Public Employee Press


Hiring inadequate at Brooklyn Public Library

The Brooklyn Public Library recently announced that it was hiring additional workers and expanding services. Something to cheer about? Not exactly, say frontline workers in Brooklyn Library Guild Local 1482.

“We are pleased the library is increasing its staff and services for the public,” Local 1482 President Eileen Muller said. “This is a start. But we have lost 200 members through attrition since the late 2000s.”

The 27 new union members include Librarians for children’s and young adult services, Special Officers and custodial workers. Most branches are now open six rather than five days a week.

“We face additional hours, more days and more services. We are overstretched and overextended,” said Catherine Skrzypek, the local’s branch librarian vice president.

At some branches where staffing is unchanged, “There is a widespread feeling that if someone goes on vacation or calls in sick there will be a crisis,” she said.

“They are not hiring in some titles and not hiring enough new people to meet the increased hours,” said Local 1482 Treasurer Paul Otto, Assistant Business Librarian at the Business and Career Library. “Only about half the branches have custodians, and some have only part-time custodians. It boggles the mind.”

Despite additional funding this year, staff levels and service goals still need to be addressed, Otto said, as do personnel issues including deprofessionalization of Librarians, developing a career track for clerical workers, blurring of the responsibilities of different job titles, technological downsizing, workplace reorganization and the use of technology, such as copiers, scanners and self-checkout machines.

Otto believes the library is communicating poorly with its staff as it moves ahead without adequately explaining a comprehensive plan for the future.