[Publib] AP story on library outsourcing

[Backwage at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/5/2007 12:13:45 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
mklibrarian at gmail.com writes:


What  I found very interesting in covering the Bedford, TX story on LibVibe
was  that LSSI apparently was at a conference of the Texas Municipal  League
aggressively courting legislators, one of whom took the bait and has  been
actively trying to get the library there privatized for a couple of  years
now.

Wouldn't we all love to hear the pitch LSSI is making to  these officials,
probably at conferences all over the country, so eager to  find 'waste' in
government and get folks angry like their cousins in talk  radio do every
day?


Let me take a minute to say something from the perspective of a library  
patron, a job which I've been working at for nearly fifty years.  I love  
libraries.  I adore librarians.  I think librarians are the very soul  of the 
institution, or at least they are when things function as they  should.  I have worked 
and will continue to work for higher pay and better  conditions for 
librarians.
 
Having said that, I would like to mention that the important thing here is  
library service.  Not titles, not jobs, not anybody's satisfaction  or 
security--just those services.  If I thought that the library could be  run by a 
machine or a hand tool or a chimp, I would support that.  To date,  and for the 
record, libraries have been run pretty well by public sector  workers.  And also 
by private sector workers, unless you don't remember how  Yale, Harvard and 
all those corporate libraries work.  I am a lifelong  trade unionist and worker 
advocate, and would very much enjoy seeing private  sector competition for 
library management.  You bet.  Would I  like to see library workers have to worry 
about productivity, perhaps about  losing work to private sector folk?  Yes 
indeedy.  I'd like them to  worry every hour of the work day how they're going 
to make me happy.  
 
There is quite a bit to be said for removing libraries from the political  
mainstream--every bit as strong an argument as leaving them there as is.  
 
As to overhearing the arguments of LSSI's people, why shouldn't they cozy  up 
to some elected official and suggest that the current management isn't as  
good or efficient?  That's free speech, it's their right, and governments  have 
been making that sort of decision forever.  Most towns, I think, will  keep 
their facilities publicly-managed.  This has less to do  with objective 
measurement than simple inertia. It isn't that they  love what they've got, but they 
don't know what it is, how to measure that, or  how to change things if it 
isn't working.
 
By the way, some of the vilest things I've heard in this business have been  
said about LSSI, and always about folks who either knew nothing about the firm 
 or who wouldn't want to hear the truth anyhow.  You will hear people say  
that LSSI is just a cheap way to run libraries--this from people who should know 
 that running libraries cheap is the goal of every municipality.  Tell me,  
what is the advantage of running a library through the public sector when they  
don't have half the librarians they need?  
 
So, put me on record as suggesting that the function of the library isn't  
employment, or a protected status for anybody--the way I've always read it, the  
library is for me as a user, first.  I want every librarian to be a  
millionaire with a great career, and I'm willing to pay for it.  In  exchange for 
that, I want the best service that can be provided--no matter who  gives it.  
 
Michael McGrorty



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