Sarah Glasser, Disappearing Jobs: Staffing Implications for Print Serials Management, Serials Review, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 15 September 2010, ISSN 0098-7913, DOI: 10.1016/j.serrev.2010.06.002.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6W63-511BPHK-1/2/c4931d6dd7aa4fb4e6908c0abbab9ae6)
I find the most compelling piece of this article to be the emphasis in the author’s Literature Review section on the required change in quality of staff for tasks related to electronic resources. She quotes Montgomery, who reports that print journal tasks are accomplished via the “least-skilled and lowest-paid workers,” and that electronic resources tasks need “detail-oriented support staff who have advanced computer skills and who can adjust to continuous changes in procedures and methods….” I don’t think we have made this shift evident to library management; we’ve been approaching the transition of existing staff from print to electronic format-related tasks as a training issue. It may be a training issue at some level, but the requirements of the new job mean that some existing staff won’t make the cut.
Several years ago we phased out a Serials Assistant position and replaced it with a faculty (degreed librarian) Serials Librarian position for exactly those reasons. We needed somebody who could exercise judgment within a broad context of rapidly changing technology and expectations. Fortunately, we were in a position where the serials assistant who was being replaced was just finishing up her library degree and was able to compete successfully for the position. We acquire almost nothing in print anymore, so we’re pretty much all e-resources librarians now.