Teams Are Now Used by Many Technical Services Departments in Academic Libraries. A Review of: Zhu, L. (2011). Use of teams in technical services in academic libraries. Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 35, 69-82. doi:10.1016/j.lcats.2011.03.013

• Main Author: Kirsty Thomson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Alberta 2012-06-01
• Series: Evidence Based Library and Information Practice
• Online Access: http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/16571/14039

<b>Objective</b> – An investigation of the use ofteams in technical services, provision oftraining on team-working, characteristics oftechnical services teams, and the effectivenessof teams.<br><b>Design</b> – Survey comprising of 19 closedquestions and one open question.<br><b>Setting</b> – Technical services departments inacademic libraries.<br><b>Subjects</b>– Responses were received from 322library staff members. Of those, 294 answeredthe survey question about team-basedtechnical services and 55.9% of respondentscompleted the full survey.<br><b>Methods</b> – An online survey was promotedvia seven technical services electronic mail listsand was conducted using SurveyMonkey.<br><b>Main Results</b> – The survey found that 39% oftechnical services were entirely team-based,18% were partly team-based, and 43% did notuse teams. Information was gathered about thenumber of teams, team nomenclature, andhow long teams have been used. This researchhighlighted the lack of provision of trainingand documentation about working in teams.<br><b>Conclusion</b> – Many respondents have team-basedtechnical services, and most participantsfound that working in teams had a positiveimpact. A systematic application of this surveyis planned for the future.