Will £50m outsourcing deal end in-house LIS?
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
This is the attention grabbing news headline from the April 2009 edition of the Library & Information Update. The deal in question is the one between Osborne Clarke and Integreon which has seen 80 Business Services staff including Library Staff "transferred to work at a...delivery centre in Bristol"
The article describes the deal in more details including the details of the teams moved and the impact the deal with have on personal and professional development. The question is, this a good move and will we see more of this type of outsourcing?
For a law firm the idea of sharing services might seem appealing especially in the current financial climate. I would question whether for those people who were working at Osborne Clarke the deal is a good thing and what this might mean for any Law Librarians who firms are considering outsourcing. What do BIALL members think though?
I think it depends on the individual situation. Some libraries might benefit by pooling their resources and sharing library staff, while for others it might mean a gaping communication gap between the librarians and those working in and using the library. Some library staff, particularly in smaller law libraries I have visited, will build up a relationship with the solicitors and other staff they work with, getting to know their particular areas of interest, cases currently being worked on etc. which allows them to shape their collections accordingly. I do not believe that a similar kind of rapport could be built up if the librarians were in another building entirely and communicating only via email or phone. These are the kind of skills that I worry might be lost in the overwhelming drive for efficiency in libraries.