Thoughts About Hawaii

[Pat Wallace <DENWALL@AOL.COM>]

Forward:  Schneider Thoughts About Hawaii (slightly edited for
brevity)  from Patricia Wallace, Chair of the Hawaii Working Group
(ALA / SRRT / AIP)   < denwall@aol.com >

From:  Karen G. Schneider   <kgs@bluehighways.com>
cc to:  DENWALL@aol.com
Subj:  Hawaii, Citizen Kane, etc.
Date: Dec. 28, 1996

I have several thoughts about the Hawaii issue.

As a service supplemented by local selection, outsourcing can be useful--
can actually free you to do more local selection . Why should I labor to
order
the obvious when what I really need is to focus on things no collection
specialist would  ever send me?

If, on the other hand, you want to emphatically, decisively demonstrate
that automatic selection is being done wrong in [HAWAII],  the statistics
you cite ...come closest to convincing me you have a legitimate gripe. The
more evidence you accumulate....and the more closely you tie it in with a
direct impact on service to your communities, the more closely your
colleagues will listen.

If your fundamental premise is that "B&T is the devil's vendor," don't be too

surprised if folks don't stay around to listen.  However, if your conclusion
is
"automatic selection requires intelligent coordination and communication
among librarians, an attentive collection development department with its
pulse on the collection and the serving public, and a vendor with proven
track records in this area, and isn't something that  can be slapped on a
system like whitewash on a fence," and you have  the examples to underscore
what you mean,  then folks' ears will waggle.

Lessons-learned are really important and are NOT shared enough in
librarianship, where the literature is dominated with "how we done it right"
examples.  Most of us learn collection development and vendor relations
by the seats of our pants.  Offering alternative perspectives and lessons
would be useful, too.

What is VERY clear is that in [Hawaii],  something has gone terribly
awry in communications between administration and the rank & file....
What is really clear is that many folks in [that] system  are unhappy.
And if they are unhappy, and focused intently on this issue, are the people
being served?

I am "with you" in the sense that I believe librarians should act and
not sit.  You may have a really big issue here--I am having trouble,
though, identifying what is truly a profession-wide issue and what
is a grievance (however justified) between librarians and the
administration in [the Hawaii] system.

Karen G. Schneider * kgs@bluehighways.com * schneider.karen
@epamail.epa.gov                               These opinions strictly mine!
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Comments  from Pat Wallace:  Update as of 1-13-97

I appreciate Karen Schneider's thoughtful comments and have taken
them to heart.  In my view, however,  the outsourcing contract
with B&T has clear implications for the entire library profession.
Expressions of concern or requests for further investigation by ALA
should come from ALL state chapters and not just from Hawaii.  If there
is anyone reading  this message who knows  that their state ALA
Chapter has taken steps to discuss the Hawaii situation,  please contact
me by e-mail .

The Hawaii situation is a complex one.  Nobody has said that  B&T bears
sole responsibility for the contractual  provisions of its unique arrangement

with an entire state's public library system   Those were drawn up by Bart
Kane, Head of the Hawaii State Library System (which encompasses 49
state public libraries spread  through all the islands of Hawaii).  The
contract
was also approved by the Hawaii State Board of Education.

The complaints from librarians and patrons in Hawaii regarding the negative
impact the contract with B&T has had on the collection in  public libraries
there has prompted several legislators in Hawaii to call for an audit and to
ask the State Attorney General to examine the contract with B&T to see if it
can be legally rescinded. This week, the Board of Education in Hawaii will
hear a presentation of grievances from the Library Association of Hawaii
(a professional association).  Posts on major library listservs  [LM_NET
(School Librarians), PUBLIB (Public Librarians), PUBYAC (Librarians serving
children & youth),  ACQNET (acquisitions, collections, and  technical
services
librarians),  and PLGNET  (Progressive Librarians Guild)]  have made it clear

that  at  the very least, members of  the library profession want  ALA and
the
major library journals to gather and publish more information about  the
first-ever total outsourcing of selections, cataloging, and processing in an
American library system.

The lead  item in the News Front USA column of the January issue of
American Libraries  deals with Hawaii ("Angry Hawaiian Librarians Denounce
B&T  Outsourcing").  Norman Oder, Associate Editor of Library Journal
is preparing a feature length article re Hawaii for the March issue.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin   just published an extensive front page article
about  the formation of the Hawaii Working Group, it's  plans  for publishing

a compilation of information on the Hawaii  "case study" and  for presenting
a panel discussion re Outsourcing  Hawaii style at  the ALA Annual
Conference in San Francisco, and about rapidly escalating  local outcry
and  calls for rescinding the contract  with Baker & Taylor.

Patricia  Wallace           denwall@aol.com
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