When LSSI Comes to Town
Source: by Norman Oder, Library Journal, October 1, 2004
......... Outsourcing can save money, but at what cost? LSSI’s performance eludes full evaluation—statistics like hours, circulation, and spending provide only a sketch. But LSSI’s record suggests tensions between a profit-seeking company and a public agency. Savings may go to profits instead of services. Fully outsourced libraries no longer control compensation—and LSSI saves money on staff. Also, the library may be less publicly accountable.
The company makes some librarians uneasy. Barbara Custen, executive director of the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System (MCLS), Pasadena, CA, notes that when cities ask her what it would cost to run their own libraries, MCLS provides “an objective number.” LSSI, she points out, may advise a city on how to run its own library, then bid on that same service.