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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Elizabeth Bevington, Board Member of Local 1930 Library Workers Guild
4:09:38
·
143 sec
Elizabeth Bevington, a board member of Local 1930 Library Workers Guild, testifies about the importance of increasing funding for libraries and cultural institutions, emphasizing the impact of the city's affordability crisis on library workers and patrons. She highlights the need for competitive salaries to retain staff and maintain quality services, particularly in diverse communities like Chinatown.
- Bevington works at the Chatham Square branch of the New York Public Library in District 1, which serves a low-income area (median income $39,123) and is one of the busiest branches.
- She stresses the importance of recruiting and retaining multilingual staff to serve diverse communities effectively.
- The testimony underscores the critical role libraries play in filling gaps left by housing shortages and cuts to social services.
Elizabeth Bevington
4:09:38
Good afternoon, and thank you again for the privilege of speaking to you today.
4:09:43
My name is Elizabeth Bevington.
4:09:45
I am a local nineteen thirty Library Workers Guild board member and Council District 2 resident.
4:09:52
I want to speak today about the city's affordability crisis and its impact on library workers and our patrons.
4:09:59
That's specifically to underscore why baselining our budget and increasing funding for libraries and cultural institutions is so important.
4:10:10
Earlier one of you asked about the obstacles to recruiting and retaining staff at the libraries.
4:10:22
Most library workers and people considering library work will tell you it is a salary.
4:10:28
I mentioned that I am a District 2 resident and that's possible only because I live in a three income household.
4:10:35
My partner has two jobs, one of which is as adjunct faculty at New York City University and one of which is at another cultural institution.
4:10:45
It is imperative that library workers have competitive salaries so that we can live in New York City and so that library systems can be responsive to the unique needs of our communities.
4:10:57
I work in district council one at the Chatham Square branch of the New York Public Library.
4:11:02
Located in Chinatown between the Manhattan Bridge and the Bowery, it was especially hard hit by the COVID nineteen pandemic in myriad ways, and recovery has been slow.
4:11:12
But we are once again one of the busiest branches with double or more the program attendance, circulation, through the door visits, and computer usage of, the system wide average for the New York Public Library.
4:11:26
Our service area median income is $39,123 Our patrons are among the most impacted by housing shortages and cuts to social services.
4:11:37
Library services often fill the gap with inadequate resources.
4:11:41
We need to be able to recruit and retain staff that are representative of our neighborhood and perhaps most importantly speak their languages.
4:11:49
More than half of our staff speak at least one dialect of Chinese, but we cannot be sure we'd be able to replace them without being able to pay multilingual library workers what they are due.
4:11:59
Thank you for your time.