Outsourcing Library Services at the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI): Benefits and Challenges

Assessing outsourcing the library services at the NLAI and its effect on the improvement of the performance of the support services of the library. Methodology/Research Design: Views of the managers and the staff working in the Processing, Providing, Information, and Financial Department who were and are involved in outsourcing projects were surveyed. Data was collected using a questionnaire designed by the researchers and distributed among 173 potential respondents, out of which 128 were completed and returned. Descriptive and analytic statistics, as well as T test was carried out to draw results from the data. Outsourcing has led to minor improvements in terms of effectiveness; moderate improvement in terms of efficiency; but rarely enhanced the quality of activities. Outsourcing has not improved performance at the NLAI considerably.