Germantown Library Firm Faces Opponents in California

The Germantown firm of Library Systems and Services Inc. is telling residents of Santa Clarita, Calif., they will get better service at lower cost when the company takes over the city’s three public libraries in July.

But some residents are unconvinced a private company is the best option for library service.

They are concerned Library Systems and Services will make profits its top priority.

“The only way for LSSI to make a profit is to decrease the level of professional staff and reduce the number of people working at any given time,” Cindy Singer, community library manager for Service Employees International Union Local 721, told Germantown Patch.

The union is leading a group of Santa Clarita residents opposed to the contract between the city and the company.

They also say the contract was awarded to Library Systems and Services without competitive bids.

The opponents have sent petitions to city officials and filed lawsuits to block the takeover by the company. All of the lawsuits were dismissed.

Santa Clarita officials say they have no better choice as pressure builds for local, state and federal governments to shrink their budgets.

Without the Library Systems and Services contract, they were facing a likelihood of library closings, employee layoffs and reduced services, city administrators said.

Library Systems and Services started in 1981 by providing support services to federal libraries but expanded in 1997 to include managing public libraries.

The company now manages 65 libraries and two bookmobiles in 15 cities nationwide.

Library Systems and Services claims to save money through efficiencies, such as cross-training employees for multiple tasks and centralizing financial and administrative operations of several libraries.

In its pitch to the city to win the library management contract, the company said it could offer Santa Clarita longer hours of operation, a bigger budget for books and materials, lower costs and better technology.

The company employs more than 100 librarians with Masters in Library Science degrees.

Their wages and benefits are comparable to public libraries, but Library Systems and Services offers its employees 401(k) retirement plans instead of pensions.

The company denies it would skimp on service or trample employees to make a profit.

“As a company, we find those claims to be pretty outrageous especially because our track record has proven otherwise,” said Mia Pezzanite, Library Systems and Services spokeswoman and daughter of its founder, Frank A. Pezzanite.

“The public library is a public institution and it remains that,” she said. “It will continue to remain a public library owned by the city.”

However, the Service Employees International Union is skeptical of Library Systems and Services’ goodwill.

A more likely scenario is a drop in the quality of customer service, said Singer, the union representative.

“Currently, there are 13 librarians with [Masters in Library Science] degrees on staff with almost 60 paraprofessionals supporting the library programs and services,” she said. “Under the LSSI contract, there is only one librarian with an MLS degree and a total of 58 positions.”

She also questioned the company’s commitment to the city of Santa Clarita.

“Library services are different for each community but it’s important to have trained staff help plan these programs with the community that they are located [in], not by an out-of-state company that is streamlining programs to be the same all across the country.”