[CALIBK12] from Yahoo news: privatizing public libraries

[Stephen Krashen]

"However, the libraries will be open a total of only
24 hours a week, compared with 40-plus hours for most
branches before the shutdown. And LSSI plans to hire
50 to 60 full-time employees, down from 88 under
county management."


Librarians under new management

By JULIA SILVERMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 4,
2:56 PM ET

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.
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In a few weeks, though, the sign will come down and
the doors will be flung open again, now that the
county has come up with an unusual cost-saving
solution: outsourcing 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. And the librarians
will no longer be public employees and union members;
they will be on the company's payroll.

Library patrons might not notice much difference, but
the librarians will, since 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, or LSSI, the company taking over. "They
won't know who is paying their salary, and they won't
care. They care whether the library is open adequate
hours, and are they getting good service."

For years, state and local governments have been
privatizing certain functions, such as trash
collection, payroll processing and road maintenance.

But contracting with an outside company to run a
library is a relatively new phenomenon, one that has
been gaining in popularity as communities from Jackson
County, Tenn., to Redding, Calif., 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 that 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 has signed on with LSSI,
which is the biggest player in the field but is
privately held and does not disclose earnings.

Jackson County lost 36 percent of its budget in one
fell swoop last year when Congress failed to renew the
rich subsidies designed to help parts of the country
where logging has been hurt by endangered-species
regulations. Rather than cut back on, say, law
enforcement, county officials closed the libraries.
(Congress later approved a one-year extension of the
logging subsidies.)

Book lovers complained bitterly about the closings,
but two ballot measures to raise taxes and reopen the
libraries fell short. Then LSSI offered to run the
libraries, underbidding the public employees union.

The contract with LSSI will be worth around $3 million
a year; the county will also budget $1.3 million to
maintain the buildings. Combined, that is about half
of the $8 million a year the county previously spent
on its libraries.

However, the libraries will be open a total of only 24
hours a week, compared with 40-plus hours for most
branches before the shutdown. And LSSI plans to hire
50 to 60 full-time employees, down from 88 under
county management.

The county will retain control over certain policies,
such as late fees, the cost of a library card, or how
long library patrons can keep a best-seller.

But LSSI will be in charge of buying books and says it
will use its muscle to obtain deep discounts from
suppliers. It will also be responsible for hiring, and
says that while its salaries will be comparable to
what the employees were making previously, the
benefits will be less generous. The workers will lose
the right to participate in Oregon's pension system
for public employees and instead will qualify for a
401(k) program.

Many former staff members are interviewing for their
old jobs, meaning library patrons are likely to see
some familiar faces when they check out a book. But
there won't be enough jobs for everyone. And some have
yet to decide whether to go back.

"I am taking a wait-and-see approach," said Amy
Kinard, who worked for the library system for 17
years. "I am not hopeful for a job, but I am trying to
stay open to the benefits of working for them."

Some bibliophiles fear that the library, under
distant, corporate management, will be less attuned to
local interests when buying books and will stock the
shelves with lots of best-sellers.

"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. We deal
with intangibles. We are not profit-driven."

Riverside County, Calif., one of California's
fastest-growing regions, is widely seen as the pioneer
in library outsourcing. The county signed with LSSI in
1997 and has stuck with the company; a 2002 study
found that Riverside County library patrons were
generally pleased with the services.

In just the last year, Texas cities San Juan and
Leander, California cities Redding and Moorpark and
the Jackson-Madison County library system in Tennessee
have joined LSSI's ranks.

In Bedford, Texas, outside of Fort Worth, Mayor Jim
Story cast the tie-breaking vote in August against
allowing LSSI to take over the libraries.

"The salaries were going to be pretty low, and I was
afraid that that would lead to high turnover of their
own employees," Story said. "Plus I did not think that
they would have the manpower to handle the quality of
service that we now have in our library. I wasn't
willing to that risk."

Fargo, N.D., cut its ties with LSSI in 2003, after
concerns that the company had not paid its bills on
time, while Jersey City, N.J., dropped its contract in
2001 after the mayor who had vouched for LSSI left
office.

Back in Oregon, Jim Olney, director of the Jackson
County Library Foundation, considers himself a union
supporter, but said: "Look, if it is either close the
libraries or outsource them, we'd rather have
outsourcing. Sometimes you have to go for the
difficult choice because there is no easy choice."