The Role of Paraprofessionals in Technical Services in Academic Libraries

The Use of Paraprofessionals in Electronic Resources Management: Results of a Survey

“…Despite official distinctions between professionals and paraprofessionals, their roles remain profoundly blurred in the 21st century technical services environment (Cox & Myers, 2010;Jones & Stivers, 2004;Leibowitz, 2002Leibowitz, , 2012Milczarski & Garofalo, 2011;Montgomery & Sparks, 2000;Obrig, Thompson, & Lingle, 2005;West, Miller, & Wilson, 2011;Zhu, 2012). A familiar instance can be found in staffing for cataloging.…”

“…The current study, inspired by Zhu's (2012) research, was born from the primary author's effort to determine the work appropriately assigned to paraprofessionals who assist with managing electronic resources. While Zhu's (2012) comprehensive study of paraprofessionals in technical services included electronic resources management tasks, the literature lacks a formal study of paraprofessionals solely in this area of technical services.…”

“…While the case studies about electronic resources management processes include the work of paraprofessionals, Zhu's (2012) survey of academic library technical services departments focused solely on the role of paraprofessionals and discussed electronic resources management. Out of the 452 paraprofessional respondents, 32.8% participated in electronic resources management.…”

“…While the OOH may indicate a hierarchy within the paraprofessional class by distinguishing between two types of library paraprofessional, one with more responsibility and authority than the other, Zhu's research demonstrates that the library profession lacks a consensus as to what to label this group and offers the following: "paraprofessionals, library assistants, library specialists, library associates, non-master of library and information science (MLIS) staff, para-librarians, subprofessionals, non-professionals, library aids, library technician, library support staff, and so on (Zhu, 2012)." For clarity's sake and consistency The Journal of Academic Librarianship 41 (2015) with modern parlance within the library profession, the authors will refer to staff holding positions that do not require an MLS as paraprofessionals.…”

“…Two studies confirm this, albeit using different approaches. One examines the role of the paraprofessional in technical services and the other focuses on the trend towards the obsolescence of paraprofessionals managing print serials and the feasibility of their future role in managing electronic journals (Glasser, 2010;Zhu, 2012). The category of electronic resources paraprofessionals warrants closer examination because there are no studies devoted solely to discussing their role.…”