The library is to some extent a seller, as the title of a book about the prices of library services reminds us of.

Similarly, one might argue that the library is a buyer; this means, it sells certain services and buys others in order to reach its aims, which is a typical feature of the postindustrial age.

Outsourcing in Public Administration is generally understood as referring to the entrusting external agencies with those public services that only work at users request.

However, it is the P. A. that manages these services, and it is the Publica Organization that is the only responsible of users satisfaction (thus outsourcing is obviously not a form of privatization).

Nevertheless, many types of outsourcing have been adopting for the managing of University libraries. These range from subcontract (in which the library simply entrusts the agency with a specific stage of production that is often an internal process) to ways of outsourcing which imply a more strict collaboration with the enterprises; these are nearly set up on equal bases and their aims are the realization of strategically very important services, such as the front line ones.

This work will try to describe all those services that University libraries are more likely to buy, for which purpose they buy them, by the use of which resources and, if possible, with which results.

I am especially going to explain, as a model, a selection of the most important experiences of outsourcing by the University libraries of Florence; my personal observations will concern the reasons for the outsourcing, the way to do it and then its advantages and disadvantages. This might turn out to be a little help for those persons who are going to draft some guideline for outsourcing and for the library management as well.

With the new administration and management policy of University libraries, an improvement in services and either a reduction in costs or a control of them are the most frequent reasons for both cooperation between University Library Systems and outsourcing, both of which involve external agents in the activities of University libraries.

University Library Systems rely on external agents mostly in the following situations:

• when the service to be offered needs a number of human resources that exceeds its power in the time of reference
• when a high innovative product project is to be realized and employees lack of a certain kind of technical competence that they cannot acquire in a brief time
• when the outsourcing of a highly standardized and easy measurable activity allows University Library Systems to employ internal human resources in other equally important sectors that are more qualifying
• when the sector of the outsourcing is not found in the "core business"
• when the employement of an external and neutral agent - the so-called "third person" - is necessary for the success of the task in question.

In conclusion, outsourcing is not worth in itself, nor is necessarily followed by an improvement in effectiveness and in efficiency of University Library System or other sectors of Public Administration; nevertheless, it is likely to be - if thoughfully used - a powerful way to assure the survival and the further developing of Public University, this intended as circle of primary importance to exercise the right to teach, learn and research freely.