Small task - outsourcing

1. We have just initiated a 3-month trial to outsource up to 90% of our cataloguing. This would see a supplier of materials to the library undertake some cataloguing duties with no incremental cost to the library. This is expected to reduce costs by 2 FTE. However we have taken IT support back in house due to problems with using the firm providing council IT support.
2. With the necessity for the library to cover more of its budget, one way to help achieve this is to cut costs so outsourcing other operations is a possibility if this can be done at a cost-advantage. I would be very hesitant to outsource book selection as I have read of other libraries having problems with this. It would be difficult to replace the detailed patron knowledge that has been built up over the years by the acquisition staff. Outsourcing of the website maintenance is more palatable but that is unlikely to happen in the near future since we have only just brought it in-house. When considering outsourcing total costs must be compared as there may be a cost of ceasing doing the task in-house e.g. redundancy, and there will be a cost to supervising the contract.