[Preceeding the reproduction of the original posting is a correction to it.]
From: Charles Willett <willett_at_afn.org>
CORRECTION TO: QUESTIONS FOR ALCTS MEMBERS: AN OPEN LETTER
There was a typographical error in my message of 11 August. The correct
World Wide Web address of _Counterpoise_, the new quarterly, ALA-sponsored,
alternative review journal, is:
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/counterpoise.html
The website describes the publication and includes four sample texts from
the 121 reviews in the inaugural issue (January 1997) and an order form.
Charles Willett
coordinator, Alternatives in Print Task Force (AIP), ALA/SRRT
editor, _Counterpoise_
1716 SW Williston Road, Gainesville, FL 32608-4049
Tel: 352 / 335-2200 E-mail: willett_at_afn.org
Copies: division presidents
ALA Council
certain round tables and affiliates
LM_NET, PUBYAC, PUBLIB, ACQNETL, COLLDV-L, ALSC-L, PLGNET
George Eberhart, _American Libraries_
Norman Oder, _Library Journal_
=============================================================
From: Charles Willett <willett_at_afn.org>
QUESTIONS FOR ALCTS MEMBERS: AN OPEN LETTER
by Charles Willett, coordinator,
Alternatives in Print Task Force (AIP),
Social Responsibilities Round Table, ALA
Responding to ALCTS President Carol Chamberlain's June 6th statement to ALA
division presidents and ALA Council about outsourcing, I would like to ask a
few questions, speaking as a long-time ALCTS member and as an advocate of
acquiring and accessing alternative materials for libraries.
The statement opens:
ALCTS, the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services,
is the ALA division most closely involved with outsourcing issues
and vendor relations. ALCTS provides leadership to ALA and the library
community in these and other areas including the acquisition, selection,
description, organization and preservation of information resources.
If ALCTS provides this leadership, why didn't it help the Hawaii librarians who
courageously opposed the total outsourcing contract that was wrecking the
Hawaii State Public Library System? Why didn't ALCTS join forces with AIP's
Hawaii Working Group in trying to cancel the contract for the 49-library,
statewide system and reestablish its technical services departments, which
the HSPLS administration had shut down? Where was ALCTS while the Hawaii state
legislature heard testimony from hundreds of irate librarians and library
users? Where was ALCTS as Senate Bill 538 worked its way through committees
and House conferences, was signed by Governor Cayetano on June 19th as Hawaii
Act AB 252, and became effective July 1st? How does ALCTS regard this landmark
legislation, which for the first time in U.S. history codifies one of
librarianship's core professional functions--materials selection--into law?
Hawaii Revised Statutes. Chapter 312 (b): Upon termination of any
outsourcing contract in effect on the effective date of the Act,
decisions regarding the selection of books and other resources on
behalf of the state library system that require the expenditure of
public monies shall be performed internally by the public service
librarians of the state library system.
Continuing on, the statement asserts that the two outsourcing forums ALCTS
held at the 1997 ALA Midwinter Meeting were "very successful." By what
standard? At the outsourcing program presented by the Technical Services
in Public Libraries Discussion Group on "Outsourcing Technical Services:
The Selection Process," was any opposing point of view invited? At the
outsourcing program presented by the Publisher/Vendor Library Relations
Committee, was a single critical question asked of Baker & Taylor's Vice
President Arnie Wight or any other of the dozen senior corporate executives
on the panel? Weren't these "very successful" meetings just love feasts
among ALCTS managers and their commercial "partners" (as the librarian who
moderated the PVLRC meeting repeatedly called the vendors)? Has any
outsourcing critic or any representative of a regional, small or alternative
press ever been invited to speak at any outsourcing meeting or preconference
that ALCTS, its state and regional affiliates, and their corporate suppliers
have been co-sponsoring all over the country for the past several years?
The ALCTS statement goes on to promote its new book, _Outsourcing Library
Technical Services Operations_ (ALA, 1997). How does this book view the
Hawaii outsourcing model, which for the first time in U.S. library history
totally transferred the local, core professional responsibilities of budget
allocation, selection and cataloging to a private vendor? Does the book
approve or disapprove of the 5 1/2 year, $11.2 million contract signed by
the Hawaii state librarian and Baker & Taylor in March 1996? Or does it
simply ignore the personal, political and constitutional implications of
privatizing the public library collections of one of America's 50 states?
Finally, I would like to ask, respectfully, if ALCTS members are doing enough
to help their own libraries acquire and provide local cataloging access
to "all points of view" under the Library Bill of Rights, in conformity with
the ALA Policy Manual's Mission Statement, Priority Area A, Goal 4?
"Library collections are developed, managed and preserved to provide access
for users to the full range of available knowledge and information."
In the serials area, do their libraries hold the _Alternative Press Index_,
1969- (www.igc.apc.org/altpress/) and _Annotations_, the directory of the
250 journals indexed in it (Alternative Press Centre, 1996)? For monographs,
have they acquired _Alternative Publishers of Books in North America_, 3rd
edition, the biennial directory produced by AIP (CRISES Press, 1997)?
Have they ordered _Counterpoise_ 1997- (www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/counterpoise/),
the critically acclaimed, ALA-sponsored review journal edited by 20 librarians
and subject specialists and published by AIP? How about titles authored,
edited or published by individual AIP members: Sanford Berman's and
James P. Danky's _Alternative Library Literature_, 1983/84- (biennial,
McFarland); Chris Dodge's and Jan DeSirey's _MSRRT Newsletter_, 1988-
(bimonthly); my _Librarians at Liberty_, 1993- (CRISES Press,
semiannual); _Alternative Literature: A Practical Guide for Librarians_ by
Chris Atton, 202 pages (Gower, UK and USA, 1996); and the forthcoming
_Libraries Betrayed: The Hawaii Outsourcing Disaster_, 2 volumes, edited by
Patricia Wallace and Earl Lee, a compendium of documents and commentary
(CRISES Press; vol. 1, ca. 220 pages, October 1997; vol 2: 1998)?
Are libraries of ALCTS members well stocked with materials that alternative
bibliographic tools recommend? Do their catalogers attach additional subject
headings and descriptive information to minimal LC records in order to guide
users to information of local interest that otherwise would not be found?
It is high time that these questions are asked -- and answered. The subtle
censorship that bars access to alternative points of view in almost every
school, college, university and public library in the United States is a
professional disgrace. All librarians can help overcome this pervasive bias.
They are welcome to stop by the AIP booth at any ALA conference, to consult the
websites given here, and to write or send an e-mail message to the address
below. My colleagues and I look forward to introducing them to the great
wealth
of significant publications available beyond corporate America's mainstream.
Charles Willett
coordinator, Alternatives in Print Task Force (AIP), ALA/SRRT
1716 SW Williston Road, Gainesville, FL 32608-4049
Tel: 352 / 335-2200 E-mail: willett_at_afn.org
Copies: division presidents
ALA Council
certain round tables and affiliates
LM_NET, PUBYAC, PUBLIB, ACQNETL, COLLDV-L, ALSC-L, PLGNET
George Eberhart, _American Libraries_
Norman Oder, _Library Journal_
Received on Tue Aug 26 1997 - 16:16:43 EDT