Library Staff Layoffs and reorganization, volunteers - from e-mail sent yesterday 4/29

Dear Library Board and Friends of the Lake Worth Library,

The last few weeks have been very challenging for the library staff when we received notice of the City of Lake Worth's planned staffing layoffs on March 21st. I have spoken with the City Manager, Joseph Kroll the Public Services Manager, and the Human Resources manager. I will keep you up to date if plans change, but as of today, April 29th they are:

1. All library staff, except for myself, will be laid off at 5pm on Saturday, May 14th.

2. The library will then close for 2 to 4 weeks beginning Monday, May 16th.

3. One full-time (40 hours/wk) and Four part-time staff (25 hours/wk) will then be hired back.

4. The library is now recruiting volunteers to help support the library. A cadre of 50 volunteers is needed, each person working one 2-4 hour shift per week. Over the next 5 months the library staff will need to train enough volunteer staff to keep the library open 40 hours per week. Attached are the volunteer job descriptions.

5. On October 1st the library will then loose 2 of the above 4 part-time staff. The library will be loosing 210 staffing hours per week so volunteers will be critical to the continued operation of the library.

6. On Oct. 1 their will be 2 full-time and 2 part-time library staff.

7. In a meeting on Tuesday, April 26th the City Manager rejected the Library Board's proposal of using $40,000 from the library's trust funds for the materials budget of the library. She DOES NOT wish to use ANY monies from the library's trust funds to run the library when it is most needed. She stated that the monies should be retained to build a new library in the future. This additional funding would have given the library enough funds to retain the above 2 part-time staff who will be laid off on Oct. 1.

8. Appeals to use the library Trust funds must be done by the Library Board, Friends and the library users to the City Commission during the regular commission meetings the 1st and 3rd Tues. of the month at 6pm at the Lake Worth City Hall. The next meeting is Tuesday, May 3th at 6pm.

9. The library board is scheduled to do the annual library update presentation to the City of Lake Worth Commission on Tuesday, May 3rd at 6pm.

10. The library WILL have a children's Summer Reading Program (SRP). The Friends of the Library will be hiring laid off library staff to run the SRP including a 4 week Spanish Summer Reading Program.

Vickie Joslin
Library Services Supervisor
Lake Worth Public Library
15 North M St.
Lake Worth, FL 33460
(561) 533-7354
FAX (561) 586-1750