Library Director Lisa Neal Shaw is not thrilled with the city council’s recent decision to reject creating a second full-time position, but stresses that the municipal library is not shutting down.
“It is important to note that we didn’t take any cuts this year,” said Shaw. “There was a slight increase in the library’s budget to compensate for electricity and other miscellaneous costs. So we were not cut. I think it’s important for people to realize that the library isn’t closing, although we may have to adjust how we do things here.
“What we were really working for over the last year was to increase our usage, numbers, and outreach to justify bringing that other position back to full-time. It was an exhausting year for all of us, especially with events like Thursday’s on Sweden, so we are going to have to think about how to handle that next year,” she added.
Shaw said the councilors are put into a tough situation when voting on a yearly budget.
“People have their different priorities going in, and somebody is going to leave unhappy no matter how the vote goes. Someone will always leave saying they didn’t agree with what just happened.”
Moving forward, Shaw plans to work with the city manager, municipal staff, as well as the state library to develop a solid plan for 2016.
“Our goal is to have the least negative impact on the public,” said Shaw. “We’re all very grateful and thankful to be here. It’s a great job and community. This is the same struggle that is going on everywhere, but it is a challenge. There is a lot of competition for funding and all the departments are feeling the crunch.”
Katie Wilcox-Bosse, youth service director for the library, says she was saddened by the decision.
“I was willing to offer more programs,” said Wilcox-Bosse, “and we at the library want to do more for our community. We were hoping we could offer more programming and resources.”
Both Wilcox-Bosse and Shaw stress that the library will continue to serve the community, but it could have offered more.
“I think the definition of a library is too narrow,” said Wilcox-Bosse. “We are a community hub. We are a place where people come for help in job searches, and there are even daily visitors who come to us for guidance. Our mission is to serve the community, and I think we have a lot more to offer than what people really see.”
Shaw says that being a library director involves much more than just checking out books.
“You get a lot of questions from visitors that will sometimes back up at the desk,” explains Shaw. “People need things faxed, a new library card, or something looked up. All of this requires the professional staff.
“Our volunteer staff helps us out with a lot, but there are certain things that you need a trained librarian to take care of, so there is sometimes a slower response time. If someone sends us a historical research question, for example, we tell them that it might take us a while to get back to them because there is only one full-time person here. Checking out books is actually one of the easiest things to do,” she said.
