Editorial: For-profit libraries a sad story
Source: Boston Globe, October 22, 2007
IT'S NOT much of a murder mystery because the culprit is always the same: Public libraries get killed by local government budget slashers. Among this year's victims are the 15 libraries of Jackson County, Ore. They were shuttered in April when the county ran out of money.
But this tale has a twist: the libraries will reopen this week because the county has found a for-profit private company to run them: Library Systems and Services of Maryland.
........ The American Library Association has had mixed reactions to privatization. A 2000 report said that when used carefully, "outsourcing has been an effective managerial tool." But in 2001, the association adopted a policy opposing "the shifting of policy-making and management oversight" from the public to the private for-profit sector. The association argues that libraries are an "essential public good" that should remain "directly accountable to the publics they serve."
Indeed, public libraries are vital pipelines. Keeping them public is the best way to keep the public informed.