Technical Services Report: Summer 2026

Untitled (1596–1633), Philipp Hainhofer, Image sourced from the Public Domain Image Archive / Herzog August Bibliothek

Welcoming New Colleagues

Over the summer, our team welcomed three new members: our Resource Management and Access Librarian, our Collections Acquisition and Metadata Librarian, and our Library Specialist for Circulation and Reserves. Their arrival marked an important step in rebuilding capacity across Technical Services after a period of staffing transitions, and we're excited to have them on board as we head into the new academic year.

Despite their relatively short tenure, our new staff have worked hard to improve both the quantity and quality of resources available to the TC community. Now back at full strength, the technical services unit has resumed several projects. This includes the acquisition of materials to round out specific, high-value collections such as the backfiles to the Classic Education Collection, supplementing our suite of Taylor & Francis Journals, and new additions to our collection of TC Press Ebooks. We have also enhanced access to existing collections, such as the addition of subject and authority headings to select items from the TC dissertation and thesis collection, resulting in a 75% increase in catalog record quality. Finally, we have worked to build relationships with new vendors and platforms, increasing the potential range of available resources for Gottesman Libraries patrons.

Patron-Driven Acquisitions & Coordinated Collection Development

Our unit processed 185 requests for new materials and added 183 new titles to the collection:

New Book Requests:

• 62 faculty requests
• 27 student requests
• 96 staff requests

Total: 185 requests fulfilled

Materials Added to the Collection:

• 130 Ebooks
  -- Including almost 60 new TC Press Ebooks
• 53 print books

Total: 183 books acquired

In the few weeks since July 1st, TC library patrons have already successfully requested new Ebooks 94 times, and loaned over 20 new print books multiple times, resulting in almost 50 circulations of our new titles.

Course Resource Lists   

Over the summer, Course Resource Lists ran on a temporarily self-service model after the departure of our Reserves and Support Services Librarian. With our Resource Management and Access Librarian joining in July 2026, we were able to resume direct support for faculty, assisting with Summer B Course Resource Lists as well as early planning for Fall 2026. The statistics below reflect activity for July–August 2026 only.

Some quick statistics for the Summer 2026 term:

• 23 instructors utilized Course Resource Lists
• The library fulfilled 26 lists containing 953 citations
• The library acquired 11 new titles for course reserves
• The library licensed 2 films for course reserves
• The library purchased 3 copyright licenses for course reserves 

Fall Resource Sharing

The library's digital and physical Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services for TC students, faculty, and staff via OCLC WorldShare were paused for Summer 2026.

Services resumed on September 1, 2026. We're pleased to report that our Resource Management and Access Librarian, alongside our Circulation and Reference Librarian, is now working with Columbia University Libraries to expand resource sharing services, including delivery and pick-up options for the TC community. We'll share more details as these services take shape over the Fall semester.