What is a library without librarians?

In its last budget, Peterborough City Council cut $120,000 from the library budget. At a time when the city is expanding library services and locations and that the library is on the front lines of the housing, addiction and mental health crises, this cut makes no sense.

What makes even less sense is the library CEO’s decision to use this cut as an excuse for a “restructuring” of front-line services that will see us lose librarians, including long-serving and highly trained people who run the children’s and adult programming and the library’s digital offerings.

Our amazing library staff have been running incredibly popular and successful programs such as Living and Aging Well, Baby & Me, Parent-Child Mother Goose, Trail Tales, the Adult Book Club and One Book, One Ptbo.

Many of these programs, by management’s own admission, are now at risk.

At the same time, library staff are at risk as they work to keep our libraries safe and welcoming spaces for everyone. Because the library is an open, public facility in the middle of multiple social crises and at a time when multiple social services are underfunded, staff frequently witness and intervene in overdoses, suicide attempts and other difficult situations.

We are calling on the library board and city council to stop the “restructuring,” protect the existing jobs at the library, and to increase funding in the next budget to really address the serious health and safety risks faced by library staff and patrons alike.

Subject: What is a library without librarians?

[EMAIL text]

I am writing to you because I value Peterborough’s libraries and the services and programs provided by their staff.

The library is a critical public space for parents, children, seniors, new Canadians, and so many others in our community. Their staff and services connect people to family, work and scores of community resources and their programs promote literacy and a strong sense of community. In short, we badly need a well-resourced and safe library.

It has come to my attention that City Council cut $120,000 from the library budget, and that Library Management plans to eliminate the Children’s Programming Librarian, the Adult Programming Librarian and the Access Services Librarian.

Management claims it is a “restructuring” that will only eliminate one position, but that isn’t true. The change removes two trained Librarians from our library and pushes highly trained people out the door. Why should someone with a Masters degree in Library Science be asked to stay with a double-digit hourly pay cut?

This plan will hurt services, programs and access to resources. And that doesn’t make sense when the population is growing, and library services are supposed to be expanding.

It also doesn’t make sense when the library is on the front line of the housing, mental health and addiction crises. These are problems common to all libraries, but the issues are particularly acute here in Peterborough, and the health and safety of workers and the public need to be addressed.

I am calling on you to find funding to stop the cuts to librarian positions, to fund services for our growing population adequately, and to make meaningful changes in the next budget to protect library workers and the public who use the library alike.