Technical Services:  Challenges to Balancing Research and Scholarship on Tenure Track 

Heads of Technical Services – also referred to as Supervisory Technical Service Librarians (Howell and Busch, 2024) play a crucial role in an academic library’s back-end operations in enhancing and driving library services. However, these professionals face challenges in their roles, particularly those on the tenure track, as they strive to balance this demanding primary function with scholarly research activities.

Tenure track librarians are evaluated in three areas: librarianship, scholarship, and service. However, the emphasis is on scholarship since this is the area most heavily weighted, as it drives innovation, problem solving, and knowledge creation. It also functions as an activity bringing recognition to an institution’s academic reputation.

Although many articles in library literature consider the tenure status of academic librarians, very few exist treating experiences and challenges faced by tenure track technical services librarians (Hill, 2007; Romano, 2015; Howell and Busch, 2024; Radniecki and Boss, 2024). Technical services librarians who serve as unit heads represent a type of academic library middle manager. In this capacity, they are responsible for management, supervision, and leadership.

Academic library middle managers’ positions differ considerably from that of public service librarians with respect to workload and time management (Hill, 2007, p. 161; Howell and Busch, p. 3; Radniecki and Boss, 2024, pp .222-223). The realities of tenure track library managers are that there is an overwhelming amount of work and insufficient time to fulfill administrative and tenure track responsibilities (Radniecki and Boss, 2020). Romano (2015) further expands on Hill’s (2007) discussion on

the plight and struggle of technical services librarians in obtaining tenure … how technical services librarians have less time in their work schedules to pursue scholarly research activities than their public service counterparts since technical services work is more production-oriented and less ‘seasonal’ (p. 84-85).

Unfortunately, there exists a lack of understanding regarding the full scope of work performed in managing technical services, a department that operates in a continuous cycle to maintain optimal services which other library areas are dependent upon (Hill, 2007, p. 160).

Other activities related to acquiring tenure include reference and teaching (instruction), in which technical services librarians are also expected to participate, as it is part of librarianship. Additionally, management is a critical function of technical services that does not count towards tenure. Having personally experienced the dilemma of balancing management, leadership, and other library activities, it can be difficult to find time to juggle competing priorities within tenure.

Managing a technical services department contains complexities, particularly if there is an absence of critical staff such as original catalogers (Howell and Busch, 2024, p. 3). Lack of staff with expertise in back-end operations frequently results in increased workload and additional management responsibilities. Addressing these challenges requires identifying workarounds and solutions to meet the library’s needs, such as making materials discoverable and shelf-ready. This is both time- and labor-intensive.

In addressing workflow challenges and staffing limitations, leadership is crucial for ensuring smooth operations and maintaining employee morale. Leadership translates into effecting change through creative means such as motivating staff, fostering teamwork, mentoring and empowering direct reports, as well as collaborating with colleagues across the library and organization (Do and Nuth, 2020).

In sum, technical service librarians who are unit heads encounter management, supervision, and leadership in a highly complex, technology-driven environment. They require expertise across a wide range of areas involving cataloging and metadata, collection development, resource management, and systems administration. Head of Technical Services further possesses core primary functions including acquisitions, budget, and cataloging.

Each of these areas contains its own subset of workflows, in conjunction with networked and cloud-based systems and proprietary bibliographic software. Further, participation in CUNY-wide committees and working groups focused on maintenance and support of these areas is necessary.

Due to lack of staffing, including a position freeze affecting the key personnel of Metadata Librarian, the Head of Technical Services must attend additional committee meetings to cover this function. Information received in these meetings must be relayed back to paraprofessionals to keep them informed. Unfortunately, these activities within librarianship and service at times can bleed into Research Leave time even when off-campus, ultimately impacting scholarship progress. There are simply not enough hours in a week to perform the labor of managing a technical services unit.

As head of a Technical Services unit, achieving a balance between scholarship and other competing responsibilities to fulfill tenure track requirements related to research and scholarship is challenging. However, it can be attainable with support in infrastructure, staffing, and reasonable expectations for librarianship and service commitments to address deficiencies and inequities in workload while pursuing scholarship activities.

Bernice Suphal

References

Do, D. T., & Nuth, A. (2020). Academic library middle managers as leaders: In their own words. Journal of Library Administration, 60(1), 41–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2019.1671036

Hill, J. S. (2007). Technical services and tenure: Impediments and strategies. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 44(3–4), 151–178. https://doi.org/10.1300/J104v44n03_01

Howell, S., & Busch, T. (2024). Finding balance: Examining the experiences of supervisory technical services librarians on the tenure track. Library Resources & Technical Services, 68(3). https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.68n3.7996

Radniecki, T. M., & Boss, E. E. (2024). Library managers’ experiences on the tenure track. College & Research Libraries, 85(2), 210–233. https://doi-org.lehman.ezproxy.cuny.edu/10.5860/crl.85.2.210

Romano, L. (2015). Service requirements for promotion and tenure: What is the technical services librarian to do? Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services, 39(3–4), 82–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649055.2016.1254495