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Anchorage Eliminates 22 Library JobsDue to what Anchorage, Alaska, Mayor Mark Begich says is unprecedented financial pressure predicated by a more-than-$30-million budget shortfall, the city’s library system announced October 1 the elimination of 22 jobs, or about 20% of the library workforce. An additional eight unfilled positions will also get the axe for a total savings of $1.25 million out of the library's $6.5-million FY 2004 budget.Municipal Librarian Art Weeks said in “a message to the Alaska library community,” posted October 1 to the Alaska Library Association’s electronic discussion list, that “the library was not singled out for special treatment. We are facing reductions that have been fairly applied throughout the municipal departments.” Weeks said the decision to cut staff was based on “an evaluation of our staffing levels against peer libraries in North America.” He noted that with 103 full-time-equivalent employees the library is open 236 hours per week, while staffs of comparable size typically offer 500 hours per week. The numbers “indicate that we had an opportunity to reorganize rather than close either hours of operation or branch libraries.” Personnel was the only place the necessary reductions could be made, he said, since the book budget, already proportionally low, is only $911,000 or about $300,000 less than the required cut. On October 2, the affected employees were notified that their last day on the job would be November 14. “Reductions will be experienced at both professional and support staff levels,” Weeks said. “I anticipate longer lines at service computers,” he noted, and “we will have less programming until we become used to a new pace of business. There is simply no way we can withstand a reduction of this magnitude with no negative results.” The mayor said in the October 2 Eagle River Alaska Star that despite the layoffs the city is still “setting the stage for long-term growth.” Plans to improve and find a new home for the Chugiak–Eagle River branch are still on the city’s radar, and the 2004 capital improvement budget includes a bond proposal for improvements to the Loussac library and construction of a Girdwood library. Posted October 6, 2003. |
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