 2012-06-01
• Series: Evidence Based Library and Information Practice
• Online Access: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/eblip/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/16571

Objective – An investigation of the use of teams in technical services, provision of training on team-working, characteristics of technical services teams, and the effectiveness of teams. Design – Survey comprising of 19 closed questions and one open question. Setting – Technical services departments in academic libraries. Subjects– Responses were received from 322 library staff members. Of those, 294 answered the survey question about team-based technical services and 55.9% of respondents completed the full survey. Methods – An online survey was promoted via seven technical services electronic mail lists and was conducted using SurveyMonkey. Main Results – The survey found that 39% of technical services were entirely team-based, 18% were partly team-based, and 43% did not use teams. Information was gathered about the number of teams, team nomenclature, and how long teams have been used. This research highlighted the lack of provision of training and documentation about working in teams. Conclusion – Many respondents have team-based technical services, and most participants found that working in teams had a positive impact. A systematic application of this survey is planned for the future.