Within the private and government sectors, privatization has been a reality for some time. The focus of Circular A-76, in which the OMB decision was published in 1983, was to prevent government competition with private industry. In this decision library operations were included with other office and administrative services as commercial activities. The result of this decision was the eventual privatization of nearly all federal libraries, which took place with little outcry from the library profession. More recently, special libraries have begun to experience similar treatment by their parent enterprises.
Law libraries are a prime example.
Now the public library is being privatized. More recently Calabasas, California, and Jersey City, New Jersey, contracted with the same private company that manages Riverside. Other local boards have been approached, including Atherton, California, and Broward County, Florida. Again, many librarians are quite complacent about these recent events. Also, there are those who say smugly that only poorly managed libraries are targets for privatization.