Sources of Inspiration

This came through NYLINE today. So read and then tell me what you think…

Patty

This appeared in USA Today (10/5/2007, p. 10A), and is reprinted here
without comment, other than to say it stinks.

Communities hire private firms to manage public libraries
By Julia Silverman
The Associated Press

MEDFORD, Ore. — A big, red "Closed" sign has been plastered across
the front door of the library here since mid-April, when Jackson County
ran out of money to keep its 15 branches open.

In a few weeks, the sign will come down and the doors will be opened
again, now that the county has come up with an unusual cost-saving
solution: outsourcing the running of its libraries.

The county will continue to own the buildings and all the books in
them, but the libraries will be managed by an outside company for a
profit. The librarians will no longer be public employees and union
members; they will be on the private company's payroll.

Library patrons might not notice much difference, but the librarians
will, because the company plans to get by with a smaller staff and will
have a free hand to set salaries and benefits.

"The average citizen, when they walk into the library, they will see
well-trained, well-educated, customer-service-oriented people working in
the library," said Bob Windrow, director of sales and marketing at
Germantown, Md.-based Library Systems and Services (LSSI), the company
taking over.

For years, state and local governments have been privatizing certain
functions, such as trash collection, payroll processing and road
maintenance. Contracting with an outside company to run a library is a
relatively new phenomenon, one that has been gaining in popularity as
communities look for ways to save money.

The practice has generated a backlash from those who argue that
municipalities are employing a backdoor method of union-busting, and
those who say such profit-making ventures go against the notion that
libraries are one of the noblest functions of government in a
democracy.

"This is a shift from the public trust into private hands," said John
Sexton, an out-of-work Jackson County librarian who has interviewed with
LSSI for his old job. "Libraries have always been a source of
information for everyone and owned by no one."

Most of the 15 or so U.S. municipalities that have outsourced their
libraries have signed on with LSSI, which is the biggest player in the
field but is privately held and does not disclose earnings.

In the past year, Texas cities San Juan and Leander, California cities
Redding and Moorpark, and the Jackson-Madison County library system in
Tennessee have become LSSI clients.

Jackson County, Ore., lost 36% of its budget last year when Congress
failed to renew the rich subsidies designed to help areas of the country
where logging has been hurt by endangered-species regulations.

Rather than cut back on such government services as law enforcement,
county officials closed the libraries. 

Two ballot measures to raise taxes and reopen the libraries failed.

LSSI will run the library system for about half of the $8 million a
year the county previously spent. The libraries will be open a total of
24 hours a week, compared with 40-plus hours previously. LSSI plans to
hire 50 to 60 full-time employees, down from 88.

The county will retain control over late fees, the cost of a library
card, or how long library patrons can keep a best seller. LSSI will be
in charge of buying books and hiring.

Many former staff members are interviewing for their old jobs, but
there won't be enough employment for everyone.

Some bibliophiles fear that the library, under distant, corporate
management, will be less attuned to local interests.

"Does this company understand local needs?" asked Loriene Roy,
president of the American Library Association, which opposes library
outsourcing. 

"We have long regarded libraries as different," Roy said. "We are not
profit-driven."