MA Library Closes; Other Face Layoffs, Shorter Hours

By Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 5/30/2007

The Saugus Public Library is closing its doors, possibly for good, while the Whitinsville Social Library has reduced its hours of operation to just 12 hours a week after Massachusetts voters rejected property tax increases on April 24.

In Saugus, just outside of Boston, 10 part-timers and eight full-timers—including two children’s librarians—are getting pink slips this week, ahead of the June 30 closure. “The impact on the children of Saugus is really catastrophic,” says Library Director Mary Rose Quinn, who estimates that 5,000 students a year use the library, along with 60 to 70 preschoolers who attend storytime each week.

Meanwhile, the Whitinsville Social Library in Northbridge closed over the weekend, after voters shot down a $3.7 million proposed override on May 24. Library officials could not be reached for comment, but David Gray, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, says Northbridge—which laid off six of its nine employees, including two-full-time librarians—will stay open on a limited basis, perhaps 12 hours a week, using community funding.

There’s still some hope for Saugus, however. At a town meeting in mid-June residents are slated to vote on a trash collection fee which, if passed, could help the library stay open—if only for a limited time during the week, and with limited staff.

The $5.2 million tax override rejected by Saugus residents would have helped fund an enormous deficit already threatening this community of 26,400. Now, not only is the public library scheduled to close, but schools also face more than a million dollars in cuts.

School libraries will also be hit hard, Quinn says. Since Saugus’ cuts began in earnest five years ago, the four elementary, middle, and high schools have reduced their media specialist staff down to just one certified librarian, whose time is divided between the high school and working at the public library three nights a week.

Saugus and Northbridge, Gray says, are joining a growing list of library closures in the state that already includes Hampden (which closed in FY 2005) and Medway (another town that was forced to cut back its hours). As a result, Medway remains open but it’s not fully staffed, and it lacks a director.

There is one bright spot, however. Voters in Frankin, MA, which hosts what many call Massachusetts' first library, actually, passed their override last week, Gray says. “So their library is fine,” he says. But he hastens to add a caveat: Eight staffers in Franklin, he says, are still under the threat of layoffs.