Cross-Training in Technical Services: Merging Cataloging and Acquisitions

In academic libraries, technical services departments commonly face increased cataloging backlogs and problems meeting acquisitions budget deadlines.  The reasons for these workflow problems are well-known.  Acquisitions staff often receive the bulk of order requests near the end of the fiscal year, making it difficult, if not impossible, to spend the budget prior to the end of the fiscal year.  Likewise, cataloging staff endures similar challenges when dealing with large volumes of new materials coming in at one time, contributing to ever-increasing backlogs.  These factors make workflows in technical services inconsistent and difficult to predict.

  To address these problems, the Technical Services and Digital Access Team at the University of Tennessee Libraries chose to integrate cataloging and acquisitions duties.  The new system consisted of cross-training staff in acquisitions and cataloging in order to achieve a more efficient workflow.  By increasing the number of staff trained to place orders and catalog, turn around time for placing orders was greatly reduced while cataloging backlogs rapidly diminished.  Additionally, staff learned new skills and received a position upgrade based on their new responsibilities.  This poster session describes this transformative change in technical services, how it improved the workflow in cataloging and acquisitions, and provide a formal evaluation of its implementation.