“Sancho followed on foot, leading his donkey — his perpetual companion in prosperous and adverse fortune….”  — Don Quixote

In these threadbare days, what kind of future do we foresee for that homeliest and homiest of institutional beasts, the public library? It is surely the donkey of the American cultural menagerie — toothy, overworked, belittled, yet stubborn to the point of endearment. How else, other than out of sheer stubbornness, can we account for the fact that libraries continue to supply communities all over the country with books… made of paper…to the public… for free?

But for residents of Santa Clarita, California, this persistent belief in community education in the age of the bottom line may at last be coming to an end. Thanks to the city’s controversial vote to outsource its libraries to a private for-profit company, the donkey may be going the way of the dodo.

Santa Clarita is only the latest town to consider privatization. Currently, fourteen library systems comprising 63 branches are already operated by a company with a villainously generic name, Library Systems and Services (LSSI). Of course, this great whoring out of one of the cornerstones of democratic civil society ought not come as a surprise. Libraries reek of government and if there is one thing so many of our governing American politicians hate, it’s governance.

The most decried issue by those fighting the specter of LSSI in Santa Clarita concerns the likely replacement of salaried and pensioned municipal employees with cheap non-union labor. The head of LSSI made remarks in The New York Times this fall accusing public librarians of being rich and lazy. Apparently, whenever you see a librarian scanning his computer screen, they are not helping people access information but checking the soaring dividends on their pensions.

Beyond the inevitable union busting, privatization of libraries could bring a subtler yet even more insidious anti-democratic change: the removal of the public from the public library.

The central branch of San Francisco Public Library is a carnival of humanity. I used to work next door to the central branch at Civic Center and, I can assure you, the library is not only home to the unwashed masses; it’s where some of those masses go to wash. In one of my many memorable trips to the lobby bathroom, I saw a man washing his shoes in the sink, the fellow next to him brushing his teeth, and, in the corner, a less hygienic soul conversing with the air dryer.  On a subsequent visit, I witnessed a showdown between two men in the doorway of a stall. One was accusing the other, in no uncertain terms, of defecating on the toilet seat.

I’ve studied next to a man who took frequent breaks to stretch his quads and make high-pitch screams, as well as a wretch who incessantly cleared the phlegm in his throat to such revolting effect that I nearly gave up on life. And often when walking by the hallway bank of derelict payphones, I’ve come across a cane-wielding retired geisha giving the stink-eye to passersby as her brothel rouge slides down her jowls.

While, in an ideal world, I could do without the scream breaks and the soul-shrinking phlegm rattles, I embrace the library as a radically inclusive community space. That a substantial part of downtown San Francisco’s community is indigent and mentally ill is perhaps another matter. The public library should be available to everyone in the spirit of a civic refuge and forum. Like a donkey that dutifully bears the burden of humble peasants and mad hidalgos alike.

A private for-profit public library is a contradiction in both name and ethos. With that murky designation, a host of equally murky and unsettling questions arise. Would a private library, like other private businesses, have the right to refuse service to anyone? Would a private library, to cut costs, reduce the diverse and community-specific nature of their collection? Would a private library, in the spirit of corporate synergy, pedal certain types of publishers over others? How would a private company handle access and protection of patrons’ library records?

One thing is clear: once a profit motive enters the picture, serving the public becomes a means not an end.

The good news is there are currently 16,549 public libraries (including branches) in America. According to Leonard Kniffel, editor and publisher of American Libraries, this country has, astonishingly, more libraries than McDonald’s restaurants. Let’s keep those libraries public, in name and deed.

We certainly have a better shot at that than my other idea: nationalizing McDonald’s.

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