ACQNET v7n036 (Sept 25, 1997) URL = http://www.infomotions.com/serials/acqnet/acqnet-v7n036 ISSN: 1057-5308 *************** ACQNET, Vol. 7, No. 36, Sept. 25, 1997 ======================================== (1) FROM: A. Bloss SUBJECT: Response to P. Wallace RE: Hawaii outsourcing (184 lines) (2) FROM: C. Chamberlain SUBJECT: Response to P. Wallace RE: Hawaii outsourcing (40 lines) (1)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 14:56:55 -0500 (CDT) From: Alex Bloss (University of Ill.-Chicago) Subject: Response to Pat Wallace's posting: RE: Hawaii Outsourcing As Councilor for ALCTS, I am responding to Pat Wallace's recent posting to ACQNET. She wrote on behalf of the Hawaii Working Group of the Alternatives in Print Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of ALA. She expressed her frustration at the failure of ALA and ALCTS to take positions against the Hawaii-Baker & Taylor outsourcing agreement and against what they call the "Hawaii model" of outsourcing of library materials selection. Ms. Wallace has cut and pasted excerpts, often without the context they were found in, from a long stream of correspondence and presentations reaching back to the 1997 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Washington, DC. She also has assigned roles to ALA and to ALCTS that ALCTS and apparently the majority of Council have not identified for themselves. Finally, some of her statements about actions that have been the basis of her attacks on Council, ALCTS, and me are inaccurate. She refers to ALCTS Vice-President Sheila Intner's "inaccurate depictions" of the resolution put to ALA Council by the Hawaii Working Group (HWG) in February, 1997. She quotes what she says is the Council resolution, but it is not. What she quotes is the resolution that SRRT passed, but this was not what presented to Council and what Council and ALCTS responded to. The texts are considerably different. The original Council Document 41, "Resolution on Outsourcing in Hawai'i," is a matter of record. The resolution that was presented at Council read as follows: WHEREAS, the Hawaii Library Association has prepared and passed a "Position on Outsourcing," and WHEREAS, the issue of outsourcing is a crucial issue in libraries today, and WHEREAS, the issue of outsourcing of book selection by the Hawaii State Public Library System has become an issue of contention among Hawaii librarians and the public they serve, and WHEREAS, some members of the Hawaii Library Association feel that the decision to outsource all book selection was made without full and open discussion by the library staff most impacted NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the President of the American Library Association be instructed to advise Bart Kane, Hawaii State Librarian, that the American Library Association, as an organization, is concerned that the impact of the decision to outsource 100% of the purchase of library collection materials does not improve library service to Hawai'i AND THAT the American Library Association believes that a creative solution can be reached only with a full, open and civil discussion with those staff who strive to meet the information needs of the citizens of Hawai'i. Moved by Michael A. Golrick, Connecticut Chapter Council, seconded by Larry Osbourne, Hawaii Chapter Councilor. At the third Council meeting, Councilor Golrick substituted the following text for the first paragraph in the resolution: "That the American Library Association affirms the value of local input in the book selection process." He also replaced the words "with those staff" in the second paragraph with the words "among those." It was this resolution that Council tabled by a large majority. Discussion on the floor of Council made it clear that many Councilors saw, as ALCTS did, that the basis of this issue was a problem in the contract between the library system and a vendor and a conflict between staff and management, and that ALA was being asked to take sides in the matter. Ms. Wallace and the HWG, along the way, seem to have assigned roles to ALA and ALCTS. In my opinion it appeared at Midwinter that the HWG expected ALA and later ALCTS to take sides in a contractual dispute and in a debate over the management style of the library's director. The recent list of rhetorical questions for ALCTS members that Mr. Willett of the HWG recently posted to ACQNET ("Why didn't ALCTS join forces with AIP's Hawaii Working Group in trying to cancel the contract for the 49-library statewide system..." etc.) expressed a similar view of what ALA and ALCTS' role ought to be. Just because Mr. Willett or Ms. Wallace say it is so does not make it ALCTS' role to choose sides. As Sheila Intner stated, "It is not ALCTS' rightful business." It is ALCTS' role to teach and educate. If administrators wish to experiment or innovate, and make mistakes, that is their business. I expect many ALA Councilors would feel the same way about ALA's role. There are substantive issues having to do with outsourcing. Library technical services is only one area in which outsourcing can be a valuable tool. Like any tool, it can be misused. Though ALCTS may provide a user's guide to the process, it does not mean that ALCTS should take a stand if an administrator comes up with a new wrinkle or makes a mistake. At the ALA Annual Conference this summer in San Francisco, two resolutions were presented to Council that took a stand against the "Hawai'i model." It was at this point that the focus of Council activity changed to the issue of collection development. It is not clear whether either of these resolutions was endorsed by the HWG. At no time did the authors of these resolutions make an effort to invite ALCTS to consider them. Councilor Golrick's resolution was brought for informal discussion in Council Caucus the night before it could be brought to the ALCTS Board for discussion. Councilor Golrick's resolution (Council Document 50) was called "Resolution on Outsourcing of Core Professional Activities." It resolved that "the core values of the library profession include local control of the selection of materials." It was discussed by Council members who came to the caucus. Many of those present saw some weaknesses in the wording. When the meeting broke at 11:00 p.m., I approached