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525 W. Superior, #225, Chicago, Illinois 60654  525 W. Superior, #225, Chicago, Illinois 60654  525 W. Superior, #225, Chicago, Illinois 60654  525 W. Superior, #225, Chicago, Illinois 60654  
 
Wednesday July 7 
th 
2010San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors 44 N. San Joaquin Street # 627 STOCKTON, CA 95202 
Dear SirsI am the University Librarian Emeritus of the California State University,Fresno, and a past president of the American Library Association (I attach my resume). I have reviewed the Request for Proposal (RFP #09-40) and am writing to express my opposition to San Joaquin County’s proposal to privatize the library services of the County and/or the City of Stockton. I would emphasize that,though I am writing this letter to support the Friends of the Stockton PublicLibrary and Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton, citizen groups opposed tothe privatization of library services, I am doing so out of my own convictions andopinions and have neither sought nor been given remuneration for writing to you.My opposition is based on my views on three ways of looking at theprivatization question—economic, professional, and the ethics of public service.
Economics.
Public libraries are a service for all and of benefit to all but there is noescaping the fact that those who depend most heavily on library services are those with little or no economic means—these include children and young adults, thefinancially disadvantaged, the disabled, the house bound, the unemployed, andthose on the wrong side of the “digital divide,” i.e., those who cannot afford
 
 2private access to the internet and the world wide web. This last is a very importantpoint as studies have shown that public libraries are doing more than any otherinstitution in the US to bridge the “digital divide.” To put it bluntly, there is nomoney to be made by a private company from such a “customer base.” Library service to these parts of the community is the responsibility of the community andit makes no economic sense to have that service run by a private, “for profit”company whose legal duty is to maximize the returns to its shareholders.Given that a “for profit” company cannot both make profits for itsshareholders and supply full library service, particularly to the disadvantaged, itstands to reason that such profits can only be made by cutting staff, cutting materials expenditures, cutting library hours, reducing access to the internet andthe web, charging fees for currently free services, and/or increasing fees or fines. While the contractor’s proposal was not available for review at the time of this writing, I understand from the sample contract in the RFP that the County is willing to pay one-twelfth (or approximately 8.3%) of library budgets as fees orother payments to the company running a privatized library service. Since thebudgets of all California public libraries have been sharply reduced in real terms inthe past years, the amount of money for library services and materials will be only 91.7% of those reduced budgets. It is not clear whether, under this paymentscenario, the company will have any incentive to increase revenues by charging forcurrently free services or to cut costs by decreasing services to make the profit that
 
 3running a company demands. In any event, payment of 8.3% of the library budgetto a private company for public services under current reduced budgets makes nosense economically for the community or for the company. Furthermore, asexplained in the following section, because a private company lacks accountability to the public, there is no way for the public or decision-makers to evaluate whetherthe company is more “efficient” than City employees at providing library services. What is clear is that a private company is in no way beholden to those who use thelibrary system, and therefore has no incentive to provide top quality library services.
 Accountability.
Privatization of public services inevitably leads to less accountability to the public. A private company accountable to its shareholders is given accessto tax dollars without, by definition, the accountability and transparency in how they use those dollars that are expected of public employees and public bodies. Asa result, the public are unable to monitor their expenditures, budget priorities, etc.,or gain the full information required by the California Public Records Act.
Professional library service.
 A colleague of mine has written: “
The public library is the only  place in America where you can walk in off the street and get advice from someone with an advanced degree without paying for it.
”
  Adequate library service to all members of thecommunity can only be assured if the library has a staff with an appropriatenumber of qualified librarians—those with a MLS (or equivalent) from an ALA-accredited masters’ program. Since qualified librarians earn larger salaries (if by no
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