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Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries
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.
A $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 — with janitors, police forces and even entire city halls farmed out in one town or another — the contract in Santa Clarita has touched a deep nerve and begun a round of second-guessing.Can 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 - and maybe not even then?
"There's this American flag, apple pie thing about libraries," said Frank A. Pezzanite, the outsourcing company's chief executive. He has pledged to save $1 million a year in Santa Clarita, mainly by cutting overhead and replacing unionized employees. "Somehow they have been put in the category of a sacred organization."
The 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 - more often than not by cleaning house.
"A lot of libraries are atrocious," Mr. Pezzanite said. "Their policies are all about job security. That's 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're not running our company that way. You come to us, you're going to have to work."
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23 Comments so far
Show AllI'm surprised that the ruling class capitalists, civilian and political alike, haven't pitched the wonderful new win-win innovation of "charter libraries".
No, I don't need a libertarian history lesson to 'splain that libraries USED to be private, etc. During my formative years, I wore out my library card from the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Franklin and Jefferson must be spinning in their graves.
Thanks OS, I had not read this until you tipped me off (from Bacevich article). And I was rather sarcastically extrapolating the trends, but this is for real.
In addition to libraries, health care, prisons, schools etc being privatized, next we can have private, corporate-monopoly run "Charter" parks, police depts., fire depts., roads, buses and light rail, water systems, sewer systems etc.
The so-called public airwaves are already controlled by the likes of Comcast (as well as a big chunk of ISPs in the USA) why not have solar waves privatized? One will have to pay a percentage of solar generated by your own personal solar-panels (if you can afford them) be paid to SolarCorp Inc. - the sole licence-holder for solar radiation.
I am sure the "market" will come up with a fair price.
All these corporate takeovers is getting to be like Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus.
Don't forget Vonnegut's "Jailbird" and the RAMJAC Corporation-- the next-generation metastasized version of "Catch-22"'s M&M Enterprises! ;)
Outsourcing to a private company may seem cheaper at first, but what happens when they raise the fees? What's worse - having the hometown cut library hours and staff, or having the private company do it? When LSSI decides it's not profiting, the town either takes over again, or the library is closed and the assets are sold. Nice choices.
Just as I thought. It's about screwing library workers who belong to unions. Here come the McJobs! It's the American way!
"A $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 ..."
Yeah, sure. Just like the for-profit insurance industry is good for managing health care.
Capitalism has only one purpose and is compelled by its singular fiduciary responsibility to pursue the good of only one "community" -- its ownership. In fact, even the legitimacy of that pursuit is highly questionable under the current "deregulated" system.
Please! Private companies (Corporations) control our entire government, health care system, prisons, schools they track where you go, who you call, your purchases, your food, the music you hear, what your news you hear and how you hear it and the news you don't hear.
You want to cry about libraries? They already have your brain, what use is the library.
Welcome to Americas Best selling brand.... FREEDOM! Here's the tageline "It's exactly the opposite of what you think it is.
The first product of this brand is your mind. They sold you what you think is okay and correct and makes sense. You buy it everyday, every minute, when you squelch that feeling in your gut, and when you push thoughts out of your head about running into the street screaming. You buy yet again when you vote for another mealy mouthed, side stepping, lair. In the HOPE! that it will CHANGE. In the hope that you won't have to stand up, raise your voice, risk being offensive by saying"THIS IS IT, I'VE F*#KING HAD ENOUGH! I will not stand for this!
This is the movement to get behind, let your feelings go, speak your mind loudly to others, call out people on their brainwashing and ignorance. Polite people have never changed the world. I would rather be offensive and have my freedom than be polite and silent while thieves and mental midgets destroy this world.
By the way, Here are a list of truly offensive language.
American Freedom and Democracy
Defense Department
Collateral Damage
unamed government sources
coerced statements
aggressive interrogation methods
Corporate Lobbyist
American Interest
Public Airwaves
Public Television
Public Rado
War on Terrorism
War on Poverty
Enemy combatant
FREE MARKET
please feel free to add and yell it out loud when you write it....
C"MON YELL!!
There it is!
That feeling slightly frightening and LIBERATING....!
Less typing more yelling alone with friends loved ones!
Time to rage against this machine!!
Peace,LOVE AND LIBERATION!!!!
Why is it that the reporter apparently didn't talk to any employees of the libraries that LSSI runs now? What do they have to say about their wages and working conditions and changes that LSSI has made? Not exactly an honest piece of journalism...
What could they say if they honestly wanted to keep their jobs?
Do you really think anyone would be stupid enough to risk employment in this economy?
I'm sure Ray Bradbury is appalled.
What's next? the 'Firemen' from his novel 'Farenheight 451' becoming a reality, roving from city to city 'disposing' of disallowed or unapproved texts?
What will become of the books about alternative religious practices other than Judeo-Christianity? What of the books inquiring into the darker aspects of American history?
This move allows the sterilization of a culture on par with that of Pol Pot.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
I am surprised that noone pointed out the most obvious concern to me. Private companies are not necessarily held to first amendment standards. Walmart and Sam's for instance, refuse to sell John Stewart's book (which he brilliantly points out in the ad on his show for it). Do you really think you would find, say, The Lysander Spooner Reader in a charter library? or the writings of Marx? Jefferson?
