Outsourcing library technical services – what we think we know, and don’t know

Abstract

Introductioǹ`Outsourcing'', or the use of outside contractors for important parts of a business's operations, seems to have begun in the automobile industry in the 1980s, but has become an issue in the library community since Wright State University eliminated its cataloging department in the early 1990s. Certainly, the timing of discussions in the library professions relates to three very prominent cases, starting with the elimination of the cataloging department at Wright State University in 1993, followed by outsourcing the entire library of the law firm of Baker & MacKenzie in 1995, and the elimination of both cataloging and selection from the entire public library system of the state of Hawaii in the same year.Since then, hundreds of publications, conference papers and other discussions of the subject have appeared in the library world. While the most complete listing of this material appears in the ALA sponsored report on the subject (Martin et al., 2000), useful selective annotated bibliographies are also available in Colver (1997) and Be Ânaud and Bordeianu (1999). Although the vast majority of this material tends to polemics and how-we-did-it descriptions, there are also a number of analyses of both the philosophical and practical issues raised. DefinitionStrangely, given the interest in outsourcing, there is little consensus on what the term actually means, a problem possibly related to the use of terminology from outside librarianship (Miller, 1995).Richard Abel, the founder of approval plans, defines outsourcing as``simply the contracting out of a variety of`backroom' functions to suppliers in the private sector'' (Abel, 1998), but then gives use of Library of Congress printed cards as an example, although LC is clearly not in the``private sector'' . Other writers use terminology similar to Baker's:``a method employed by an organisation to hire or contract with an outside individual, vendor, or agency toThe author

Outsourcing primary medical care in Israeli defense forces: Decision-makers’ versus clients’ perspectives

“…Officers from the GH and MC ranked the overall importance of outsourcing almost equally (p = 0. 16). Yet officers from the MC rated two criteria: "decrease in the professional prestige of MC" and "increased dependency on the civilian medical system" significantly higher (p < 0.05) in level of importance than the GH officers, thus expressing their concern regarding loss of professional prestige and becoming professionally dependent on the civilian system after the change occurs.…”

“…Satisfaction level is one outcome measure reflecting the results of outsourcing [13][14][15][16][17][18]. Outsourcing has been found to increase the level of satisfaction with services given in medical, as well as other, organizations [3,12,19].…”

“…Seven items (3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 17) rated as "important" dealt with various aspects of the working environment and the attitude towards the client. Six items (8,13,14,15,16,19) rated as "non-important," dealt with the status and the prestige of the military physician and that of the MC. The mean scores in the career-soldiers' satisfaction level questionnaire [8] were: "Patient satisfaction parameter" achieved the highest mean score of 4.53 (96.4% responders), "highly to very important" Medical staff attitude mean score of 4.52 (89.3% responders) and importance rate of "highly to very important", Working environment for provision of medical care, mean score 4.51 (91.3% responders); Quality/professionalism of medical care, mean score 4.52 (84.1% responders); "Availability of medical care", (mean score 4.52, 35.5% responders).…”

Ready or Not?

“…2 Furthermore, Shippy and Krug underscore the highly customizable nature of shelf-ready services and define it as a "set of custom services that you design à la carte." 3 Joy and Lugg briefly examine the reasons why libraries turned to the shelf-ready option.…”

Shelf-ready: A cost-benefit analysis

“…By the turn of the century, outsourcing technical services, with its potential to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction (Baker, 1998), became commonplace. A significant number of libraries created partnerships with vendors reporting varying degrees of success (Sweetland, 2001).…”