Re: Outsourcing recommendations (Julia Esparza) Marcia Tuttle 02 Apr 2001 23:53 UTC
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 11:36:03 -0400 From: "Esparza, Julia" <JEsparza@ECRI.ORG> Subject: Re: Outsourcing recommendations (Mary Laskow) Considering how few Serial positions both at the professional and paraprofessional level there are available I have a problem helping out with information on outsourcing. However, in the past while we were waiting to fill positions we have used companies to fill positions. The promise of qualified personnel led to one college graduate with library experience unable to photocopy articles for us to send out for Interlibrary Loan. Training time is the big downside. Unlike secretarial positions or accounting positions library positions are quirky. Each organization has its own rules for how they acquire information and how they organize it when it arrives. This is true even using AACR2 Revised or the latest LC guidelines. Unless you can find people who only want to work part-time because they need to be off part of the week or people who are retired you just won't get great help without paying a lot. Now if you decide that a smaller body count is more important than what you pay then you should go for outsourcing. I personally don't think it will save you a dime in the long run. I feel that you should at least invest in part-time employees who have a connection to the organization. Even then they may always be looking for the opportunity to get a full time position. This will mean again training people for how your organization works. I will take my one full-time serial assistant who can handle questions, field issues and handle our payment system and checkin system more than the headache of having to train new people all the time. Not that these people are bad but the training time for a complicated library even at a smaller off-site library is still difficult. Of course all of this is my humble opinion. Julie Esparza My opinion is my own and does not represent ECRI in any way. ECRI - a non profit health services research institute Library 5200 Butler Pike Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462-1298 610.825.6000 Ext. 5184 Voice 610.834.7366 Fax http://www.ecri.org -----Original Message----- Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001 12:41:14 EST From: Mary Laskow <DALaskow@AOL.COM> Subject: Outsourcing recommendations We are considering outsourcing several different functions in our library, including document delivery, serials management, and/or acquisitions. The scenario would be in-house management of these functions on a multi-site basis. We've identified the obvious outsourcing companies - AIC and LSSI. Is anyone using any other company to provide any of these services? Also, if you would like to share your experiences with evaluating/utilizing outsourcing as a solution for your library, I would greatly appreciate learning from your expertise. If you could reply to me directly, I would be happy to summarize for the list. Thank you in advance, Mary Laskow Sr. Information Scientist Bristol-Myers Squibb Princeton, NJ mary.laskow@bms.com 609-252-4800