{"id":7678,"date":"2010-09-26T21:08:16","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T05:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/?p=7678"},"modified":"2010-09-26T21:08:16","modified_gmt":"2010-09-27T05:08:16","slug":"privatizing-the-public-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/?p=7678","title":{"rendered":"Privatizing the Public Library."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

from the new york times<\/a><\/p>\n

Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries<\/h2>\n

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. \u00e2\u20ac\u201d A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, growing into the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fifth-largest library system.<\/p>\n

Now the company, Library Systems & Services, has been hired for the first time to run a system in a relatively healthy city, setting off an intense and often acrimonious debate about the role of outsourcing in a ravaged economy.\u00c2\u00a0A $4 million deal to run the three libraries here is a chance for the company to demonstrate that a dose of private management can be good for communities, whatever their financial situation. But in an era when outsourcing is most often an act of budget desperation \u00e2\u20ac\u201d with janitors, police forces and even entire city halls farmed out in one town or another \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the contract in Santa Clarita has touched a deep nerve and begun a round of second-guessing.\u00c2\u00a0Can a municipal service like a library hold so central a place that it should be entrusted to a profit-driven contractor only as a last resort \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and maybe not even then?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this American flag, apple pie thing about libraries,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Frank A. Pezzanite, the outsourcing company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief executive. He has pledged to save $1 million a year in Santa Clarita, mainly by cutting overhead and replacing unionized employees. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Somehow they have been put in the category of a sacred organization.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0The company, known as L.S.S.I., runs 14 library systems operating 63 locations. Its basic pitch to cities is that it fixes broken libraries \u00e2\u20ac\u201d more often than not by cleaning house.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of libraries are atrocious,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mr. Pezzanite said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Their policies are all about job security. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not running our company that way. You come to us, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to have to work”.<\/p>\n

The members of the Santa Clarita City Council who voted to hire L.S.S.I. acknowledge there was no immediate threat to the libraries. The council members say they want to ensure the libraries\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 long-term survival in a state with increasingly shaky finances.\u00c2\u00a0Until now, the three branch locations have been part of the Los Angeles County library system. Under the new contract, the branches will be withdrawn from county control and all operations \u00e2\u20ac\u201d including hiring staff and buying books \u00e2\u20ac\u201d ceded to L.S.S.I.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The libraries are still going to be public libraries,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the mayor pro tem, Marsha McLean. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When people say we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re privatizing libraries, that is just not a true statement, period.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0Library employees are furious about the contract. But the reaction has been mostly led by patrons who say they cannot imagine Santa Clarita with libraries run for profit.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A library is the heart of the community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said one opponent, Jane Hanson. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in favor of private enterprise, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel comfortable with what the city is doing here.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Hanson and her husband, Tom, go to their local branch every week or two to pick up tapes for the car and books to read after dinner. Mrs. Hanson recently checked out Willa Cather\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s classic \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Death Comes for the Archbishop,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d although she was only mildly in favor of its episodic style; she has higher hopes for her current choice, on the shadowy world of North Korea.\u00c2\u00a0The suggestion that a library is different \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and somehow off limits to the outsourcing fever \u00e2\u20ac\u201d has been echoed wherever L.S.S.I. has gone. The head of the county library system, Margaret Donnellan Todd, says L.S.S.I. is viewed as an unwelcome outsider.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is no local connection,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153People are receiving superb service in Santa Clarita. I challenge that L.S.S.I. will be able to do much better.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

As a recent afternoon shaded into evening, there were more than a hundred patrons at the main Santa Clarita library. Students were doing their homework. Old men paged through newspapers. Children gathered up arm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s loads of picture books. It was a portrait of civic harmony and engagement.\u00c2\u00a0Mrs. Hanson, who is 81 and has been a library patron for nearly 50 years, was so bothered by the outsourcing contract that she became involved in local politics for the first time since 1969, when she worked for a recall movement related to the Vietnam War.\u00c2\u00a0She drew up a petition warning that the L.S.S.I. contract would result in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153greater cost, fewer books and less access,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no benefit to the citizens.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Using a card table in front of the main library branch, she gathered 1,200 signatures in three weekends.\u00c2\u00a0L.S.S.I. says none of Mrs. Hanson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fears are warranted, but the anti-outsourcing forces continue to air their suspicions at private meetings and public forums, even wondering whether a recall election is feasible.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Public libraries invoke images of our freedom to learn, a cornerstone of our democracy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Deanna Hanashiro, a retired teacher, said at the most recent city council meeting.\u00c2\u00a0Frank Ferry, a Santa Clarita councilman, dismisses the criticism as the work of the Service Employees International Union, which has 87 members in the libraries. The union has been distributing red shirts defending the status quo. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Union members out in red shirts in defense of union jobs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mr. Ferry said.\u00c2\u00a0Library employees are often the most resistant to his company, said Mr. Pezzanite, a co-founder of L.S.S.I. \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and, he suggested, for reasons that only reinforce the need for a new approach.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pensions crushed General Motors, and it is crushing the governments in California,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. While the company says it rehires many of the municipal librarians, they must be content with a 401(k) retirement fund and no pension.<\/p>\n

L.S.S.I. got its start 30 years ago developing software for government use, then expanded into running libraries for federal agencies. In the mid-1990s, it moved into the municipal library market, and now, when ranked by number of branches, it places immediately after Los Angeles County, New York City, Chicago and the City of Los Angeles.\u00c2\u00a0The company is majority owned by Islington Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Boston, and has about $35 million in annual revenue and 800 employees. Officials would not discuss the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s profitability. “Some L.S.S.I. customers have ended their contracts, while in other places, opposition has faded with time. In Redding, Calif., Jim Ceragioli, a board member of the Friends of Shasta County Library, said he initially counted himself among the skeptics.\u00c2\u00a0But he has since changed his mind. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think of anything that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been lost,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mr. Ceragioli said.<\/p>\n

The library in Redding has expanded its services and hours. And the volunteers are still showing up \u00e2\u20ac\u201d even if their assistance is now aiding a private company. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We volunteer more than ever now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mr. Ceragioli said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the new york times Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries SANTA CLARITA, Calif. \u00e2\u20ac\u201d A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, growing into the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1105,471,487,494,648,650,682],"class_list":["post-7678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libraries","tag-libraries","tag-library-systems-and-services","tag-los-angeles-county-library-system","tag-lssi","tag-privatizing-libraries","tag-public-iibraries","tag-santa-clarita-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/hauntedlibrary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}