Outsourcing Library Technical Services Operations: Practices in Academic, Public, and Special Libraries

By Karen A. Wilson and Marylou Colver

Library managers are increasingly outsourcing technical services functions to meet their tighter budgets and streamlined staffing levels. Until now, no sound guidance on outsourcing options and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0838907032
• ISBN13: 9780838907030
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: American Library Association
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A Source of Helpful Examples

Wilson and Colver's Outsourcing Library Technical Services Operations is a helpful complement to Hirshon and Winters'"how-to-do-it manual" on the same subject. It provides a number of specific examples of how outsourcing worked in specific libraries of various types. Some of the libraries followed the sorts of principles found in Hirshon and Winters rather closely, but at least one seems to have outsourced simply because they didn't feel like doing the work themselves! The case studies tell you quite a bit about the costs and advantages of outsourcing. In at least one of the cases, an "insourcing" strategy turned out to work better than outsourcing.