The Benefits and Problems of Outsourcing

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Outsourcing is a very topical issue in not only the information services industry today but also the whole of the employment industry. The definition of outsourcing, according to the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary is as follows: “to send away (some of a company's work) to be done by people outside the company” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). So effectively, in a management situation where outsourcing is being considered, this is when any work that would or could have been done by the company or parent company is done by an external company instead. Some of today’s workers have been in situations where their jobs have been outsourced, they have been utilised as contractors in an outsourced industry, and feel that their livelihoods have been threatened by outsourcing. In light of the tough economic times and the more innovative ways of acquiring staff outsourcing is becoming a favoured option for some managers. So the purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of outsourcing primarily in libraries and other information services. It will discuss, right or wrong, why outsourcing may be a favoured option for some managers in the information services industry utilising examples and research from experts in the information services industry who have had experience with or studied the issue of outsourcing.

Libraries have many menial tasks outsourced like book covering and purchasing; however, outsourcing library management itself was not heard of until 1997 when the Hawaiian State Library followed through with this idea (N. M. Hill, 2011, p.14). This aspect of outsourcing is quite unusual as it involves having the actual bosses being external to the organisation. A reason given for outsourcing of library management is the recent financi...

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...Digital Commons at the University of Wollongong, Australia. OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, 23(4), 353-362. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10650750710831493

Pantry, S. (2005). Making the best of outsourcing. CILIP library and information update, 4(5), 34-36. Retrieved from http://edocs.library.curtin.edu.au/eres_display.cgi?url=dc60165027.pdf©right=1

Petry-Eberle, A., & Bieg, M. (2009). Outsourcing information services. Library Hi Tech, 27(4), 602-609. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07378830911007709

Stark, T. (2011). A Cautionary Tale of Privatization. Public Libraries, 50(2), 15-16. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/docview/861735990?accountid=10382

The Library of Birmingham. (2014). Business Services. Retrieved from http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com/article/businessservices/businessservices

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