Arts & Entertainment

Staff Issues Threaten Library Hours

A reduced staff forces trustees and the library director to take a hard look at the hours Dedham's two libraries are open.

A hiring freeze at Town Hall is threatening the number of hours Dedham's two libraries can stay open this summer, library officials said earlier this month.

"I never ever say close a building, but we are going to have to reduce our hours if we don't hire more staff," Library Director Patricia Lambert said at a recent selectmen's meeting.

A librarian retired earlier this summer, reducing the staff to 10 people to staff both the main branch and the Endicott branch. The library is considered fully staffed when it has 12 librarians.

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William Keegan, Dedham's town administrator, said in an e-mail that the town wouldn't fill the two empty positions in the near future.

The economic downturn helped spur the hiring freeze, but Lambert said during times of hardship, that is when more people use the library because of its free services.

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"This is my third recession I've gone through, and our numbers go through the roof as people realize that they can get books, newspapers and magazines through the public library," the director said.

During the summer, many staff members take their vacations, which collectively add up to 50 weeks, Lambert said.

"Our library is quite busy, we're doing our best to keep it open," said Bob Desmond, a library trustee. "(We're) trying desperately to meet the needs of Dedham."

In the past, the library adjusted its staff to meet the hours it wanted to stay open, but now that's shifted.

"No, we need to re-adjust hours to meet our staff," Lambert told the Board of Selectmen.

While Lambert said she grapples with how to maintain the current hours at the two libraries, she also wants to expand programming, but the staff problems prevent her from doing so.

Library officials are working to digitize their volumes, making them available online and accessible to anyone with a library card by using the service Overdrive, a free online marketplace to download library books to use on e-readers, such as the Kindle or Nook.

"We just don't have the staff to do that," Lambert said.

A stretched-thin staff carries several responsibilities besides sitting behind the circulation desk, Trustee Mike Chalifoux told selectmen. Staff members are responsible for many tasks, including showing people how to use the computers.

Library officials said staff cutbacks have meant a cutback in programs, including computer training for senior citizens.

 "These are people that do not know how to use a mouse. They are computer illiterate, and that is just as bad as 100 years ago when people couldn't read," Chalifoux said.

Selectmen Chairman Sarah McDonald asked what role volunteers can play at the library, a notion largely rejected by Chalifoux.

"If people are doing things for free, there is a tendency to devalue them," he said.

Chalifoux said some room exists in the library for volunteers – to help run programs, for example – but he added that it takes a particular skill to comb through thousands of book reviews to select volumes that satisfy the needs of a library's collection.

"But trying to tell a professional librarian that person's job is going to be replaced by a volunteer, I have a real problem with that," he said.


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