Councilor Golrick and offered to help revise the text of the resolution the next morning with the intent to help make it more likely to pass. Time constraints prevented us from doing much revision. The following day, that resolution was withdrawn by Councilor Golrick on the floor of Council 2. Another version of this resolution (CD53), called "Resolution on the Outsourcing of Collection Development," which was essentially the same resolution as that previously withdrawn by Councilor Golrick, was presented in Council 3 by Councilor-at-Large Rosenzweig. This resolution was not acted on by Council because, as new business, it was last on the agenda. Attempts to move it before other previously scheduled and important business on the agenda were rejected by a wide margin. After going at least an hour past the scheduled close of business on Wednesday afternoon, Council lost its quorum and adjourned before getting to it. A resolution of tribute to the Hawaiian librarians, recognizing their battle and successes, was also submitted. If other business had not taken so long, including a lot of rancorous rhetoric on many issues, it would likely have been approved, but it too was at the end of the agenda. Despite Ms. Wallace's claim, ALCTS did nothing "to lead the refusal of Council to even consider the statement." Ms. Wallace was not there so she cannot speak as to what was done or by whom. For the record, neither I, as ALCTS Councilor, nor any member of ALCTS in Council that day did anything to defeat that resolution, to speak against it, or to take any parliamentary action to prevent it from coming to a vote. In the Council Caucus mentioned above, as well as at the ALCTS Board meeting, Councilor Golrick's resolution was seen to be worded unclearly, showing a lack of understanding of what collection management and development principles really entailed. As a matter of fact, collection development was not outsourced in Hawaii, only the selection of materials. The resolution identified a core value of the profession as "local control over the selection of materials." Councilors of disparate backgrounds shied away from making such a pronouncement, in part because it was not clear what "local control" really meant. (For example, some branch public libraries often do not select books except from lists prepared elsewhere. The term "local control" could also be construed to include boards of trustees or local political entities rather than librarians.) Finally, the explicit establishment of a "core value of librarianship" that would have been accomplished by these resolutions would only have been a response to the Hawaii debate, in a public library context, and without a thorough exploration of the ramifications of identifying "core values." Ms. Wallace apparently feels that ALCTS should have stepped in with a Council resolution or taken some other action to condemn the Hawaii model. ALCTS, like ALA, PLA, RUSA, and other divisions of ALA, is a member-driven organization. There was no move among the committees and sections of our membership to request such a resolution, and as noted elsewhere, nobody from the HWG ever approached ALCTS leadership. Ms. Wallace apparently feels that ALCTS should have jumped into the fray on their behalf, but again, that is not the role of ALCTS. Much has been said about the Hawaii model, but I am not sure we have the whole picture of it. Has the contract been made public? The resolutions mentioned above defined this model as including "complete reliance on a single vendor; allowing that single vendor to allocate 100% of the materials budget; includes a single unit cost per item delivered; and includes no right of return." I believe the contract also required profiles to be set up and collection development policies, mission statements and branch profiles to be supplied to the vendor. Is this also part of the Hawaii model? Were periodical subscriptions included in this 100% of the materials budget? [ED. NOTE: No - see ACQNET 7:32:2 for a discussion of this] By no means am I trying to support the Hawaii model. It is just that there is more to it than those resolutions mentioned. ALA President Ford is planning to set up a task force to study outsourcing, occasioned in part by the Hawaii situation and in part by the Riverside California outsourcing of all library operations to a for-profit corporation. I will look forward to their deliberations. Alex Bloss ALCTS Councilor (2)--------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 19:23:05 -0500 (EST) From: Carol Chamberlain (Northeastern Univ.) Subject: RE: ALCTS and Outsourcing The issue of ALCTS involvement has continued to come up in connection with ALA Council's handling of a response to Hawaii's experience with the outsourcing of selection. I'd like to offer a clarification regarding ALCTS actions prior to June 1997. I will not belabor points made by others, nor engage those who are bent on promoting false conclusions. I'd like to make the following points: 1) The ALCTS leadership including the Executive Committee discussed the situation in Hawaii when and as developments became known, and, on an ongoing basis, we consulted with ALCTS members including the Publisher/Vendor Library Relations Committee and the Commercial Technical Services Committee. 2) Based on the collective judgment of these groups, it was felt that the Hawaii situation was primarily a management issue, and it was decided that ALCTS should take appropriate action to promote responsible management of library collections and technical services, and a greater understanding of all of the issues regarding outsourcing, through conference presentations (Midwinter in particular) and through the sharing of information via sources such as the ALCTS web site. 3) It is not ALCTS' role to seek involvement in the internal management affairs of librarians and library organizations. At no time did Hawaii librarians contact ALCTS leaders. The ALA SRRT group approached the Board at annual conference regarding the resolution. 4) ALCTS actions regarding outsourcing in no way imply a lack of support for the librarians in Hawaii. On behalf of ALCTS leaders, we support the Hawaii librarians. Carol Chamberlain Past-President, ALCTS ****** END OF FILE ****** ACQNET, Vol. 7, No. 36 ****** END OF FILE ******