ACQNET 7.3: 1ST Comment on Hawaii Contract

[Pat Wallace <DENWALL@AOL.COM>]

Forward from  Patricia D. Wallace,  Chair, Hawaii Working Group
(ALA Social Responsibility Round Table /Alternatives in Print Division)
Denwall@aol.com
The following message has been cross-posted; please excuse any
duplication.

SEE MY EARLIER FORWARD dated 1-9-97 WHICH THE MESSAGES
BELOW RESPOND TO:

>From: Eleanor Cook (Appalachian State U.) <cookei@appstate.edu>
>To: acqnet-l@listserv.appstate.edu (acquisitions/ technical
> services listserv)
>Subject: ACQNET 7:2:Subject: Baker & Taylor's Outsourcing Contract
   with the   Hawaii Public Library System: a Summary
>Date: JAN 6, 1997

>ACQNET subscribers, I ask you to think about what is reported
>below because it affects the future of acquisitions and everything
>in technical services, really. Will your library consider such a
>contract in the future?  And, if in this issue I have
>misrepresented any facts, it is unintentional, and I apologize
>ahead of time. It is the ACQNET editorial board's opinion that this
>situation needs wide publicity and discussion, but ACQNET's aim is
>to keep it objective. With emotions obviously running high, that
>may be difficult to do. All points of view are welcome.
************************************************************************
From: ELEANOR COOK <COOKEI@conrad.appstate.edu>
To: acqnet-l@listserv.appstate.edu
Subject: ACQNET 7:3:
Comment on Hawaii Contract with Baker & Taylor
Date: Jan 18, 1997

ACQNET, Vol. 7, No. 3, January 19, 1997 -- ISSN: 1057-5308

=========================================
(1)  FROM:     Jack Montgomery
SUBJECT:  Comment on Hawaii Contract with Baker & Taylor  (31 lines)
(2)  FROM:     Joyce Ogburn
SUBJECT:  Comment on Baker & Taylor Contract in Hawaii (50 lines)
(3)  FROM:     Heather Miller
SUBJECT:  Thoughts on the Hawaii Situation (69 lines)
(4)  FROM:     Peter Graham
SUBJECT:  ALA and Outsourcing in Hawaii (42 lines)
(5)  FROM:     Karen Muller
SUBJECT:  ALA and Outsourcing in Hawaii - Reply to P. Graham
               (33 lines)
The five responses will be forwarded as a multi-part post.
**************************************************************************
POST #1
From: Jack Montgomery (Univ. of Missouri Law Library)
<MONTGOMERY@law.missouri.edu>
Subject:  Comment on Hawaii Contract with Baker & Taylor
Date:  Jan  7, 1997

     ACQNET 7:2 is an excellent digest of the issues. It will fly
on its own. You have presented both sides adequately.

Classically, library organizations like ALA and AALL display an
impotence with regard to advocacy on behalf of the members they
propose to ,protect. One gets the classic request for "more information"
which is tantamount to a stalling for time so decisions do not have
to be made.

Why? Because to do real advocacy for the Hawaiians will involve
risk and a lot of effort. Real action might include a nationwide boycott
of Baker and Taylor, with refusal to sign future contracts with such
corporations that, in effect, have bulldozed and cajoled their way
into an area they are not equipped to manage and in trying to do so,
have destroyed  the careers of our colleagues. Truly, if we stall for time,
or represent a weak response to this issue, our fate as a profession
may be in question. Without a strong response, other vendors will
surely follow in B&T's footsteps.

My question is, what role is ACQNET going to play?  There comes a
time when we must take sides. Actually, I am not advocating that
ACQNET become the firebrand in this issue alone, I just wonder if
we as a profession won't hide our heads in the sand again, fussing
and complaining to each other,while this very real threat to our
professional lives moves forward.

Jack Montgomery
University of Missouri Law Library
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