Private Company to Manage Jersey City (NJ) Public Library

Staff -- School Library Journal, 9/1/1998

The trustees of the Jersey City Public Library, New Jersey's second largest, voted in July to hand over management of the system to Library Systems and Services, Inc. (LSSI).

Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, who spearheaded the plan, faced strong opposition from library Director Dennis Hayes and city council members who feared that LSSI's cost-cutting mandate would mean job loss, reported the New York Times.

Schundler issued a statement in response to the "massive campaign of misrepresentation," insisting that employees will retain their civil service status and that library trustees will have final authority over personnel issues.

The Maryland-based company was also contracted to run the Riverside County (CA) Library System, the nation's first library to turn over its entire operations to a private company. (See News, July 1998, pp. 13-14).