Publish with ALCTS—Publication Topics

ALCTS seeks authors for its publications, which include the well-respected, peer-reviewed journal, Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS); the ALCTS Newsletter; ALCTS Monographs; and a collection of white papers on hot topics, z687: Creating the Future of Technical Services.

Authors are needed for two specific guides: “Guide to Transforming Technical Services in the Interest of Breaking-Down Silos” and “Guide to Budgeting Basics.”

Assessment

Use of assessment or measureable outcomes in technical services.

Authority Control

Environments where large record sets are loaded to a local catalog.

Collection Management

Approval plan pros, cons, and alternative approaches.

Integrating of digital collections into collection building.

Communication

Connecting with the community outside technical services.

Maintaining relationships with the public, faculty, staff, students, and others.

Consortial Purchasing, E-books, and Databases

Continuing Resources

Access to electronic resources (OPAC vs. A–Z list).

Cataloging continuing resources in special collections: Are they cataloged differently?

Defining a new work for a serial. Understanding this would help in creating more meaningful cataloging rules for serials with title changes.

Education for continuing resources in cataloging. What sorts of classes or workshops are most helpful for understanding continuing resources?

Ejournal MARC record quality.

Ejournal licensing trends and management.

Electronic Resource Management Systems (ERMS) – current status.

Managing ebook collections that function like aggregators.

Managing electronic series, covering issues such as acquisition and access management, including the analysis (or lack thereof) of individual series parts.

Print vs. electronic continuing resources: 

  • What is the future of serials?
  • What are the trends: subject based gap, globe based gap, electronic vs. print in purchase decisions

RDA and continuing resources. How does RDA affect how we catalog and define continuing resources?

Reasons for title changes in nonacademic serials.  This topic has been addressed for academic serials, but not for nonacademic serials

Data Curation

Cataloging and collections issues.

Data Sets

Digital Preservation

Best practices, justification and practical guidelines for implementation.

Digital Projects and Metadata

Including locally developed terms and controlled vocabularies.

Disaster and Emergency Plans

Including Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP).

Discovery Layer

Considerations for selection, implementation, and optimal use.

Institutional repositories

Linked Data

Open Source Integrated Library Systems

Perpetual Access Issues

RDA Training Techniques

Scholarly Communications and the Role of Technical Services

Shared Print Collections

How to write a collection management plan.

Bibliographic issues.

Analyzing collections across multiple institutions.

Retention and withdrawal policies.

Communications aspects.

Staffing Optimization

Effective use of student assistants in technical services, including digital projects.

Reorganizing workflows in a digital environment.

Statistics

Best practices for collecting, maintaining, and presenting e-resource statistics.

Have Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources (COUNTER) and Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) offered the comprehensive standard set of statistics needed by libraries?

Succession Planning

Training and Continuing Education, Value

Webinars, web courses, and other methods.

Weeding Reference

Developing an effective and balanced project.