[Publib] AP story on library outsourcing

[Sue Compton]

I am late to this discussion - been on vacation.  I coordinate the Texas
Municipal Library Directors Association booth at the Texas Municipal
League Conference.  (TMLDA is an affiliate group of TML)  LSSI has been
exhibiting at TML for a number of years but very few libraries in Texas
are outsourced to LSSI.  I am amazed and pleased every year with the
elected and appointed officials who stop by our booth after talking with
LSSI to ask us what we think about outsourcing.  I never bad mouth the
company or outsourcing.  I encourage the official to do their homework.
To talk to cities where it's worked and especially where it hasn't
worked.  To compare those libraries to their own situation.  To analyze
why it worked or didn't.  Because so many elected officials are business
people I remind them that outsourcing means your are contracting control
of a city service to an outside company - and the contract better cover
everything that is important to you.  I also remind them that if the
"contract" doesn't work out it's difficult to return to where you once
were.  I have found that all officials I've talked to have been very
open to what I have to say and really want to do their homework.  Mind
you, I don't believe the particular council member from Bedford every
stopped by our booth.  :-)  My opinion only, not that of TMLDA.  Sue

Sue Compton, M.L.S.
Director of Library Services
Flower Mound Public Library
3030 Broadmoor Lane
Flower Mound TX 75022
972-874-6151
If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane!
Jimmy Buffett
 

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Marv
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 1:28 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] AP story on library outsourcing


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?

If you're curious, an interview with a member of the Bedford library
board:
http://libvibe.blogspot.com/2007/07/libvibe-5-july-2007.html (first
story)
and another with a supporter of local control, after the LSSI proposal
was
voted down:
http://libvibe.blogspot.com/2007/08/libvibe-30-august-2007.html (appx.
three minutes in).

Marv K.
LibVibe: the library newscast
http://LibVibe.com/









_______________________________________________
Publib mailing list
Publib at webjunction.org
http://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/publib