Broward County (FL) Library (BCL) is set to change the designation of a number of teen librarian positions, a potential cost-cutting measure the public library system hopes will actually add services to all patrons, as BCL looks to increase hours. However, the proposed shift—which does not have an implementation date as of yet—is concerning to some who believe the move could negatively impact teen programming. “The reality is we’re having a reduction in the number of positions specially designated as youth services,” says Rita Lipof, branch manager of BCL’s Pembroke Pines/Walter C. Young Resource Center. “The youth librarians plan youth programs and summer programming. This will have an immediate and long-term effect on services we have with our customers.” BCL’s librarians are tiered by job title and responsibilities. At issue are some youth services designations. These will potentially be replaced with more general roles, such as assistant library branch manager, says Laura Connors, BCL assistant director, who adds that doing so will give branches coverage for extra hours. BCL has 40 locations in its system, according to its website. Proposed new organizational charts reflect changes at 36 branches, with just seven, down from 32, having designated “youth services” positions. For example, according to BCL’s current organizational charts, and new ones reflecting the proposed changes dated September 25, 2015, Hallandale Beach branch would actually gain a position with the new arrangement. Still, a Librarian 1 youth services position (currently vacant) would be cut, eliminating titled youth services spots at the branch. (New classification titles and job descriptions are also due in 2016.) At the Sunrise Dan Pearl branch, a current youth services position (also currently vacant) would be filled as an Assistant Library Branch Manager - Information Services. None of Sunrise’s proposed 14 positions would be dedicated specifically to teen programming. The Pembroke Pines branch would actually gain three positions—two of which are library aides—but lose a youth services position, also leaving this branch without a staff position focused specifically on teens. However, South Regional branch, which now has two youth services designated spots, would actually be gaining three new positions with youth services in their title, bringing teen services  staff up to five. BCL has stood out among its peers for services to teen patrons, winning the Florida Library Association (FLA) “Betty Davis Miller Youth Services Award for Teen Programming” this year, along with FLA “Library of the Year” honors. FLA took particular notice of the BCL’s “Show Us Your Bookcase" contest where students took photographs of themselves covering or changing part of themselves with just a book cover. “[The contest] made the teens go beyond the story in the book and take their inquiry to another level,” says FLA executive director Martina Brawer. “I think it’s pretty innovative to involve teens in this way. It made libraries and reading cool.” Florida’s public libraries suffered a $5 million cut in funding from 2014 to 2015 from state coffers, with BCL’s portion alone measuring approximately $544,000, according to FLA’s Brawer. BCL has also promised to increase hours the branches will be open to the public, based on a proposed budget increase announced this past June. But that increase in funding never came, says Connors. The library system was still tasked with opening the libraries 48 hours, six days a week, she says. “So that’s the driving force,” Connors says of the proposed cuts. “I didn’t get extra positions from the budget.” But Connors maintains that teen programming is not going away. BCL is working with high school teens identified as at-risk by their school advisors in a program partially funded by an IMLS grant, she says. And teens remain “as one of our prime services.” Yet Lipof, a former youth services librarian herself with BCL, remains concerned. “Their thought is by making everyone a generalist it’s going to be this great efficiency and we’ll be able to more,” she says. “I feel that if youth services is important work, that people should have that designation.”