Questions for Bart Kane

[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

To: Hawaii Working Group
From: Anonymous Librarian
Subject: A comprehensive question for Bart Kane
Date: Jan 7,1997

        Here is a comprehensive, general question for Mr. Kane.

        Mr. Kane, under the contract you signed, Baker & Taylor, Inc.
has won three crucial conditions no library has ever granted before.
This megacorporation directly controls the book budget of the Hawaii
Public library System -- millions of dollars of the public's hard-earned
cash --without any accountability.  It has absolute power over what
books the public of an entire state reads -- and doesn't read -- for the
next five years.  And it deeply insults the professional staff of the HPLS,
who no longer are allowed to select what their users need and -- even
more humiliating -- are not even allowed to reject what their users do not
need.

My question, Mr. Kane, is are you going to apologize to the people of Hawaii
and the library profession for these profound errors?

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Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 23:45:38 -0500
From: Pat Wallace <DENWALL@AOL.COM>
Subject: To ALA:  Lessons Learned

Forward from  Patricia D. Wallace,  Chair, Hawaii Working Group
(ALA Social Responsibility Round Table /Alternatives in Print Division )
Denwall@aol.com

Post sent to me on Jan. 20  from an anonymous librarian in Hawaii
re drafting resolutions to the ALA about outsourcing:
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        I do not think this is the time to make conciliatory statements.
We should show a strength of force.  Outsourcing is a disservice to
our public, is not a cost effective or efficient use of taxpayer money,
and fails to utilize the libraries' most valuable resource -- librarians
and library staff.  Jobs were sent to the mainland.  CPC (Central
Processing)was disbanded before there was anything to take its
place.  Talk about burning bridges before figuring out how to get
to the next location!

        Mainland libraries are looking at the Hawaii experience.  Five
major cities are considering doing exactly what Hawaii has done.
Some mainlanders are amazed that HSPLS totally disbanded
technical  services.  And yes, the quality of records and cataloging
is quickly deteriorating.

        These are lessons that the mainland are going to learn from the
Hawaii experience.  Do you want libraries that are run by big business
 - cheaper and better?  Or are you willing to settle for right -- with fewer,

but more select materials?  Big businesses can do a catalog cheaper.
They fail to understand the consequences of retrieving information with
less detail in cataloging.  They accept, if they know, the scattering of
material without rectifying the pre-existing catalog.  We all know that
finding information on the Internet is not a piece of cake due to lack of
standardization and oganization.  Welcome to the 21st century library.
This is what the Hawaii experiment is all about.

        Hawaii Library Association (state ALA chapter)  must make a very
strong stand on this issue.  It means too much to Hawaii and to the rest
of the world.  This is not a small internal problem that affects only us.

Anonymous poster in Hawaii  (Branch Manager/Head Librarian)
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