Midwinter Report: ALA Rejects Outsourcing Task Force's Strong Stand

Staff -- Library Journal, 2/8/1999

While the American Library Association's Outsourcing Task Force (OTF) agreed to a forceful critique of outsourcing and privatization, the OTF's strongest recommendations were rejected at the Midwinter Meeting (January 29-February 3) by a sharply divided Council. It soundly rejected recommendations that ALA oppose privatizing core library services to for-profit corporations and that ALA endorse outsourcing only when quality could be assured and the fundamental values of librarianship not compromised.

On another controversial recommendation--that ALA commission a formal study on the impact of outsourcing and privatization on library services and management--the heavily divided Council agreed to send it to the Budget and Referral Committee (BARC) for financial review. Three less controversial recommendations from the OTF report were passed handily, though not overwhelmingly. Previously, OTF Chair LaDonna Kienitz backed off from the report before the ALA Executive Board, though most in the OTF seemed proud of the document.