From the impact of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, including amendments, to technology's potential for increasing productivity, you need to keep abreast of the latest changes and the newest innovations.These detailed guides will help you: -- Determine hardware and software needs for technical services workstations-- Accurately catalog material from serials to reproductions to interactive multimedia-- Integrate preservation activities into the acquisition processTechnical services managers everywhere are eyeing the use of commercial vendors as they wrestle with work overload and increased service demands. The key consideration of outsourcing is impact: What will be the effects of outsourcing a variety of activities? Will it be worth it? How can quality be measured?These are questions that can only be answered through experience -- the critical value of Outsourcing Technical Services Operations. This book is the first to present the experiences of outsourcing programs in academic, public, and special libraries. The authors contribute a wealth of lessons in managing contractual services and in integrating such services into their libraries.Among outsourced activities explored are authority control, book selection, collection replacement, computer support, database maintenance, document delivery, foreign-language cataloging, HTML editing, item record creation, and original and copy cataloging.This practical resource gives decision-makers the complete picture on options, outcomes, and assessments. It may be your best chance to avoid costly mistakes.