Telling the Technical Services Story – Call for chapters

 

ALCTS Monographs is seeking proposals from authors for a new monograph of case studies exploring methods to improve communication in technical services departments.

 

Summary:

In an era of increased cross-departmental collaboration and decreased budgets, it has become more and more important for technical services departments to be able to communicate their story and demonstrate their positive impact on users – whether to their administration, their colleagues in other areas of the library, or even within their own departments.  The case studies in this monograph will highlight such projects from a range of libraries.

 

Intended Audience: Technical services managers, administrators, and deans in all types of libraries.

 

Chapter length: 4,000-5,000 words (Approx. 8-10 pages)

 

Preliminary Table of Contents:

The monograph is expected to be separated into five sections:

- Communication within technical services

    Sample topics:

·         Improving communication/modeling good communication

·         Communicating across generations

·         Methods of efficient workplace communication

- Communication with colleagues outside of the department

    Sample topics:

·         Communicating with public services/systems departments

·         Communicating workflows and timelines

·         Navigating hidden biases

- Communication with library administration

    Sample topics:

·         Communicating budget needs/expenditures

·         Advocacy for department/staff

·         Planning for new developments/trends in the field

- Communication with outside stakeholders

    Sample topics:

·         Impact of technical services on library services

·         Communicating with outside departments (city, county, campus, etc.)

·         Working with stakeholders on outside projects

- Communication to promote yourself

    Sample topics:

·         Communicating the importance of technical services positions

·         Communicating your value when applying for promotion

 

 Chapter author(s), please provide:

 

·         A brief abstract of your proposed chapter (600-800 words)

·         A brief biographical statement of the author(s) 

 

Please submit proposals by November 1, 2019 to alctsmonographs@lists.ala.org. Notification of acceptance will occur by December 31, 2019. Selected authors should plan to submit the final draft of their chapter no later than May 18, 2020.