Reduced hours, closures hit Seattle Public Library branches amid city's budget struggles

If you headed to a public library in Seattle over the weekend, you may have found your local branch was closed.

Last week, Seattle Public Library announced it was cutting hours at several branches across the city because of staffing challenges. The decision comes as SPL and the city navigate a $240 million budget gap that's impacting agencies across the city.

The change, including closures, are mainly scheduled during weekends and may last through the beginning of June. Staffing relief doesn’t appear to be coming any time soon.

In the meantime, SPL Chief Librarian and Executive Director Tom Fay told KUOW's Soundside in a statement, if a branch's hours are reduced, holds at that location will be extended and book drops will remain open. Fay also said e-books and audio books are available through the library's website 24/7.

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Still, librarian Anne Cisney said she was "relieved" when she heard about the decision to reduce some SPL branch hours; Cisney is the president of AFSCME Local 2083, which represents Seattle library employees.

"We've been very short staffed for months," Cisney said. "And that has meant that when one or two people call it out sick, we have to close a building, because we don't have enough people to safely operate that building."

Those unexpected closures cause headaches for people planning to do work, check out books, or meet community members at the library.

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The only way to solve this issue, Cisney explained, is to secure the funding to hire enough staff to provide regular services.

"Until we know that we have the funding to hire enough staff to provide regular services of the kind that we need and want to provide is to scale back our hours to match the staffing that we have," Cisney said.

In an emailed statement, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's office told KUOW's Soundside that SPL has been working closely with the mayor's office and the City Budget Office to "identify staffing solutions that meet immediate needs."

And, as a non-executive city department, "SPL has the authority to implement its own hiring policies. To address longstanding budget and operational challenges, SPL has implemented its own hiring freeze in parallel with Mayor Harrell’s hiring freeze for executive city departments."

Traditionally, keeping a library branch open and operating meant having the staff on hand to help patrons check out books, offer story time for kids, or provide technology support.

But over the years, Cisney explained, the kind of help patrons need at the library has changed — and that's meant greater demands on staffing just to "minimally" run a branch.

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"It's really important that whoever's working in the library, [they are] ready to meet every person, regardless of what exactly their need is, what language they speak, what they've experienced that day," Cisney said. "We need to be able to meet every person's need to the best of our ability, while maintaining a safe environment for everybody else."

Add to that the impact the library has on the city leaders' ability to do their jobs, too. Cisney said she hopes people keep in mind that the library has a role in "just about every" initiative that Seattle City cCouncil members put forward.

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"If we are funded, then we'll be able to support the mayor and City Council in addressing many of the issues that everybody in Seattle is facing that they would like to solve," Cisney said.

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