These past few months have been tough for me at the library. We had a substantial reduction in our town appropriation for the first time in years, going from $814,000 in FY 2008 to $732,000 in FY 2009. We do have other sources of funding, but the town money is what keeps our doors open.
I spent much of the summer preparing various budget drafts that would reflect our new financial reality, and finally concluded that we'd have to do what I'd so wanted to avoid: letting go of staff. So over the last week I've met with people and told them the sad, sorry news.
I have fired people before--for incompetence and a number of other serious infractions. It's not easy to do, but when people's lack of performance drags down the quality of service, and the rest of the staff suffers in countless ways trying to make up for it, you do it for the sake of the library. But this is different--this is letting go of people who have performed well, given good service, and in no way deserve to lose their jobs.
People who don't use libraries have this strange stereotype in their heads about small children going to storytime and little old ladies checking out fiction. They have no idea, because they never come through the doors, what a lively hotbed of activity the library is. People of all ages come in for such a variety of information needs; our literacy program is thriving, filled with eager students hungry to learn to speak and write English so they can get ahead; we have quite a number of shut-ins from the six elderly housings in town who look forward to their visits from the library; and the computer classes are always popular.
I hear or read comments about there being no need for libraries anymore because we have the Internet. Please. There is a large portion of our population who don't own a computer and whose only access is what we provide at the library. Yes, lots of kids have computers at home to do their homework and print out amazing research projects, but our computers are in use every night by kids who, if they didn't have access to them, would be at a serious disadvantage.
So now we will reduce staff and hours and make the library less accessible for the people who need it most.
It really makes me sick at heart.
Librarian, You're a grand old
11 years ago
1 comment:
Francesca: 3:45 p.m. must be your creative time. Oops! That is, your MOST creative time, as I know no hour when you are not creative in some way. Thanks for the Tennyson. I went for a bike ride today. I am sorry you had to let good people go; what a sign of these awful financial times. Although I don't frequent libraries and buy most of my books, that may change once my husband retires. I agree that, while most useful, computers will never replace the pleasure of sitting in a comfortable chair and turning the pages of a book or newspaper. Even my 9-month-old granddaughter, Agnes, loves to turn the pages herself as I read to her. May our political leaders have the wisdom to get us out of this financial mess and, more importantly, out of this war which has cost so much in money, body parts, lives and respect in the world community.
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