STRATEGIC PROCUREMENT OF PUBLIC LIBRARY COLLECTIONS.

Outsourcing of technical services functions such as cataloguing and processing is becoming more commonplace in libraries across Australia.Strategic procurement adds further value to the whole process of outsourcing the purchase of goods and services. In 1999 Brisbane City Council Library Services outsourced its acquisitions and technical services, enabling staff to move into user focused positions in the branches. It also introduced a more strategic management of acquisitions and collections which continues to be fine tuned to meet the needs of library users. In 2005 Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service became the first Victorian library to fully outsource its acquisitions and technical services. Brisbane and Yarra Plenty, although 1700 kms apart, are working together to adopt a standard AACR2 Level 2 catalogue record to be created by library suppliers, with costs shared between the partner libraries. Edited version of a paper presented at the Alia 2006 Perth biennial conference [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]