Location: Tri-C Corporate College East, 4400 Richmond Rd. Warrensville Hts., OH 44128
Program: 12:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Please note the change in meeting format & time from previous meetings! Snacks and beverage service will be provided.
Date: Friday, May 9th, 2025
Registration deadline: Friday, May 2nd, 2025
Click here for Registration
NOTSL is pleased to welcome the following speakers and their presentations:
Flex your influence to lift your team
Masha Stepanova, Head of Cataloging at The Ohio State University Libraries
The 1st session will discuss how Technical Services departments are often invisible to patrons and even other library departments due to the behind-the-scenes nature of their work. This makes staff advocacy especially important. Motivating staff, recognizing their achievements, and making them feel appreciated is one key aspect. Another is increasing their visibility and recognition outside the department.
However, motivating, appreciating, and empowering staff isn't solely the responsibility of administrators—anyone can take it on with time and effort. This presentation will focus on activities and advocacy strategies that any Technical Services librarian can implement, regardless of rank or position. It will highlight successful (and unsuccessful) efforts by the Acquisitions Librarian and Coordinator of Cataloging at Miami University and how these approaches can be applied in different library environments.
Masha Stepanova is the Head of Cataloging at The Ohio State University. She has previously spent 18 years supervising cataloging processes and staff at Miami University. Her research interests include improving organizational climate, staff advocacy, and team building.
Technical Service IS public service: raising awareness of and visibility for Technical Services
Tim Keller, Head of Discovery and Metadata Services at Oberlin College
The 2nd session will focus on advocacy for and awareness of the crucial role Technical Services professionals play in the library ecosystem is an oft-neglected practice among librarians. Demystifying what catalogers and metadata professionals do and building interdepartmental bridges as well as strategic partnerships outside the library, performing acts of outreach and raising visibility to the library community and its patrons, as well as breaking down the social walls to drag these services into the limelight are among a litany of techniques that can be utilized to shine light on these hidden or seemingly arcane aspects of what Technical Services professionals do and in doing so, raise awareness to the invaluable contributions we make, from the ground up.
A well-organized collection, quality metadata, and socially conscious catalog records serve as the underpinning to research success at all levels, from library professionals and staff, to the most novice patron, and my presentation intends to provide avenues for Technical Services advocacy and initiatives to gain our area of expertise the appreciation and understanding it deserves.
From part-time copy-catalogers to career catalogers and other metadata specialists, generating awareness around our quotidian tasks, as well as more impactful areas such as ethical and inclusive cataloging, may feel like a second job, but with relatively minimal effort and solid communication of departmental goals and achievements, your Technical Services department can quickly and easily gain visibility and recognition for its contributions internally and then build on that success to bring the hard work and efforts to a broader stage through consortial efforts, publications, and participation in wider initiatives and consequently show the value it brings to your institution.
My presentation brings together nearly 20 years of experience in a variety of cataloging and metadata roles in different academic institutions and library organizations, each with its unique challenges and solutions for success.
Tim Keller (MLIS, MS IAKM) is Head of Discovery and Metadata Services at Oberlin College and has worked in a variety of technical and public services roles in academic libraries since 2007. In each of his previous roles, Tim has built and fostered collaborative and successful teams, leading and evolving departments to meet the challenging landscape of technical services and finding avenues to create synchrony between user-centered technical and public services.
