Library increases staffing minimum for opening

The Free Library is now requiring that four workers, not three, be present in a branch before it can open for the day, an abrupt change in practice that is expected to lead to closures.

For years, a library could open with a minimum of three workers on hand, Cathy Scott, president of AFSCME District Council 47, which represents librarians and library supervisors, said yesterday.

The change comes when staffing has been thinned by more than 40 layoffs and after a judge ordered 11 branches that had been scheduled to close to remain open.

"They could obviously leave the libraries open with three workers," City Councilman Bill Green said last night. "But the library intends to inflict pain on people in neighborhoods, to demonstrate some point I cannot understand."

Scott said, "I think it's suspect that they're doing this after the judge's order. The minimum staffing requirement has gone up, which will lead to more branches being closed."

Asked why the change was being made, Sandy Horrocks, a spokeswoman for the Free Library, said, "We have a new director who is saying four is the minimum, and it should really be six workers." She did not elaborate.

Scott said that union officials asked repeatedly in 2006, 2007 and last year for an increase to four workers for safety reasons. The deployment they wanted was three workers and one guard.

"Their answer was, the staffing level would only be three," she added. "It could be two and a guard, or three and no guard."

Speaking for Library Director Siobhan Reardon, who has held the post since September, Horrocks last night differed with Scott.

"I don't think there was ever a minimum set," Horrocks said.

According to minutes of library-management meetings obtained by The Inquirer, that does not appear to be accurate.

"Guidelines for branches say they can open if three employees are present, without specifying if or how many guards must be present," library-management minutes from a Sept. 20, 2007, meeting read.

In a meeting on Jan. 25, 2006, the minutes read, "Three employees in attendance is considered the minimum required to open a branch."

Library advocates would not speculate publicly about why Reardon was making the change.

But, said Amy Dougherty, director of Friends of the Free Library, "It is puzzling that libraries that had functioned with three in the past now have to have four. During a budget crisis, our goal is to keep library services throughout the community."

The change came with some confusion. On Saturday, a library worker e-mailed the library's Northeast area administrator, Antoinette Hoagland, asking whether a library with four staffers would have to close if one worker went to lunch.

"Yes," Hoagland answered, "because . . . you would be below the four-person-to-be-open rule."

Last night, Horrocks said Hoagland was mistaken and libraries will not close if someone went to lunch.

Because libraries may be closed with little warning, administrators said yesterday that patrons may dial 311 to find out whether a branch is open.