By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
A few citizens had issues to discuss with the Boone County Library Board of Trustees at its regular meeting this week.
Amanda Hall represents a group of people who are upset that programs have been cut or discontinued by the library, especially in the August program lineup.
“In the Discovery program for August we noticed that children’s story times were cut by 75 percent that month,” she stated. “Activities for teens and tweens were cut by 17 percent, with adult programs weekly events being held at the library were cut by 57 percent. The weekly events customers pay a fee to attend were not impacted by this. And now, 67 percent of the weekly activities for adults charge a fee for participation. Workshops had a 23 percent cut in the activities, and the number of book discussion groups were cut by 25 percent in August. Could somebody please help me understand the reason why so many library programs have been removed?”
Library Director Carrie Herrmann said in certain months, August, May and December, the programming is lower across the board because those are transition months. In May people are transitioning into summer, with kids getting out of school and families are planning vacations, so the attendance at regular programs is lower. She said the same thing happens in August, with children going back to school and families are changing their schedules for school. In December, holiday schedules many times are so busy people can’t attend programs at the library.
“That is our break time to plan and get back into things in the fall,” she explained. “We don’t really have storytime in August. We also are currently going through a process where we are changing the model we have for programming. We are offering fewer, more directed, more intentional programs to try and hit means within the community.”
She asked Hall if there were any programs in particular that she was interested in, and Hall said she was representing more than one group.
The Mah-Jongg group, which was originally a library program, is the first group and she related how they meet on Fridays at the Scheben Branch. The group of ladies bring all their tables and set up everything in the room themselves. The only thing the library personnel would have to do is unlock the doors so they could go into the room. But now, Hall said, the library people are telling the group of ladies that they can only reserve the room three weeks in a row, and then a different person has to reserve the room. The group is feeling that the library is putting obstacles in their way and making them jump through hoops. The group is made of largely of retirees.
Hall told the board that she wrote to them about this issue in June and the reply included a suggestion that the group could meet at the tables set up through the library if they had trouble getting a room, and she wondered if a group of people who were laughing and playing a game would be appropriate for an open area near study rooms.
The other group Hall mentioned was the book club.
“We love our book club,” Hall stated. “Two of the book clubs were gone in August. Our leader was devastated when she couldn’t do it anymore.”
She said under the employee’s leadership of their bookclub the number of participants grew from 6 to 18, which she thought was a definite indication of success for the book club.
Herrmann replied to the Mah-Jongg issue first, saying that there has to be a library staff member in the room for the program to be considered under the auspices of the library. She said they also partner with the Parks Department for programs, but, again, there has to be a staff member from the Parks Department at those programs.
“So Mah-Jongg just did not fit our definition of a library program,” Herrmann concluded. “What you’re running into with reserving a room is we do have limits on how many times somebody can reserve a room over a certain amount of time. So yes, that is something we have that is part of our policy.”
As far as the book groups go, Hermann explained that there was nothing against the person who had been leading the groups, but the library has stepped levels of classification, and that person did not have a classification level even close to the type needed to lead those book discussions. She did say a person was hired recently who will take over the book discussions. She said the library does have Book Club kits for organizing discussion groups who want to operate on their own.
Hall said that because of the library’s restructuring she knows of two employees who have quit, and she is concerned about the turnover of employees and the cost of those turnovers to the taxpayers.
Herrman said that when the policies and procedures were decided upon in January, they had someone go from branch to branch to explain the changes that would happen as of July 1.
Hall said from her perspective changes like the ones they instituted tended to be more difficult for the front line employees. She said without proper communication and care, employees might feel that they had no voice and that they were undervalued, and consequently had lower morale. She thought someone could have helped ease the transition.
Hall was thanked for her opinion when her time to speak was up. She didn’t feel, however, that her concerns were answered to her satisfaction. The new policies that have been incorporated have disappointed her, as they have other people, according to Hall.
She told the board that she thought one of the book groups were meeting on their own, and said that her group were doing their own thing until they could adjust to the new policies and changes, because they are very unhappy with the decision.
“If they are meeting on the side it is a very sad day when a long established book discussion group is meeting in secret because they are no longer in compliance with policy,” Hall stated.
Herrmann said that book groups are not supposed to meet on their own with their leader, so she would have to look into that.
However, she said that she has decided to look into book discussion groups this fiscal year because she thinks they have oversaturated the market in Boone County with these groups.
“Even if it is a long-established program, is it still bringing people in, is it still meeting a community need,” she said. “Not that I am cutting any of them out right now, or anything, I’m just paying a lot of attention to them right now, to make sure we have the right groups in the right locations and they’re meeting at the right times. So if Everything Jane (a book discussion group) has gone to meeting on the side, I’m going to be asking a lot of questions.”
Hall said she is still looking into the changes in programming and intends to continue to question the efficacy and popularity of the new policy changes.