Teams in Library Technical Services

by Rosann Bazirjian (Editor), Jack G. Montgomery (Contributor), Michael Norman (Contributor)

Whether because of budget and staffing concerns or issues with productivity and output, technical services teams have come into being in many organizations. In Teams in Library Technical Services , editors Rosann Bazirjian and Rebecca Mugridge present research and case studies demonstrating what these reasons are and how the use of teams has been and should be applied to libraries. Everything from describing the various types of teams and how to manage them―especially in academic libraries―to exploring recurring themes on the relationships between professional and support staff, the changing roles of librarians, and how managers and teams address issues such as performance evaluation, rewards and recognition, hiring, workload and workflow, and process improvements is covered. Managers and other librarians who must understand the evolution of teams in library technical services units, the application of team theory in libraries, and the practical assessment of team organizational structure will be greatly served by this work.

230 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2006

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though this book was only published four years ago, parts of it already seemed very outdated. Part of it could be the perspective that team organization is a new thing (which it may have been at the time of writing) but I think it could also be attributed to too much detail in some of the articles in terms of technical specifications and vendor/product names.

Despite that, there were a few articles that stood out to me. In terms of content and writing style, I would say that "Letting Go: A Reflection on Teams That Were" by Lubans is well worth the read. Also, Norman's "When Is a Team Really a Team?" and the articles in part 2 (Effectiveness of Team Structure) are worth taking a look at.