Libraries are generally organized into several functional sections or departments to manage their resources and provide services efficiently. These functions are often referred to as housekeeping operations. Broadly, library work can be divided into technical, user, and administrative domains. The specific sections and their functions are detailed below.
Acquisition Section
The primary role of the Acquisition Section is to procure books, serials, and other information resources for the library's collection. This is a crucial function as it builds the foundation of the library's holdings.
- Selection and Ordering: The process begins with identifying the information needs of the user community through direct methods like user suggestions or indirect methods like studying the parent organization's goals. Staff then use various selection tools, such as publishers' catalogues, national bibliographies, and book reviews, to choose appropriate materials. Once documents are selected and approved, this section handles the entire ordering process, which includes checking for duplicates, selecting vendors, placing orders, and managing reminders for overdue items.
- Receiving: When ordered materials arrive, the Acquisition Section verifies the consignment against the invoices and order lists to ensure accuracy and check for any damaged or defective items.
- Accessioning: This section maintains a formal record of all materials added to the library's collection in an accession register. Each item is assigned a unique, sequential accession number, which serves as a permanent inventory identifier.
- Financial Management: The section is responsible for managing the library's acquisition budget, allocating funds to different subjects or departments, processing invoices for payment, and maintaining financial records.
- In an automated environment, an Integrated Library System (ILS) streamlines these tasks by managing vendor databases, fund accounting, currency conversion, order generation, and bill processing within a single module.
Technical Processing Section
This section is responsible for preparing the acquired documents so they can be easily accessed and used by patrons. It is often considered the "pivot" of library housekeeping operations. Its main functions are classification and cataloguing.
- Classification: This involves assigning a class number to each document based on its subject content, using a standardized classification scheme like the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) or Colon Classification (CC). The purpose is to bring together books on the same subject on the shelves, which facilitates browsing and logical arrangement.
- Cataloguing: This is the process of creating a bibliographic record, or a catalogue entry, for each document. This record includes descriptive details like author, title, publisher, and publication date. Using a cataloguing code like the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR), the cataloguer also determines access points (e.g., author, title, subject headings) to help users find the material. The resulting entries form the library catalogue, which serves as an index to the library's entire collection. In an automated system, cataloguing is done using formats like MARC 21 to create an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).
- Physical Processing: This section also handles the physical preparation of documents. This includes stamping the library's ownership mark, pasting items like date slips, book pockets, and spine labels, and writing the call number on the document and its corresponding records.
Circulation Section (User Services)
The Circulation Section is often the most visible part of the library and is the primary point of contact for users. It manages the lending of library materials for use outside the library premises.
- User Registration: Before users can borrow materials, they must be registered as members of the library. This section manages the entire registration process.
- Charging and Discharging: The core function is the charging (issuing or lending) of documents to registered members and the discharging (checking in or returning) of those documents. Libraries use various systems, like the Browne and Newark systems, to manage these transactions. In modern libraries, this process is often automated using barcodes or RFID technology.
- Loan Management: This section manages reservations (or holds) for items currently on loan, processes renewals for users who wish to extend their borrowing period, and handles the recall of overdue or needed items. It is also responsible for collecting overdue fines.
- Shelving and Maintenance: Staff from this section are often responsible for re-shelving returned books and ensuring the stacks are kept in correct order (shelf rectification).
- Inter-Library Loan (ILL): It facilitates borrowing materials from other libraries for its users when an item is not available in its own collection.
Serials Section (Serials Control)
This section is dedicated to managing serials, which are publications issued in successive parts with no predetermined end, such as journals, magazines, and newspapers.
- Subscription Management: The section handles placing new subscription orders, processing annual renewals, and managing cancellations, often through subscription agents. Payments for serials are typically made in advance.
- Receiving and Recording: Staff must meticulously track the receipt of each individual issue to ensure the collection is complete. Systems like Kardex or the Three-Card System are traditionally used for this "check-in" process.
- Claiming and Binding: If an expected issue does not arrive, the section sends a claim to the publisher or agent. Once all issues of a volume are received, they are prepared and sent for binding to preserve them as a single unit.
- In an automated ILS, the serials control module can predict the arrival of issues and automatically generate claims for missing ones.
Reference and Information Services Section
This section provides personal assistance to users to help them find information and make the best use of the library's resources. Its services can be responsive (on-demand) or anticipatory (proactive).
- Reference Service: Staff answer user queries, which can range from simple, factual questions (ready reference) to complex research questions requiring in-depth investigation (long-range reference). This is now often done through both in-person interactions and virtual reference services like chat and email.
- Literature Search and Bibliographic Services: Upon request, this section conducts literature searches and compiles bibliographies on specific topics for researchers and other users.
- Current Awareness Services (CAS): To keep users up-to-date with the latest developments in their fields, the library provides services like circulating lists of new acquisitions, tables of contents from recent journals, or Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI), which provides personalized alerts based on a user's interest profile.
- User Education and Information Literacy: The section organizes orientation programs, workshops, and training sessions to teach users how to use the library catalogue, databases, and other resources effectively.
- Other Services: This section may also provide abstracting, digest, newspaper clipping, and referral services, where users are directed to experts or institutions outside the library for information.
Maintenance Section
This section is responsible for the long-term preservation and upkeep of the library's collection.
- Preservation and Conservation: It undertakes activities to prevent the deterioration of library materials due to environmental factors (light, humidity) or biological agents (insects, fungi). This includes minor repairs and mending of damaged documents.
- Binding: A major task is managing the binding of old, worn-out books and completed volumes of periodicals to ensure their longevity.
- Stock Verification: This involves the physical checking of the library’s entire collection against its official records (like the accession register or shelf list) to identify lost or misplaced items.
- Weeding (Deselection): The section is responsible for periodically removing outdated, damaged, or irrelevant materials from the collection to save space and keep the holdings current and useful.