The Hawaii Model & Florida

[Pat Wallace <DENWALL@AOL.COM>]

Forward by Patricia Wallace,Chair, Hawaii Working Group
American Library Association
Social Responsibilities Round Table
Alternatives in Print Task Force
denwall@aol.com
[emphasis added]

American Libraries
March 1997, p. 78

Technically Speaking:  Slip Sliding Away

        In a move that is likely to stimulate a great deal of discussion in the
library community, the library at the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU),
a new institution that will open its doors in August, has decided to out-
source technical services and a significant part of collection development
from the get-go.

        Under a two-year agreement with the soon-to-open library, OCLC
and Academic Book Center will provide a fully cataloged, shelf-ready,
opening-day collection, as well as ongoing collection development,
acquisitions, cataloging, authority control, physical processing, and fund
accounting.  SOLINET will provide training and support for the library
staff.

        "Our library has embarked on a bold new approach where the
collection and technical services operation is completely outsourced
from day one," said Carolyn Gray, Florida Gulf Coast's dean of library
services.  Outsourcing these functions, she believes, will allow the
library staff to "focus our limited resources on direct delivery of high
quality, customized library services to students and faculty."

        Unlike the State of Hawaii's contract with Baker and Taylor for
outsourcing services (AL., Jan., p. 12-13), FGCU's agreement with
Academic Book Center calls for a collaborative effort.  As Bob Schatz,
Academic's director of sales, explains it,  "At Florida Gulf Coast we've
simply expanded the approval concept to capture a larger
universe of publications for the library's review.  The librarians
are intimately involved in the development of the selection profiles and
in reviewing our individual selections.  Our perception is that this
may be quite different than the process at work in Hawaii."

        OCLC is excited about the market possibilities that the FGCU's
contract represents.  "OCLC's work with the Florida Gulf Coast University
Library represents the latest example of OCLC's ability to provide a
complete set of technical service functions to member libraries."," said
Phyllis B. Spies, vice-president, OCLC Sales and International.

        Academic Book Center is equally upbeat.
"This project represents the cutting edge of library technical
services outsourcing and collection management,"
said President Daniel Halloran.  "We see this project as a model for other
libraries exploring the outsourcing of technical services."

        Until now, the phrase "virtual library" has referred to library
collections, services, and information converted into electronic
format.  If the expansion of outsourcing that is occuring in
Hawaii and Florida begins to be replicated in libraries
everywhere, that phrase may also come to refer to the
evolution of the library from a cohesive institution into
an alliance of institutions working together for a common
purpose.  This is, after all, what its sister phrase "virtual corporation"
is all about.