Public libraries must be public, not profit machines

Public libraries must be public, not profit machines
Record: July 24, 2010 by Colleen Foster

What is a public library?

One "maintained for/used by the people of a community" or an entity "capitalized in shares of stock that can be traded on the open market?" A fair question since the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors recently released a Request for Proposals from private companies to manage operations of the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library.

The goal of a public library is to improve quality of life by advancing literacy and a lifelong love of learning. The goal of a private company is to create profit for its owners or shareholders. In my opinion, these goals are fundamentally incompatible.

The board appears to be searching for a way to maintain quality service in our library system while saving money in these difficult times. The premise behind library privatization seems to be that the library is so inefficient in its operations that a company with a profit motive will be able to do more with less.

As the former director of the library, I know the many cost saving measures long in place at the library: cooperative cataloging of popular material, preprocessing of such material, major discounts from book jobbers, and shared cost of delivery with a multicounty library cooperative. There is not much room for increasing library efficiency without sacrificing quality of service.

The most substantial cost associated with running our library is staff salaries and benefits. Privatization is therefore almost certain to reduce the quality and quantity of our library staff. Librarians and library staff are the key to the high quality service upon which San Joaquin County residents have come to rely.

Libraries are not profitable, and they're not supposed to be. That's why we support them with our tax dollars - to ensure that they continue to make the betterment of all their main priority. America's public libraries are a cornerstone of our democracy and play an important part in our nation's commitment to public education.

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And why should any of our public monies, let alone 8 percent of the library's budget, go to the profits of a private company with a home office in Maryland? READ MORE !

Colleen Foster was the director of the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library from 1994-2000.