126  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS

Top Concerns of Technical  
Services Staff
Richard Lammert, Technical Services and Systems Librarian, Concordia  
Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne

ABSTRACT: The annual conversation group sponsored by the Technical 
Services Interest Group provides an opportunity for library workers in tech-
nical services areas—or in any area of library work—to discuss anything that 
anyone considers a top concern for technical services staff. Participation by 
persons other than those in technical services area is encouraged because 
the work in technical services ultimately influences work in all other areas of 
the library. Because the main concerns of individuals vary from year to year, 
the topics discussed also change—although there are some perennial top-
ics. This year, the main topic was migrations of integrated library systems.

Nine people attended the Tuesday evening technical services conver-
sation group, “Top Concerns in Technical Services”: two in-person in 
Baltimore and seven online. This year, the top concern was system 
migration.

Although no library was in the midst of an integrated library 
system (ILS) migration, several libraries are starting to consider a 
migration from their current system. Participants in the conversa-
tion group asked for advice. Among advice offered by attendees 
was the following: Talk to someone currently using a system to get 
the “real” story about the pros and cons. Use Marshall Breeding’s 
“Library Technology Guides” (https://librarytechnology.org/) to find 
libraries currently using one’s proposed system. Determine what 
did not go smoothly in the last migration, and make sure that the 
problems encountered in that migration do not remain problems 
with a new migration. Do not depend on future roadmaps to pro-
vide what is missing if the proposed system does not offer what a 
library needs—future developments are never guaranteed, so one 
should base migration decisions only on what is currently function-
ing in a particular system. Consider all the functions wanted in a 
new system (for example: cataloging and accessibility of all types of 

https://librarytechnology.org/


CONvERSATION GROuPS  127

materials, monographs, serials, and electronic resources; staff func-
tions and requirements; discovery system integration with the ILS 
or interoperability with a separate discovery system), and choose a 
system based on the right mix for one’s library. Determine whether 
the library wants to install and maintain the ILS itself, or contract 
for software as a service.

Two other topics considered briefly were the cataloging of elec-
tronic resources and the Official RDA Toolkit. The accuracy and util-
ity of available cataloging of electronic resources has always been 
a problem; no new solutions were offered. The Official RDA Toolkit 
will be implemented no sooner than October 2022, although a later 
date is quite likely. There should be available training (free of charge) 
from the Program for Cooperative Cataloging by the fall of 2022.



128  ATLA 2022 PROCEEDINGS