Use of teams in technical services in academic libraries

A review of library literature shows a general trend of technical services in academic libraries to reorganize into teams. This paper analyzes the results of a survey conducted in 2010 in order to answer four research questions: how extensively technical services in academic libraries have moved into the use of teams in organizational structures; how extensively technical services in academic libraries have done training related to teams; what team characteristics are demonstrated by teams in technical services in academic libraries; and how the effectiveness of teams is perceived by staff and faculty who work in technical services in academic libraries.

Research highlights
► More and more technical services in academic libraries have moved into the use of teams in the past ten years.
► Teams had been used for a variety of purposes in technical services in academic libraries.
► Training and documentation related to teams had not been done as extensively as should be.
► The use of teams in technical services in academic libraries varied widely.
► About 74.3% of the respondents considered the impact of teams on their technical services at least slightly positive.