Project Management in Technical Services: Practical Tips and Case Studies

Project management as a skill and discipline has been adapted from the business world and may be underutilized in service environments such libraries. Project management is particularly difficult to implement in technical services, where daily work does not often lend itself to large team-oriented projects. There are, however, many aspects of technical services work that can be efficiently handled using project management skills, such as weeding projects, shifting books, and moving or closing entire libraries. Editors German (asst. director for library assessment and user experience, Princeton Univ.) and Ballestro (director of collection development and acquisition services, Texas A&M Univ.) explore these types of projects through case studies, including suggestions for organizing individual work and workdays to set goals and track progress. Initial chapters discuss integrating project management skills into the daily individual and departmental work of technical services. Part II focuses on case studies of large technical services projects regarding technology management and integration, space allocation and consolidation, and finally, collection maintenance and weeding.