ECONOMIC INDICATOR
The newsletter from the SMU Friends of the Library brings an interesting sign of economic improvement. The library offers a commercial research service to local businesses:
About six months before national economists announce a positive change, [the service's head Dev] Bickston notices that companies increase their inquiries about new technology and new products. Before the economy slows, businesses cut their research to the basics. Bickston's current workload may be an indicator of better times to come--business for his staff of four is better than it's been in five years, he says.
This service is also a good example of corporate outsourcing--contracting out functions that used to be done entirely in-house and thereby spreading the costs of, for example, maintaining a specialized staff and large library over many different organizations. In addition to providing research services to clients who don't have libraries, SMU works with about 60 corporate librarians:
Laurie Crim, law librarian at Texas Instruments, often orders technical articles related to the semiconductor industry for TI attorneys and engineers. A TI librarian for 20 years, Crim says the firm had many corporate libraries at one time; however, now she manages the corporation's only library. Other clients include small business owners and entrepreneurs.