Core’s guide to project management in technical services

For Immediate Release
Wed, 10/12/2022

Contact:

Rob Christopher

Marketing Coordinator

ALA Publishing & Media

American Library Association

312-280-5052

rchristopher@ala.org

CHICAGO — Project management, as both a skill set and a discipline, offers structure and a path forward for continual improvement and change management within libraries. Most importantly for technical services, project management creates processes that can fairly and transparently indicate how resources are allocated and guide technical services departments as they prioritize needs. Edited by Elizabeth German and John Ballestro, “Project Management in Technical Services: Practical Tips and Case Studies,” published by ALA Editions in collaboration with Core Publishing, allows project managers to pick and choose which practices work best for their own situation. Readers will:

  • discover ways to integrate project management skills into your daily work;
  • learn how to apply project management at a departmental level; and
  • delve into case studies which illuminate issues related to technology, including library management system migrations, digital repository development, and electronic resource management, as well as common scenarios like high density storage and weeding, and moving or consolidating collections.

German is the assistant director for library assessment and user experience at Princeton University Library. Previously she was an associate professor and the service design librarian at Texas A&M University Libraries. She holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute. Ballestro is the director of collection development and acquisitions services and the subject selector for graphic novels at Texas A&M University’s Sterling C. Evans Library. Also editor of the monograph “The Library’s Guide to Graphic Novels,” he is an avid comic book reader, likes Kirk over Picard, and his house words could be “Winter is Coming” but is more likely to be "Wednesday is new comics day!”

The former Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), the Library Information Technology Association (LITA), and the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) are now Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, a new division of ALA. Its mission is to cultivate and amplify the collective expertise of library workers in core functions through community building, advocacy, and learning.

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