I was excited to read about a Flickr photoset of pictures taken of various areas within technical services at the Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan.  (Seen via librarian.net.)  This photoset provides a lot of insight into how books and other material are received and processed in technical services in a large library.  Having taught a course in technical services librarianship, I am well aware of the utility of this kind of picture collection.  Most of the students who take my course have never worked in technical services and don’t have much of an idea what technical services is.  The class I’ve taught in the past is an online course and one of the biggest drawbacks to an online venue is the inability at times to give students “hands on” experience.  This is particularly the case when teaching  technical services.  In UIUC GSLIS’s online curriculum (LEEP), each class has only one opportunity to meet together in person, called an “on campus day.”  Usually for a portion of that day, I schedule a tour of UIUC’s Main Library technical services operation.  Feedback from students has shown that this firsthand look at technical services is tremendously helpful.

Surely the next best thing would be to show and discuss this photoset in class or have students look at it on their own.  That would go a long way toward demystifying some of the physical aspects of this area of librarianship.  I’d love to see more such photosets crop up on Flickr or elsewhere.  Folks, let’s shed light on technical services in libraries of all sorts!  Bring “the back room” out into the open!  I think a lot of people, including our library users, would find such exposure fascinating and insightful.