Letter: Personnel Cuts At Amherst’s Branch Libraries Are Ominous
Architect's rendering of renovated North Amherst Library with improvements to sidewalks and roads. Photo: Amherst Planning Department
The North Amherst Library has been without a branch librarian since Maggie Spiegel retired in March 2020. That year, the North Amherst Library’s book budget was zeroed out and our neighborhood was without library services for months after both the Jones and Munson libraries began offering outdoor holds pickup. Now that Sue Hugus has retired as librarian of the Munson library, Library Director Sharon Sharry has permanently cut Ms. Spiegel’s position and is hiring one person to oversee both branch libraries. Based on the building plans, this position will oversee the branches from an office at the Jones Library while also working on the Jones reference desk (according to the position description).
At the same time, Sharry has requested the creation of a new department with the addition of a Head of Young Adult Services position at the Jones Library. That person would supervise the current Young Adult Services Coordinator.
More and more services and positions are being consolidated at the Jones while the branches are staffed solely with part-time, nonprofessional personnel currently overseen, based on Trustee minutes, by the Head of Special Collections. That position works with historical documents. What could they possibly know about running a branch library?
When I inquired about the process for the creation of new permanent town positions, town manager Paul Bockelman said in an email that it all boiled down to the budget and that “Once a department’s budget is set, it is up to the department head, in this case the Library Director, to manage the department within the confines of that budget.”
Surely, this can’t mean the library director can take a branch librarian position and turn it into a position for the Jones Library without the Personnel Board’s approval?
The branches are a vital part of our communities. Being able to walk to a library in both North and South Amherst is incredibly important to many of us. The director and trustees are supposed to provide stewardship over all three Amherst libraries, yet it seems the branches are being sucked dry of staff and resources in order for there to be enough staff to oversee their new, larger Jones Library. Not only have they taken away a fulltime branch librarian position in favor of a second teen librarian* but the remaining branch librarian will also be staffing the Jones Library.
Do the library director and trustees really care about our branches? Definitely not if they continue to pull resources from the branches, leaving them to be run by the town historian! Even their branding says it all. Their main fundraising group is the Friends of the Jones Library System, not the Friends of Amherst’s Libraries. How long after the renovation is completed before the director starts saying there is no need for the branches at all because everything is available at the new 21st century Jones Library?
*It should be noted that not even the Springfield Public Library has more than one teen librarian and in 2020 they offered 479 total young adult programs with a total attendance of 3775 whereas Amherst offered 60 programs for a total of 728 teens.
Natalie Barber is a resident of Amherst and a lover of all three of Amherst’s libraries.
Your letter, Natalie, brings up many important issues.
Cynthia Harbeson, Head of Special Collections, has been given many additional responsibilities since the pandemic including organizing and writing COVID protocols for re-opening the library after its closure as well as planning the move of North Amherst Library’s services to the Munson once construction begins at the NAL branch.
I wonder how Ms. Harbison can adequately maintain our town’s valuable Special Collections. In the 2018 Jones Library Community Preservation Act application for Special Collections 8-HP-Preservation-Assessment-Collection-Inventory—Jones-Library (amherstma.gov) ,the Jones had requested significant funds to fully inventory the collection and ascertain preservation needs for 1443 linear feet of the total 1500 feet of materials. Sadly, this application was withdrawn.
There is still a need to analyze and inventory Special Collections. How can any progress on adequately maintaining the Town’s history occur if Ms. Harbeson is given more and more duties outside her job description?
I agree with you, Terry. There’s no way Mrs. Harbison can devote the time needed to Special Collections when she’s running two vibrant branch libraries. How can anyone effectively manage three departments? Why wasn’t the North Amherst Library manager position filled when Maggie Spiegel retired in the spring of 2020? I understand that it wouldn’t have been filled right away because of the pandemic. But the library has filled many positions vacated by retirements that occurred after 2020. When the position is at the Jones, it is filled quickly while staffing at the branches is compromised. When I’ve visited the North Amherst Library, I’ve been greeted by very friendly part-time staff but I haven’t encountered a librarian there since Maggie retired.
Our branches each need a manager and Mrs. Harbison needs to be freed from these excessive responsibilities.