Library limitations called unsustainable
Library trustees told the Concord city council that drastic cuts to last year’s library budget cannot be sustained. Last year’s cuts nearly halved the Concord Public Library’s materials budget, pared its staff by three full-time positions and reduced the Penacook branch’s hours from 21 a week to 12.
City Manager Tom Aspell doesn’t propose more deep cuts for the department next year, but trustees argue that Aspell’s budget – flat over last year’s – wouldn’t do much to reverse them.
To help offset the cuts, residents have volunteered their time and made donations. But those efforts don’t compensate for the extent of the cuts, said Library Director Pat Immen. While 150 books were donated through the library’s Stock the Shelves campaign, the $100,000 cut from its materials budget would have bought about 6,000, she said.
Immen suspects that the decreased budget has hindered library service. “Circulation numbers are going down, our traffic numbers are going down. We think that’s partially in response to reduced hours, but also in response to the fact that people don’t get as much help as they used to.”
Adding another full-time reference librarian next year – a change the city would make instead of filling a vacant automation coordinator position – will help improve service, Immen said.
The proposed library budget also doesn’t fill two vacant part- time library technician positions and reduces two other part-time positions by a few hours a week. Immen plans to reorganize her staff, cutting the 4.5 hours the library is open for two-thirds of the year Sundays – it’s already closed that day during the summer – and extending hours on Saturday by the same amount.
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