Jackson County (Oregon) Commissioners signed a five-year management contract with Library Systems & Services, LLC that has the potential to reduce the county library system’s annual operating costs from $8.75 million to $4.3 million. According to the Sept. 27 Medford Mail Tribune, Jackson County's libraries will become the second-largest system operated by LSSI, just behind Riverside (California), which has 32 branches.

The county libraries have been closed since last April. Area voters rejected library bond measures in November 2006 and last May, each of which was about double LLSI's contract. Local 503 of the Service Employees International Union had also submitted a bid.

According to a LSSI representative, cited in The Mail Tribune, salaries will be roughly comparable to what employees received from the county and benefits will also be about the same. LSSI employees, however, will not receive Public Employees Retirement System benefits. The representative noted that LSSI provides additional benefits that the county doesn’t, among them tuition reimbursement and a bonus program.

Library hours will be shortened. However, according to an August 22 article posted on TheUnionNews.com, “Jim Olney, executive director of the Jackson County Library Foundation, told the [Medford Mail Tribune] that, without a union contract, volunteers could do more library work.” (I am not familiar with the union contract. That said, it’s nice to know book lovers in Southern Oregon will soon have more volunteer opportunities at the library.)

Commissioners have mulled over the creation of a special library taxing district. The county commissioners should check out, instead, the creation of independent and private (nonprofit) subscription libraries, which exist across the country. Doing so would: de-politicize the libraries, especially in terms of censorship; connect users directly with costs; and help reduce unfair competition that government-run, taxpayer-funded libraries pose to video, music and book stores.

Elizabeth Larson covers well the history of private subscription libraries in her March 1994 Reason magazine article, “Library renewals: private citizens are remaking a public institution.” Larson notes, 19th century libraries, "both here and abroad, were usually run by church leaders or philanthropists and were often subscription libraries. The annual dues were low and were waived for those who could not afford them. In towns without full-fledged libraries, booksellers and other merchants often filled the void....British booksellers...offered books for loan, and shopkeepers operated small circulating libraries alongside of liquor, shoebuckles, and hats."

In the contemporary world, one can easily envision coffee shops that lend books, even for free. Why not? There are coffee shops in libraries.