[Publib] AP story on library outsourcing

[Hammock, Shannon]

Please note that I never said they made a poor choice, never said that
LSSI is evil, nor did I say the leaders of the town were buffoons.
(Though it should be noted that town leaders didn't make the choice, it
was a county decision) All I said is that it is a false dichotomy to say
that it was an either/or situation. Check out
http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2007/september20
07/ashlandtalent.cfm and you will find that some of the communities
within the county had already passed levies and surcharges to keep their
respective branches open, before the decision was made to give the
contact to LSSI. These are at least a few of the other "choices"
available. Also, as I said, the county could have conceivably ran the
system at lower level of service, something that LSSI is going to do
anyways. (If I read it correctly, they will halve the hours open. If
LSSI is allowed to run the libraries at half as many hours open to the
public, why couldn't the county have done it as well?) You're right, I
have no idea why the county decided not to do that, but I can't imagine
any legal or budgetary circumstance that would have made it the case
where they could have only had the two options. They made a difficult
choice, I agree, but I stand by my argument that it was not an either/or
choice. 

As an aside, I do work for a system that was split so that LSSI could
run part of it. So I do have opinions on them, but I didn't express them
in my email. 

Shannon

________________________________

From: Rachel Davis [mailto:rdavis at thomas.lib.me.us] 
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 10:16 AM
To: Hammock, Shannon; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] AP story on library outsourcing

 

"Hammock, Shannon" <SHammock at riversideca.gov> writes:
I think we might buying into a LSSI sale pitch if we tell ourselves that
the choice is "only" between having LSSI run the libraries and having no
libraries at all.

Based upon the information provided by the newspaper articles, this
seems to be the choice that the community of Medford was facing.  It
appears that the muncipal governing body made the choice to contract
with LSSI in order to provide some limited library services after having
been able to provide none at all as a result of the loss of federal
forestry funds.   None of us knows how they crunched the numbers or what
their other options were, but it seems unfair to assume they made a poor
choice simply because they contracted with a private company, or to
conclude--based on little more than fear and conjecture--that LSSI is
evil and the municipal leaders of the town are buffoons.  

Rachel

Rachel Q. Davis
Children's Librarian
Thomas Memorial Library
6 Scott Dyer Road
Cape Elizabeth, ME  04107
207-799-1720

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