Recapturing Misplaced Opportunities in Academia: The Problematic Privatization of Library Services and Holdings

Abstract The rapid evolution of technology, information sharing, digital rights and standards, and a host of other interrelated factors has led to a growing reliance on private industries to manage or administrate a host of services across higher education, and nowhere is this change more evident than in our historically cooperative and self-sustaining research libraries. This paper examines the problematic nature of privatization in public higher education, and highlights examples and strategies for reclaiming our shared mantle of providing the most effective and ethical user-centered public services we can with the resources at our disposal.