YBP’s new Director of Technical Services excels at tailoring innovative services to libraries
by Lois Kalata, Customer Service Bibliographer Assistant
Where are you from?
I was an army brat. My father served as a non-commissioned officer in the Army for 28 years. Dad was primarily a combat infantryman. He served in the Pacific in World War Two, spent a year in Korea during that conflict, and did a tour in Vietnam (during the Tet Offensive). My mother’s family is from Berlin, lived there during the Nazi regime, and was there when the city fell to the Soviets in 1945. My parents met during the Berlin air lift and were married shortly thereafter. I was born in Hawaii, and my family moved to Washington, PA when I was 4 years old.
Jim Shetler
Where did you go to school?
I received a bachelor’s degree in 1987 from Washington & Jefferson College located in Washington, PA. W&J is known as “the first college west of the Alleghenies.” I majored in history with a minor in Russian language. I also earned an MLS degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1992.
I actually started out at the University of Pittsburgh to get a MA in history. Although I didn’t continue in history, I met one person in the history program who had a significant impact on my future: Ruth Carter. Ruth was finishing up her PhD work and also happened to be the head of technical services for the University library. She encouraged me to apply for full-time work in the library. I did (started in 1989) and began my library career as a periodicals check-in clerk (coincidently, the job my wife had when we first met).
I was very lucky in that I just sort of fell into a job that I grew to love. While working at Pitt I rose through the ranks, always taking on the dirty jobs or the jobs nobody else wanted to do. These included inventorying the periodical collection, managing all the library’s standing order accounts, and the retrospective conversion of the library’s government documents collection. I discovered I had a knack for serials cataloging and that became my primary area of interest. I got my MLS while working in the library. I often tell people that I got my degree at Pitt but my real education was in Pitt’s library.
After I received the MLS (1992) I stayed at the Pitt library another year or so. Then I got my first professional job at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, cataloging their special and rare book collection. I was there from 1995 to 1996. Then in 1997 I went to work at Yale, where I spent seven and a half years.
The first three were as a jack-of-all-trades librarian in their social sciences library. I was a cataloger, reference librarian, library liaison to the psychology and education departments, collection development, etc. My big accomplishment there was the retrospective conversion of Yale’s post-1976 US government documents collection (just over a half-million titles). My serials skills were in demand, and I was asked four times to move to the big house, Sterling Memorial Library. So, I transferred to Sterling’s acquisitions department. My official title was the assistant department head but I more or less ran the show. We acquired a lot of material, at least a thousand books a week. I also personally managed the serials team. We had 40,000 or so periodical and continuations subscriptions. My unofficial title was “Serials Czar.” We provided 24-hour turn-around on all acquisitions and eliminated backlogs.
Do you belong to any professional library associations?
I am a member of the American Library Association. I am an instructor for the Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program, an arm of the Library of Congress. The program provides instruction for serials cataloging in all formats.
When did you come to YBP?
I started in May of 2004. My first job at YBP was in sales as the Regional Manager for the Northeast.
When did you become Director of Technical Services?
I was promoted to this job May 16, 2005. I enjoy technical services work and my predecessor, Judy McQueen, built a great department. The Technical Services department consists of Cataloguing, Account Processing and Book Processing.
How do you rate YBP’s Technical Service department?
We provide the best technical services support in the industry, and our customers love us. We blow the competition out of the water in just about every way. Believe me, I know. I used to be a customer for similar services from our competitors. Nobody can touch us and I intend to keep it that way.
What is the role of Technical Services today?
A greater number of libraries, both large and small, are outsourcing their technical services work. I have to keep my finger on the pulse of technical services both here in the US and abroad. You have to keep an eye on what’s going on in the market as well as keeping ahead of technology. My greatest challenge is to gauge the market, determine what libraries actually want, and be ready to accommodate those requests.
What specifically is YBP’s Technical Service department doing for libraries?
It depends on the library. We offer a full range of technical services support. This includes e-ordering and e-invoicing, cataloging, and physical processing. We offer many options and can usually tailor our products to fit any particular need. My primary role is to establish contact with customers and assess these needs, and then configure a product that meets their expectations. What makes the job interesting is that even though most libraries do the same thing, very few do it the same way. Every library has its own unique workflow and my role is to dovetail our products and services into that workflow.
What are the recent innovations in Technical Services? How is YBP helping libraries take advantage of those innovations?
Technical services is a dynamic arena. Standards change (or evolve) and new formats emerge. It goes with the territory. Some innovations are the result of establishing connections. For example, I recently completed a test with the National Library of New Zealand that enables them to supply bibliographic records to YBP's New Zealand customers. The outcome of this test should be a service very similar to OCLCs PromptCat service. Another service that is in the pipeline is our ability to provide PromptCat support for purchasers of NetLibrary titles. The key to our ability to help our customers is to seize every such opportunity and I fully intend to do so.
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