Outsourcing Technology : A Practical Guide for Librarians

The care and maintenance of technology is a specialized field requiring a diverse set of skills to perform properly. Many libraries find it difficult to attract skilled people because of a lack of personnel budgets, because of a location that is rural enough to have a limited applicant pool, or because the library lacks enough technological savvy to make effective hiring decisions. Regardless of the reason for the lack of technological skill in a library’s staff, there are ways to outsource major technological functions of the library so that even very small libraries can have the same access to technology as the big libraries—and big libraries can manage huge technological projects with the same resources and skills as multinational companies. Outsourcing Technology: A Practical Guide for Librarians will provide the information and guidance needed for both the smallest libraries to embrace technology and the largest libraries to get the most from their technology investments with tips and tricks for libraries of size between as well.