I’ve worked for one of these so called privatization/outsourcing firms. It was the worse job ever. Why you ask? I never worked with the primary users and patrons and missed that. I copied and cataloged out researched and handed it over to my bosses, who then handed it over to the librarians who then handed it off to the users. Ugh. I was a factory worker, not an Information specialist!!!

Yea, they may be cheaper, may get the ‘job done’ (i still work just as hard as I did back them, tyvm) and the librarians and users are probably quite happy with the end product, and not quite caring how it was procured but not a nice place to work and take pleasure in your work environment. I pity all the employees of outsourced/privatized library-related gigs.

The state still pays the tab via collected taxes and the privatized prisons don’t raise their own income. You might want to call this outsourcing, which is also fine, but there is plenty of precedent for “privatization” of any number of government services, for which outside companies are contractors and are compensated by tax revenue, not independent income.

Well done.

It’s a bad one because it’s leads to paralysis. If you never change when you think something bad could possibly happen- even when no evidence exists that it will, the you NEVER change. You can’t act on the idea that one day some other evidence might appear and negate the hypothesis that has, up to now, proven to be true. It’s not because I say so. It’s because if you take that line of thought to it’s logical conclusion you get nowhere.

Being skeptical is not irrational. Being skeptical in the face of overwhelming evidence (or taking a contrary stance without any supporting evidence) is irrational. It is faith.

When I see evidence to the contrary, I will assess it and adjust my stance. I will not, however, continue to doubt the truth in the face of evidence. I will also not say, “yeah, but what about something that has never happened and is, in all likelihood, not going to happen? If that did happen, it could be bad, so let’s not pay attention to the evidence and keep things the way they are.”

Should you take worst case scenarios into account? Yes. Should you dictate policy based on them? No.

How? Just because you say so? Anecdotal evidence– the kind you so breezily dismiss– is quantifiable evidence on the horizon. Being skeptical or questioning is not an irrational stance.

So, since there is no data of service erosion- or other problems and downgrades- there is no (rational)reason to fight it.

The argument that something could- in the future- possibly happen that has yet to happen (and has no eveidence of being on the horizon) is a bad one. That is not an argument should be listened to.

Also, like AL said, this is not a privitization. These companies are still at the mercy of the city/county governments. It’s not like they- all of the sudden- have an absolute monopoly over library services forever.

Brooklyn Public Library hired an outside consultant to do a community needs assesment that the staff already on salary could have easily done. We could have easily created a survey like the one the consultant sold us (I know I learned enough statistics in library school to do so). To make matters worse the survey told us things that staff and patrons have known and said for years (ex. that they like the library quiet and they don’t like how it has become a hang out space where noise is permitted or ignored). Even worse, the library has not acted on any of this information.

BPL has also outsourced the movement of materials between branches (interchange) to UPS. It cost more to do this but the library got sold on UPS because they thought they would use some of the extra services. I also suspect that like many government agencies somebody gets a kickback when they outsource a job to their friends. That is the real problem, public money wasted on private consultants and contractors that do work staff could do. This goes for maintenance as well. We have so much trouble come budget time, but the library spends money hiring friends of people in administration to do jobs we already have staff for.