The Role of the Paraprofessional in Technical Services in Libraries

THEEXISTENCE OF NONPROFESSIONALS WITHIN libraries has a long, though largely undocumented, history (Evans, 1979). Usually considered to be individuals who may hold a degree or diploma other than a graduate degree in library and information science or information studies, paraprofessionals have held positions with varying types of tasks and responsibilities in technical services operational units in libraries. With the introduction and increasing availability of library automation, and the more recent administrative trend toward outsourcing any or all parts of selection/collection development, acquisitions, cataloging, physical processing, and binding and repairs-components traditionally ascribed to technical services (Tauber, 1954)-the continued viability of paraprofessional positions has been called into question. The possible future role of the paraprofessional is explored from the premise that survival will be dependent on defining an occupational niche that is unique from that of clerical support staff or professional librarians in technical services. INTRODUCTION In the Canadian library context, the term paraprofessional normally includes two categories: (1) library technicians who hold a diploma in library and information techniques from a college of applied arts and science and who may also hold an undergraduate degree; and (2) paraprofessionals who hold at least an undergraduate degree but who do not have a diploma in library and information techniques or a degree in liLynne C. Howarth, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, 140 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 9G6 LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 46, No. 3 , Winter 1998, pp. 52&539 01998 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois HOWARTH/THE ROLE OF THE PARAPROFESSIONAL 527 brary and information science or information studies. The latter are more likely to be hired to work in technical services in libraries because of their subject expertise. For example, some Canadian academic libraries employ paraprofessionals for derived and/or original cataloging within particular subject areas. Paraprofessionals, or library technical assistants, are also employed in a variety of library settings in the United States and play a prominent support role in technical services, in particular, in academic libraries. Aside from these job classifications and titles, however, what distinguishes a paraprofessional from a clerical support position or a professional librarian, respectively, and what is an appropriate role for the paraprofessional in technical services in libraries? This article will explore these questions, beginning with an overview of technical services as a whole, then moving through each of the component operational units. The changing role of the paraprofessional will be considered across the continuum of past, present, and future, culminating in some predictions about the continued relevance and employability of this level of staff. Within the context of this article, the term paraprofssionalwill be used to include the three categories of: (1)paraprofessional, (2) library technician, and (3) library technical assistant-terms which are sometimes used interchangeably though not necessarily appropriately so. TECHNICAL AN OVERVIEW AND STAFFING SERVICES: OF OPERATIO Historically, one of two major operational units within the organizational structure of all but small or one-person libraries, technical services has been defined as “services involving the operations and techniques for acquiring, recording, and preserving materials” (Tauber, 1954, p. 4). The administrative organization of technical services-as opposed to the administrative organization of public or readers’ services-integrates related operations and techniques which may include several or all of the functional units of selection, acquisitions, cataloging and classification, physical processing, binding and repairs, and circulation (Tauber, 1954, pp. 9-21). While operations associated with technical services have existed since the systematic acquisition and recording of collections, more formalized approaches have been documented only since the mid-nineteenth century. The concept of a separate administrative unit identified as technical services or technical processing was first proposed in 1939 (Coney, 1939). By the mid-l950s, with the establishment of the Resources and Technical Services Division of the American Library Association and the publication of Tauber’s (1954) definitive text, Technical Services in Libraries, the concept of a divisional unit incorporating the former acquisitions and cataloging departments had gained wide acceptance. Over the next few decades, the bifurcation of technical and public services was operationalized and ultimately institutionalized in a number 528 LIBRARY TRENDS/WINTER 1998 of mediumto large-sized academic, public, and other library settings (Shachtman, 1955;Dougherty et al., 1967;Busch, 1985). With the rise of automated library systems-first circulation control systems in the mid1970s, then fully integrated systems with online public access catalogs [OPACs] through the 1980s-the distinctions between bibliographic files created, controlled, and accessible only by technical services personnel and those of public services became blurred. Rather than, for example, maintaining a manual card-based Master Shelf List or “official catalog” or union catalog within technical services, and another shelf list within the public services branch or unit, there was one master file of bibliographic records in machine-readable format readily available to anyone with access to a computer on the library’s local or wide-area network. The same record that was created for an item at the acquisitions stage would form the basis for the catalog record which, in turn, would support such public services functions as circulation, reference, interlibrary loan, and user inquiry. This “blurring of files” is even more obvious today with Web-based catalogs and ubiquitous access to Internet resources from remote sites. Along with this “blurring of files” came challenges to the traditional bifurcation of technical and public services. Administrators, such as Gorman (1979,1980,1983,1985),Freedman (1984),Holley (1981),and Malinconico (1983) wrote in favor of administrative reorganization involving greater integration of services and more effective utilization of staffing resources. For example, Gorman’s (1983) concept of the “ecumenical library” advocated utilizing those with subject and bibliography skills (professional librarians) to provide direct services to the public, while having those with technical skills (paraprofessionals and some clerical staffl provide support services (indirect services) to the library’s users and to professional staff. The more holistic approach to integrated services is manifested today in the rising number of positions requiring individuals with training in both cataloging and/or bibliography and in reference. While the 1980swere a time when “the walls came a-tumbling down” between public and technical services, the 1990s have been characterized by a fundamental questioning of the need for, and viability of, technical services in libraries. With a downturn in national economies, significant budget reductions to libraries/information services in both the private and public sector, management emphasis on rethinking, reengineering, and restructuring whole organizations and their internal component work processes and activities, a greater focus on the delivery of services, increasing efficiencies in productivity to be gained through emerging new technologies, and ever-growing access to shared operational resources and effective partnerships, some library administrators have turned to outsourcing parts or all of technical services as a means of reHOWARTH/THE ROLE OF THE PARAPROFESSIONAL 529 ducing costs, maximizing dwindling resources, and reallocating staff expertise to service-focused areas within the library. Some libraries have reorganized and reoriented some technical services activities, renaming their administrative units to reflect this shift. Bibliographic services, collections access services, support services, or bibliographic access services are some examples of unit names which reflect less of a “technical” focus and more of a “service” orientation beyond the traditional backrooms of acquisitions, catalogmg, and physical processing. This “rethinking” of technical services has not yet solidified and, for the foreseeable future, administrative approaches and structures remain in flux. What has been the role of the paraprofessional in this more or less half-century of history of technical services? To answer this question, it is necessary to consider the parts of the whole-the component functional units within the technical services entity. Having engaged in that deconstruction, it will then be possible to revisit the original question and to continue with some speculations concerning the role of the paraprofessional in technical services of the future. THEROLEOF THE PARAPROFESSIONAL FUNCTIONAL IN COMPONENT UNITSOF TECHNICAL SERVICES At this juncture it may be useful to reiterate Tauber’s (1954) definition-i.e., that technical services may include several or all of the functional units of selection, acquisitions, cataloging and classification, physical processing, binding and repairs, and circulation (pp. 9-21). While acquisitions, cataloging and classification, and physical processing (including binding and repairs) have remained, across time, the “core business” of the domain of technical services (Howarth, 1995), selection (and/or collection development) and circulation have alternated in the literature and in administrative application between public and technical services. Preservation and conservation, though not included in Tauber’s definition, are sometimes, though not consistently, considered a functional component of technical services. For the purposes of the following discussion, we will refer only to those functional units prescribed by Tauber.