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Q&A
Impact of budget cuts on library services and operations
0:42:51
ยท
4 min
Council Member Rivera inquires about changes libraries had to implement due to budget constraints. Library representatives discuss the impact on lending policies, wait times, hiring, staffing, and infrastructure maintenance.
- Brooklyn Public Library had to overhaul lending policies and reduce book borrowing limits
- Queens Public Library faced hiring slowdowns and increased vacancies, leading to unplanned closures
- New York Public Library experienced difficulties in providing services and maintaining infrastructure due to budget cuts
Carlina Rivera
0:42:51
Alright, so I do want to ask about some of the changes that you've had to incorporate because of the pegs.
0:42:59
Can you speak a little bit about what you had to do?
0:43:02
Maybe they weren't great changes, right?
0:43:04
Maybe they were things you had to eliminate or close down or maybe they're just some upgrades to infrastructure that you've had to delay.
Linda E. Johnson
0:43:16
Thank you for that question.
0:43:18
Yeah I love Demon Copperhead and it's a great thing to find a book that you love and then to love it so much that you actually want to put it in your own library as well.
0:43:28
So I endorse that whole way of thinking also.
0:43:33
In terms of changes that we had to make last year in particular when we faced so many pegs over such a short period of time, I think for us the most devastating thing was a total overhaul in our lending policies.
0:43:48
We couldn't spend on our collections and so we reduced the number of books that could be borrowed both digitally and in hard copy.
0:43:56
It created longer wait times for materials, so people who had gotten in the habit of putting books on hold weren't able to put as many books on hold, which means that they didn't become available as quickly as people had become accustomed accustomed to.
0:44:11
I'm happy to say that we've rolled back those changes when the budget was restored, but I would really hate for our patrons to experience that again.
Dennis Walcott
0:44:25
I'll focus on the hiring part of it in that we've all I think had this definitely slowed down our hiring and create vacancies which has made it really untenable for our staff who were there and that's impacted I think what Linda and Tony have talked about with some of and me.
0:44:42
Unplanned closures as well based on some of the staffing challenges.
0:44:46
Now we're making that up and we're making that up extremely well.
0:44:51
But at the same time, it put us way behind on the capital side and we talked about it as far as deferred maintenance.
0:44:58
And so we see the results of that as well.
0:45:01
And that some of the infrastructure issues that impact us we would have invested in if we had the capital money available to us, we've had to slow down on or not do it all and therefore we have closures as a result of that.
0:45:13
So I mean those are just two things, but those are two major things that hurts the public quite frankly.
0:45:20
I mean when the door is not open then children can't come in, people who are going for classes can't get the services they need.
0:45:27
It impacts all levels of our ability to serve the public And that's what's happened as a result of the pegs in the past.
0:45:34
And even with the restoration of the peg, we were behind so many months as a result of that.
0:45:41
And without the proper investment, we're behind in so many years as far as being able to do the job properly.
Tony Marx
0:45:49
As Linda and Dennis have already said more eloquently than I can, we have faced reductions, we've faced threats, we've faced cuts that have, you know, meant we cannot produce or provide to New Yorkers what they need.
0:46:09
We wanna provide more Sunday service.
0:46:12
We're delighted by the speaker's proposal on that front.
0:46:17
Last year was really hard because of the proposed cuts.
0:46:21
We couldn't hire and then we had to hire faster, but we had waited because we had real cut threats.
0:46:31
You know, we've had unplanned closures because of unmet capital needs, and now we are asking for an assurance of a capital investment that makes it possible for us to build for New Yorkers reliable libraries that won't be closed because of rain coming in or HVAC problems.
0:46:54
Only if we have that kind of investment can we do what New Yorkers depend on us, require of us to do.