Library Blog Buzz

As you know, I work at Queens Borough Public Library in New York City and the proposed 21% budget cut from our mayor is really going to hurt library services and our customers.

If the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) absorbs the full $17.5 million cut, it would have to eliminate nearly 25% of its full-time work force, cutting as many as 272 positions through a combination of layoffs and attrition, according prepared testimony from executive director Dionne Mack-Harvin. The part-time workforce would be cut by half, eliminating 250 more jobs.
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Queens Library's Tom Galante warned: "We are in the fight of our lives with pending budget cuts that threaten to drastically cut service hours, particularly eliminating weekend service at every community library, and possibly reducing our staff by over 300 positions—a staggering 31%.”

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Paul Le Clerc, president and CEO of the New York Public Library (NYPL), said that..."Most facilities, he noted, would operate on a four- or five-day schedule, while in smaller cities—he cited San Diego, Houston and nearby Yonkers—offer six-day service. NYPL would lose at least 435 jobs, nearly 20% of its staff."

In total the proposed budget cuts will layoff approximately 1000 jobs from Queens Library, Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library. Many community libraries will be open only half of the time and in times when our customers need us the most to find information about jobs, write resumes, prepare for interviews, the library doors will be closed.

Public libraries have never been busier and public officials need to understand this trend, if they want to be real advocates and representatives of their respective communities.

Via: Library Journal
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6661440.html?rssid=191