outsourcing libraries - war against education

[donsu]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/04/AR2007100401430_pf.html


Librarians Under New Management


MEDFORD, Ore. -- A big, red "Closed" sign has been plastered across the front door of the library here since mid-April, when Jackson County ran out of money to keep its 15 branches open.

In a few weeks, though, the sign will come down and the doors will be flung open again, now that the county has come up with an unusual cost-saving solution: outsourcing its libraries.

The county will continue to own the buildings and all the books in them. But the libraries will be managed by an outside company for a profit. And the librarians will no longer be public employees and union members; they will be on the company's payroll.
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I'm crying

[AspenRose]

1. This crap has GOT to stop

:mad:

[antigop]

2. Here is one community that stopped it....

http://web1.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2007/august2007/bedfordnixes.cfm

[depakid]

3. People in Jackson County wouldn't pay for them

Now they're going to learn the hard way. Yet again.

[theoldman]

4. We had a big flap on this where I live.

The idea was to save money because outsourcing was cheaper. The company offered to extend the hours and do the same job for less money. There was an outcry because there was the possibility that some of the employees would be laid off. Someone with experience in outsourcing a library should post their opinion.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. How the bloody hell does this save the county money?

This smells like a Blackwater/Haliburton style boonswoggle. Who wants to bet that the county officials who authorized this "outsourcing" either have close ties or have recently received big contributions from the company receiving this contract?

[Hangingon]

6. There are long range savings.

The government entity does not have the cost of retirement and benefits.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. Which affects the immediate lack of money how?

The entire library system was shut down because the county did not have the money to run and operate it. What impact does long range savings have on that, and how does paying a private company to run the libraries cost less than running things themselves? Other than by spitting in the eyes of hard working unionized government employees and allowing this private company to hire "librarians" working for minimum wage and no health coverage, that is.

It stinks to high heaven, no matter how one tries to wrap it.

[zbdent]

13. means the CEO of the library

will get a great salary, and you will have to speak to the librarian through an interpreter, before long ... and the librarian will not have "papers" ...

[JHB]

12. Exactly. and how do they do that? By NO ONE bearing those costs...

...except the employees, but damned if they'll get any more pay to cover that.

The public is going to wind up paying for the library workers eventually anyway: either as union employees who could do a proper job, or as underpaid mcployees too poor to support themselves.

[Richard Steele]

7. Bingo. Doesn't that always eventually turn out to be the case? "Outsourcing" is THEFT.

Most of the time, anyway.

[Not Me]

8. I am fairly familiar with this topic...

PRO: savings through increased procurement, shared IT infrastructure etc.
CON: savings almost always come at the expense of employee benefits.
More CON: Community programs suffer.

[Mist]

10. This goes to the heart of what "community values" are. "Public" should not be

a dirty word--public values are community values. The idea of perpetual outsourcing to private firms is obscene.

[Cerridwen]

11. I wonder if LSSI will be as adamant about not providing readers' names and

choice of books and reading habits as those danged government librarians.

And this is happening elsewhere. Oh joy. It's almost small enough for the bathtub now.