Technical Services Assistant
June 2005

General

Janet Todwong

The Technical Services Assistant assists the Technical Services Supervisor and Serials/Bindery Specialist with cataloging, processing, and distribution activities and is responsible for the Law Library's book repair activities. Incumbent will interact primarily with the Technical Services Supervisor and the Serials/Bindery Specialist. The Technical Services Assistant will consult with the Technical Services Supervisor and/or other Technical Services Department employees should questions or problems arise.

The Law Library maintains its library records on a computerized integrated library system shared with Mabee Library and other libraries in Topeka. Incumbent must be familiar with the system, understand the interaction of various system modules, and be able to perform all processing activities on the system.

Cataloging (30%)

The Technical Services Assistant works with the Technical Services Supervisor to perform the following activities.

  1. Search, Select, and Download Bibliographic Records (10%). Searches OCLC for appropriate bibliographic records to titles requiring cataloging. Incumbent must be alert to duplicate records in OCLC and select the one which most closely matches the library's cataloging standards. Selected records are downloaded and saved to local computer for further processing.
  2. Editing Bibliographic Records (20%). Incumbent performs initial editing of bibliographic records by adding, modifying, and deleting specified fields. Incumbent must be familiar with basic cataloging rules. Changes must be entered correctly to ensure the accuracy of the library's catalog. Incumbent must be alert for inconsistencies in the record, especially incorrect punctuation. Upon completion, incumbent notifies the Cataloging Specialist so that further processing may be performed. Searching and editing is an activity that is performed on a continuing basis as new material is received.

Processing and Distribution of Library Material (40%)

  1. Under direction of the Technical Services Supervisor, identifies, processes, and distributes continuation volumes which supplement/replace items in the library collection. The distribution activity includes: delivering items to designated shelf locations; inserting supplements into their proper volumes; removing and discarding superseded items. It is expected that continuation volumes will be processed and distributed within five working days of receipt.
  2. Incumbent assists the Serials/Bindery Specialist with distribution of new serials and other mail to proper locations. This activity includes distributing routed materials to faculty and staff mail boxes; inserting supplements into the proper volumes; removing and discarding superseded items; and retrieving serials that are ready for binding. It is expected that these materials will be distributed on a daily basis.

Book Repair (10%)

  1. Incumbent performs all activities associated with the Law Library's internal book repair operation. Successful performance of this duty requires familiarity with various repair techniques.

Other Duties and Responsibilities (20%)

  1. Storage Room Maintenance (5%). The Technical Services Assistant will assist with the maintenance of the Library Storage room. This duty will include transferring superseded materials and properly shelving them in the room, and preliminary searching of materials now in the room for cataloging and removal to the main library stacks.
  2. Assist with bindery preparation (5%). Assists the Serials/Bindery Specialist with record maintenance for materials sent to the bindery.
  3. Editing web pages and other internet activities (5%). Assists with updating and creating web pages.
  4. Other (5%). The Technical Services Assistant is expected to recommend changes in processing and binding activities to increase the efficiency of the Technical Services Department. Special projects may be assigned at the discretion of the Cataloging Specialist.

Revised and updated 9/23/2002