Salvation Army has fought in court for it's right to discriminate while acting as an outsourced governmental contractor, and won.
The obvious long term goal of this plan is truly an attempt to "frame the debate" on a large, long term scale through the control over dissemination of ideas
Good post!
Echoing herdpoisoning in the previous post, what I find most disturbing about this is that a private company could be in the position to decide what books to put on the shelves! So if the company is owned by the Koch Brothers, or Rupert Murdoch, or the guys that own the voting machine company, well... easy to see that they could continue the squeeze they have been putting on what information is available and what is promoted.
Wake up people! It already happen to your news and information on YOUR PUBLIC airwaves...if you don't fight against it when it comes to your news of the world and reporting of your government then why pray tell would you make a whimper about the local library? hmmm?
Now, I'm off to grab my copy of "Operation Dark Heart" by Anthony Shaffer at the my local book store. I've heard so many great readings of the text already...
This stupid SOB Pezzanite has never done anything in his life except fire people in order to run off with their pensions.
Why, yes, of course, why didn't we see that before. It's the 'lazy good-for-nothing' librarians and library staff that have made local governments all across the USA sputter and fail. NOT Republican and 'business-friendly' governments, heaven's no. Let's continue to listen to Newtboy, Boner, Dead Reagan and the rest of The Gang That Failed the Nation over the last Decades, and continue to go with privatizing Everything.
Let's put some slaves in there, in those dastardly libraries that won't give information to the Secret Police and won't ban the books that should be banned. And if'n them slaves don't work, then waterboard 'em! Now, that is efficiency with a capital F. Bust them Commie unions, with all their talk of community and sharing, and one-for-all and all-for-one, and liberty, fraternity, equality. Commie shit. Let's have none of that 'community and sharing' here in Uhh-murika.
Who needs to read a book anyway. Get all you need to know from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Fux News, Sarah Palin, and the local preacherman. No need for books; so old fashioned, antiquuated and out-of-date... like the Constitution and Bill of Rights, just as our dear departed President Dubya indicated.
Oh, but perhaps Mr. Corporate Privateer Pezzanite has his eye on another guy as his model, a guy who made a fortune already in privatizing public and school library services: the multi-centi-millionaire Art Brody of Brodart. Yup, sure is good to know that your tax dollars made ol' Art Brody a mega-millionaire. So stealthily that nobody is the wiser. Art REALLY deserves the money he gets, not the meek librarian who doesn't have the balls to charge a million bucks for helping you out.
So, Mr. Frank "Chainsaw" Pizzlepuddle... oops Pezzanite, I am just sure your heart is in the right place, when you 'suggest' that you care SO much about libraries that you must fire everyone and replace them with minimum-wage workers, so you can save $2,000,000 per library district out of those damn union members' hides, and thus return savings to the needy and poor community government of... oh, say, $32.50... taaa-daaa, SAVINGS!... after your own totally justified, worthy and teentsy little cut of course. Yet another Buccaneering Corporatist Privateer in action.
It must be Required that privatized libraries fly the Jolly Roger Skull-and-Crossbones flag, instead of the Stars and Stripes of a real government entity.
LSSI took over our Jackson County Library here in southern Oregon. The union lost the contract to LSSI during a library closure and now there are far less employees. We have no children's librarian now at our local branch and we lost some great people. The ones I know personally have to have second jobs.
I was appalled to learn that if I donate a book to the library it might get rejected. They are very picky about what they accept because all new books are sent to Texas for processing. Then they ship them back for circulation.
In nearby Josephine County, they also closed the library system due to lack of funds but reopened with the local help of the community and books sales etc.... They let me check out books there but Jackson County(LSSI) won't let the Josephine residents use their system. It used to be all one interconnected system that shared books and information. I donate books and money to Josephine county's system now.
Please be sure to read the rest of the article in the "New York Times." At the end you'll read about people volunteering to work at the library that is now run as a for profit business. That's a new shade of the stupid to me.
Much like charter schools, this scheme does not really work when it's run as a for-profit. I'm pretty sure the people in the libraries I've been going to for 50 years are all doing work because the books are where they should be, unlike the comment that librarians don't do any work and expect a pension. That pension will just go into the pockets of someone else who actually didn't do any work but simply bought stock in the company.
Unfortunately, this article does not include nearly enough information about the financial relationship. It's no secret for a company to say they can run a public entity like a school, library, or water system when the some scissors are used to do the same thing, cut wages benefits and make the remaining people do twice the work.
Oh, this is a great idea. :-( First we give corporations control of the media so they can control what we know about current events; then we give corporations control of the libraries so they can control what we know about government, history, philosophy and everything else.
How about a good old-fashioned book burning to thin out all that space those dusty, useless books are occupying.
Good point, we don't need education or libraries for neo-Feudalism anyway.
"walkin past the rubble, that used to be a library...
...they don't have to burn the books, they just remove em...
what we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin...
(Z. de la Rocha, RATM)
Corporations are one of the last defenders of the first and fourth amendments and I don't believe corporations promote a society's values and the free flow of ideas and opinion. Not lately. The people buying into this are assuming that the private sector can do it better and cheaper. Maybe. But for how long, at what price and at whose expense?