In response to the recent American Lawyer article on the outsourcing of law libraries, AALL President Keith Ann Stiverson released a statement today which underscored the important role which information professionals play in 21st century law firms. Stiverson recognized the value of limited, targeted outsourcing but warned of risks and hidden costs arising from the wholesale outsourcing of all information services to a third party. Information management is more important now than at any time in history. Stiverson’s statement included some interesting data on “content clutter.”
“Every two days society creates as much information as it did from the
beginning of time until 2003.On an annual basis, content clutter costs businesses about 500 hours of time per employee. Information professionals cut this cost by effectively managing content for the firm, keeping them competitive in this information driven economy.”
The statement concluded by urging firms to calculate the total cost of outsourcing including an assessment of risk to the business before considering the wholesale outsourcing of all information support and intelligence functions.
Read the full statement here here.