The varieties of activities and services necessary to have a library or information
center are generally divided into the "public services" and the "technical services."

Public services are those that communicate directly with the public, such as reference
services, circulation (check out) services, interlibrary loan, etc.

Those activities that occur behind the scenes to make the provision of public services
possible are the technical services.  

The technical services include:
  • Collection development & management (the selection of information resources)
  • Acquisitions (the procurement of information resources and information access)
  • Cataloging (the organization of information for effective retrieval)
  • Preservation (the long term stewardship of information resources)

Knowledge of technical services is fundamental to being able to provide information
services.  Provision of public services is severely handicapped when not all library or
information center personnel are well-versed in the technical services.
Heidi Lee Hoerman
What are "technical services?"