Joys of Outsourcing

[Pat Wallace <DENWALL@AOL.COM>]

Forwarded with permission by Patricia D. Wallace
Chair, Hawaii Working Group (ALA Social Responsibility Round Table /
Alternatives in Print Division)
SLIS graduate student, TX Women's University
1st-3rd Multiage Teacher
Harry Stone Montessori Magnet School
Dallas, TX
Denwall@aol.com
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Subject: The Joys of Outsourcing
From: An anonymous Branch library manager in Hawaii
To: Hawaii Working Group
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997

To the numerous people of the world who have not followed this story
closely, I hope my offering will bring you up to speed.

Hawaii is a state library system.  The only one in the United States.
The State Librarian, Bart Kane, planned for many years to outsource
everything he could.  He contracted out 100%, less magazine and
newspaper subscriptions, of our materials budget to a well known
vendor.  He re-engineered the system.  He cut all technical services
personnel as well as all middle management.  One can only suppose
his reasoning is that Hawaii doesn't need any technical service as
long as this vendor can do it all.

For all of you who think outsourcing is a swell deal, let me ask you a
few questions.

*Do you think that selection is such a nonprofessional, nonessential
responsibility that you are willing to let someone in the next county,
city, state, country or continent decide what materials should be placed
on your shelves?

*Do you think that 100% of you materials budget should be handed over
to a vendor?  Don't you ever wish that you could go out and buy a book
at a bookstore that your vendor has determined that you don't need?
Don't you ever wish that you could contact a publisher, who chooses not
to distribute through that vendor, and get a copy of a book that is just
right for your collection?  Forget it!  The vendor knows all and will provide

all.  Your knowledge of your customers and community really doesn't
matter.  Your expertise in selection is inferior to that of the vendor.

Do you ever go out and duplicate titles?  The vendor has decided that
6,406 titles as so worthwhile, forget that you already have 7,170 of
those titles on your shelves, that it will sell these fantastic titles to you
at
$20.94 per title.

What if you don't like the 6,406 duplicate titles that the vendor sends?
Can you return them?  No.  These are used goods and cannot be returned.

What if your vendor supplies a large number of paperback reprints when
you have sufficient hard cover copies?  Oops! Can't return those.

What if your vendor sends you 56 copies, at $20.94 equals $1,172.64, of
Charles Darwin's Origin of Species? Oops, can't return that.

What if your vendor sends 678 copies of something you specifically told
it not too send you.  Say Aloha to $14,197.32.

What if your vendor promises to send paper backs in order to balance out
high ticket items?  Let's say the vendor purchased 4825 titles retailing
at under $5.00.  At the unit price, they collected $101,035.  In return,
they selected 455 titles retailing for between $30-$60.  At the unit
price, you paid $9209.  Does all this sound good and reasonable to you?
If it does, then outsourcing is just what you are looking for.

How do you like getting reprints that have copyrights going back to
Darwin and Bronte?  How about being given the opportunity to purchase
new children's books or having the vendor providing reprints dating back
to 1955, with the preponderance in 1990-1994.  The best part of this deal
is that they're all glorious paperbacks.  Children just love that!  Libraries
all
over are just waiting to sign up with this vendor so they can  receive
$2.99  paperbacks and pay $20.94 per unit for the privilege.

What about cataloging?  The vendor will provide!  What if someone
donates some really good material to your library.  What if someone
donates $1000 for nature video tapes and $2500 for young adult
materials.  Sure you could go out and buy these "units," and quite
a few units that cost you  $3.99 retail instead of $20.94 a unit.  Only
one problem here -- the state no longer has the capability to catalog.
The vendor promises to catalog about 200 units per year that you
don't  purchase through it.  Does it sound reasonable to you?

Oops.  Flash.  The State Librarian decides there is a need for some in-
house cataloging.  Fourteen months into the new re-engineered library,
we finally have one full time cataloger for the state.  One person to
handle 49 public libraries.  We do have four, if you can find the time,
catalogers.  These four must fit it in to their public service schedules.

Cataloging by the vendor is not to be believed. Kane decided not to spend
much money on videos.  We get title, distributor, and accession number.
We really are able to help our customers find materials [only] if they know
the exact title.  If you like this -- you'll love outsourcing.

How detailed is vendor cataloging?  I guess it depends on the unit and
what LC does with it.  If LC doesn't do much -- the vendor follows suit.
We seldom get content notes, adequate subject tracings, or added
entries.  We now have a computer that can access several areas of a
record.  If those things don't appear on the record -- you have no access.
he vendor sure is making us earn our meager salaries.  In the future, one
will have to have a photographic memory to be a librarian.  If this sounds
good to you, you really must consider outsourcing.

If you like the way local catalogers are able to harmonize call numbers
with your existing collection for maximum browsing effectiveness, you
probably won't be happy with outsourcing.  I guess the customer and his
or her use of a library doesn't matter much to the vendor.  Customer
satisfaction is not factored into the $20.94 per unit price.

Outsourcing is not for everyone.  Librarians need to understand that
their education and ties to the community mean nothing.  Any vendor,
any place, can do a better job than you can.  Customers must understand
that materials they want, in the format they want, are not factored into a
bargain price of $20.94.

Do you think outsourcing is for you?  I invite all of you who are considering

it to read previous posts about the Hawaii experience.  If you can't avoid
outsourcing, maybe you can make a better contract and  do a better job of
organizing and managing your internal resources.

From the Land of Aloha and Wal-Mart Libraries