Private Equities and Libraries: Who Knew?
July 31, 2025
Public libraries are a benevolent part of the local and federal governments. They’re awesome places for entertainment, research, and more. Public libraries in the United States have a controversial histories dealing with banned books, being a waste of tax paying dollars, and more. LitHub published an editorial about the Samuels Public Library in Front Royal, Virginia: “A Virginia Public Library Is Fighting Off A Takeover By Private Equity.”
In short, the Samuels Public Library refused to censor books, mostly those dealing with LGBTQ+ themes. The local county officials withheld funding and the library might be run by LS&S, a private equity firm that specializes in any fields including government outsourcing and defense.
LS&S has a bad reputation and the CEO said:
“ ‘There’s this American flag, apple pie thing about libraries,’ said Frank A. Pezzanite, the outsourcing company’s chief executive. He has pledged to save $1 million a year in Santa Clarita, mainly by cutting overhead and replacing unionized employees. ‘Somehow they have been put in the category of a sacred organization.’
…
‘A lot of libraries are atrocious,’ Mr. Pezzanite said. ‘Their policies are all about job security. That’s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We’re not running our company that way. You come to us, you’re going to have to work.’”
The author wrote in response to this quote:
“In their defense, I think some of these businesses think they’re doing the right thing. But the valorization of profit has blinded them to seeing the advantages of the public good as a worthy bottom line. Providing for a community might not be profitable, but that doesn’t make it wrong…Efficiency shouldn’t always be the goal, especially when used as a narrowly defined metonym for profitability. The Samuels Public Library, like so many public institutions around the country, works because it serves something other than money.”
Public libraries are the one institution that should never be ripped off. Maybe a private equity firm could work hand in hand with public libraries so they aren’t ripped off by bad actors? Or …?
Whitney Grace, July 31, 2025
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