On 8 April 1995 Ann Davidson Wrote:
>Well, that all depends on which contractor gets the job. The latest wrinkle
>in this kind of thing is for the consultant to propose firing the in-house
>staff, outsourcing the services, if the client still has a need for them,
>and then itself providing the services. It would not surprise me to hear
>that Peat Marwick is providing the library services, or that it has set up a
>captive company to do so. I have seen this done; I know it happens. Any of
>the ethicists out there want to comment on that? With all due respect to the
>Cassidys, I seriously doubt this is the kind of thing they had in mind when
>they were defending the role of contractors in this debate. I would also
>hope that, if the possible scenario I have described is indeed the case at
>B&M, that they would not support such a way of doing business. I'm glad to
>see that AALL is taking up this issue. I also feel, as some others have
>noted here, that we as librarians should be looking at effective ways to be
>respected as professionals, and should learn how to make a business case for
>what we do. We do add value to our firms, whether as in-house staffs or as
>independents.
I agree that it will hard to swallow if Peat Marwick consulted B&M for
selfish reasons to get a library management client, but is this so very
different from when Dick Sloane did quite a bit of consulting to law firms
regarding their library, and included many staff changes? The key is who the
contractors are using as law librarians, whether they are professional, etc.
I find it hard to believe that a firm such as B&M did not have an in-house
library staff that was not up to speed, but hey, you never know. As an
independent, I have serviced law firms in the past on a temporary basis
while they were between librarians, and did not pitch to bring us in to run
their library. In using my best staff to meet their needs, I had an employee
of mine snatched from under me. Although what this firm did was legally
right, I found it to be morally wrong and refused to continue servicing
their needs. They dangled consulting carrots, etc. in front of me, but I
stood my ground and gave up the billable hours. My point is that we must put
professionalism first. We do need to reserve decision on the B&M thing until
we have all the facts, not rumors. I will gladly participate in AALL's
investigation of this situation so long as it looks into this situation, and
does not try and include all independents in a lump. I believe most
independents come out of prior law firm library experience, which is the
basis for the possibility of providing high quality service.
Ray Jassin, President
Law Library Management, Incorporated
Huntington, NY
74055.1601@compuserve.com
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