The Effect of Digital Publishing on Technical Services in University Libraries

The past decade has brought enormous changes in scholarly communication, leading many libraries to undertake large-scale digital publishing initiatives. However, no study has investigated how technical services departments are changing to support these new services. Using change management as a theoretical framework, the investigator uses content analysis, surveys, and interviews to analyze how libraries at the cutting edge of library-based digital publishing are utilizing their technical services departments to support these new initiatives and how these changes are being handled. The findings indicate that while many technical services departments are actively supporting library-based digital publishing to some degree, many functions traditionally provided by technical services are being handled by other units within the library. This leads to a discussion of how these change processes will progress and their ultimate effect on library structures and user services.