Fight the Power!

On Friday, the blog Boing Boing posted a link to a website called "Privatization Beast", including the video that you see above.  The issue that caused this is that a private corporation, LSSI, Library Systems and Solutions, Inc. has bought up several smaller, failing library systems, and have outsourced management to their central offices.

There has been a threat of the  Santa Clara (CA) library system being taken over by LSSI. The New York Times posted an interesting article on the subject, which shows the the city's concern for keeping their library stable in spite of California's budget woes, as well as the patrons and librarians concerns about having the library be run for profit. Also, the library is concerned about loosing staff and services to the LSSI management.

Although the concerns that the libraries have - laid out in both the Privatization Beast video and the New York Times Article - are valid, that's not really the most interesting thing about this issue is how the library responded to it, and their method of raising support.

The video itself is designed to gain attention from social media. It's narrated as if it where a nature documentary, shot like it where a Godzilla movie, and most likely cost less than lunch for the production team. However, it's short, humorous, and makes its point perfectly - that privitizing the libraries will hurt them.

The concern about privatization of the Santa Clara library system is purely a local matter, this video (and the accompanying website) is intended to get national attention - and by gaining attention and supporters, their arguement for keepin the library public has become stronger, and the issue has gained more national prominence.

The use of social media to gain attention/support for a cause is hardly a new phenomenon, but it's interesting to see how it's applied for librarianship