Riverside County Lets Company Run Libraries

RIVERSIDE —  In any of the 25 libraries in the Riverside County library system, patrons can sit down at a computer, type in the keyword “privatization” and read about how public agencies are being transformed by private businesses.

Or they can just look around them.

This summer, Riverside County’s public library system became the first and only one in the nation operated by a private company.

The librarians are no longer government employees. The county won’t be sending out purchase orders for books. A private firm from Pennsylvania now runs the branches, which the county still owns and oversees.

As municipalities struggle to provide services with ever-shifting tax funds, Riverside County’s move, which is anything but by-the-book, is garnering national attention.

“It’s something that’s never been done. And in a time when all the things governments do are being analyzed and reviewed, this will be watched,” said Susan Hildreth, a planning consultant with the California State Library. “Nationally, people look to California”

County officials and the new managers say they don’t expect splashy, page-turner changes. The librarians will be the same familiar faces. Fines for overdue books will remain the price of forgetfulness.

But under the new management, everyone agreed, summer bestsellers and learned tomes should make their ways more quickly to library shelves. The library will be open more hours, giving people more chances to check out books and videos and browse reference materials.

Library Systems and Services Inc. has pledged to boost hours 25% by Sept. 1, to increase the annual book budget from $144,000 to $180,000 and to retain all library personnel at current salary levels.

Exactly how they are going to do this within the $5.3-million-a-year contract--which works out to $9.98 per county resident, one of the lowest per-capita library spending levels in the nation--has been a source of concern among library professionals.

By comparison, Los Angeles County spends $15.88 per resident, Orange County spends $16.26 and Ventura County spends $14.63.

Frank and Judy Pezzanite, founders of the Germantown, Pa., company that now runs Riverside’s libraries, said that less overhead and government bureaucracy will enable them to make better use of the money.

Their management strategies include assisting library workers with their schooling, encouraging new ideas among employees and rewarding good work with cookie gift certificates.

“Sometimes improvements don’t cost money,” said Judy Pezzanite, a former librarian. “It can be as simple as taking an employee’s suggestion on how to do things better. We’ll give more power to employees to deal with everyday situations. We’ll give Mrs. Field’s gift certificates for ideas. We’ll offer tuition reimbursement.”

One of the company’s first moves was to hire more clerical staff, increasing by 70% the effort devoted to getting books and other materials on the shelves.

“In a government situation the first to go when funds are cut is the little people,” said Frank Pezzanite. “Then professionals at a higher salary are spending their time doing nonprofessional tasks.”

Library Services, a subsidiary of Follett Corp., which publishes educational materials and operates college bookstores, has provided library management services at the Library of Congress, the Boston Public Library and the Smithsonian Institution, among others. It has managed private federal libraries.

But the company had never taken over management of a library open to the public until moving into Riverside County.

The very newness of the situation has shaken reference librarian Gordon Sandviken, who works at the Cathedral City branch. Last month, Sandviken was a part-time county employee, and now he is the full-time employee of a private company.

“It makes me nervous that a private company is doing what has always been the responsibility of local government--its seems like apples and bananas to me,” he said. “I wonder how they are going to make money. We just don’t have any corners left to cut.”

“But it’s such a different concept for public libraries that I haven’t come to any concrete conclusions. I’m watching.”

On a recent day, library patrons seemed unconcerned with who was running the library.

Ed (Tex) Morales, 52, who uses the Moreno Valley branch, paraphrased a line from Rudyard Kipling’s story “The Elephant Child”:

“There are six men I need around: What and Why and When and How and Where and Who. As long as those guys are there, I don’t care who threw the party,” he said.

In Cathedral City, Max Helm, 9 years old and carrying an armload of the kiddie hair-raisers “Goosebumps,” said he had heard the library was under new management.

“I don’t know if I care as long as they stay open more,” he said. “I read fast. I need them to be open.”

For 86 years, the county had a contract with the city of Riverside to run all its libraries, an arrangement that ended June 30.

County officials say the financial strain on the library system had been acute since 1993, when the state diverted funds from local governments to public schools.

“That was the death knell for us,” said Tom DeSantis, the county’s deputy executive officer. “Overnight the system lost $4 million out of $10 million. Notices of cut hours were taped to library doors. New books were rare.

That sent the county scrambling for other options.

Library Services was one of three bidders for the library contract, and the county selected the company over two public agencies--the Riverside County Office of Education and the San Bernardino County Library District.

Ron Dubberly, a former Public Library Assn. president who ran Atlanta’s library, said privatization is inevitable at some public libraries. He expressed concerned that a new bottom-line mentality could affect what has always been a free public service.

“I believe in public libraries,” said Dubberly, who is now a project manager working with Library Systems. “I believe they’re important to individual lives and to our society. The heart of public libraries is to level the playing field--to give everyone access to ideas and information.”

The move to privatize Riverside County’s libraries has spawned debate recently at librarian conferences and in the pages of Library Journal and other publications for librarians.

It comes on the heels of another privatization controversy in Hawaii where the state, hoping to stretch its book-buying budget, hired a publishing company to handle new acquisitions. There was an outraged cry from the library community over having a commercial bookseller involved in deciding which books taxpayer money could buy.

“Hawaii was a different situation,” DeSantis said. “They turned over making choices to a private company. In this situation Riverside County still has control of the decisions. We decide what we want. They simply provide it.”

Gary Christmas, who holds the newly created position of Riverside County librarian, said he welcomes scrutiny.

“It’s fun in a way. The spotlight is on us and it’s an opportunity to show that you can get the doors open, you can get librarians working as librarians and clerks as clerks,” said Christmas, who has spent 12 years with the county library system as a manager. “To me a public library is one that’s open to the public. Whether you want to know how to repair a toaster or the history of motor cars in Bulgarian, it’s there.”

Christmas will act as a liaison between the county, the state and Library Services in overseeing the county contract.

Library Services runs the day-to-day operations, but the county Board of Supervisors has retained general authority over the library system. The county or the company can cancel the contract with six months notice.

Dubberly sees the novel arrangement as the next page in public libraries.

“Riverside is the first system to privatize but it won’t be the last,” he said. “Our goal is to set a standard of improving efficiency, but making sure that the heart and soul of the public library is still there when it’s over.”