the Associate Director began the job audits, I called the acquisitions staff together and encouraged them to show her every single step and detail of their workflow. I reassured them that this was not being done with the idea of downsizing, if anything, we were getting the opportunity to argue that additional staff was needed in the acquisitions department.

During the first year of using Voyager, it quickly became evident that this system was much more labor intensive and required a higher level of understanding of serials management by the support staff than had been required with NOTIS. The workload for the serials check-in assistant had increased substantially during the first year. It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to meet the daily demands of processing what makes up the largest portion of the Library’s collection and to maintain the detailed record keeping required. In addition, each new release of Voyager resulted in more of the duties formerly performed in the cataloging department being shifted to the acquisitions department.

In an effort to promote a free exchange of information, I elected not to participate in the individual interview sessions. The actual job interview took about an hour to complete for each employee. There were a few that could have easily extended the hour, but pity was taken upon the Associate Director. The interview questions were open ended, which allowed most of the talking to be done by the staff member. Around this time the Bibliographic Services department had two departures. One person retired in the cataloging department and the monograph assistant in the acquisitions department resigned in order to become a full time student.

After the Associate Director met with all of the support staff, she and I sat down to review job descriptions and classifications of the acquisitions staff. Although she had been aware of the discrepancies in workload within Bibliographic Services, the Associate Director now had documentation and 2 vacancies that would support any restructuring she might propose. Over the course of several weeks, and on one occasion locking ourselves in a conference room, we decided to step away from the traditional model of a technical services department. Endeavor was already publicizing that future Voyager releases would see major changes in the acquisitions and cataloging modules, eventually merging the modules and their functions. This gave us the incentive to begin to chip away at the invisible wall between cataloging and the acquisitions to see where these two departments could be merged. This was by no means an original idea, the main library at Northwestern University had already made this organizational change by creating a Monographic Acquisitions Rapid Cataloging department (MARC). This department is responsible for the acquisition and cataloging on monograph orders.

The proposal presented to and approved by the Associate Dean for Library and Information Systems was to have two serials check-in assistants and to merge monographic ordering and MARC cataloging. Since the monograph position and the serial check-in position were both classified as LAI, it very easy to simply rename and relocate the monograph position and advertise for another serials check-in assistant. This in turn left a hole in monograph ordering and processing. The Associate Director proposed that the library assistant responsible for MARC cataloging, also a LAI, could easily assume the acquisition responsibilities for monographs. This is an area where acquisitions and cataloging functions were merged. Fortunately for the acquisitions department, the timing of the restructuring allowed the outgoing monograph assistant to train the cataloging assistant. Other duties were shifted within the department to ensure equitable distribution of responsibilities and allow for the most efficient processing of library materials. These shifts remained within the proper classification, clerk duties were shifted between clerks and LAI duties were shifted between other LAI positions.

There was another major change made in the Bibliographic Services during this time. The acquisitions department assumed responsibility for overseeing the loose-leaf filing service. Previously, this had been a Public Services department responsibility. The Voyager acquisitions/serials module does not display claim information in the same way NOTIS had and the Public Service staff could not easily track down the serial information. Since the bindery assistant, trained in the serials module, was already the back up for serials check-in and had many of his clerical duties shifted to the library clerk, it was an easy decision to shift the supervision of the loose-leaf filing to him. He can easily track serials information through the acquisitions serials module and claim or order replacements as needed.

As the Head of Acquisitions, I found the result of the job audit very positive. The end result was that positions and duties were reallocated or reassigned, and the acquisitions department gained 1 staff member without creating a new position. Before the audit there were 5 support staff in the acquisitions department: a monograph assistant; an accounts manager; a serials check in assistant; a serials manager; and a bindery assistant. Today, there are 6 support staff in the acquisitions department: a monograph/cataloging assistant (who now refers to herself as the acqaloger), an accounts manager, 2 serial check-in assistants, a serials manager and a bindery assistant. The acquisitions staff’s response has also been very positive. The acqaloger is happy with her new responsibilities and is doing an excellent job. The addition of a serial check-in assistant now makes it possible to meet the increasing volume of serials received and processing required. The 1998 release of Voyager now allows the automatic creation of item records and barcodes at the point of receipt in acquisitions. In the past, all item records and barcodes were created in the cataloging department. In an effort to streamline the workflow in Bibliographic Services, item records and barcodes for law reviews and journals are now created by the serials check-in assistants, and item records for new monographs are created by the monograph assistant. This is another area where acquisitions and cataloging functions have been merged.

The job audit and restructuring has opened the door to new opportunities for the acquisitions department.