Riverside PL “Suspends” PTers
By Lynn Blumenstein -- Library Journal, 7/15/2008
Riverside Public Library (RPL), CA, was to lay off 30 part-timers as of July 1, the majority of them pages. RPL director Barbara Custen defined the employees as “suspended, as some could come back.” RPL was asked, as were most city departments, she told LJ, to make cuts, and she made the choice to keep “all full-time, benefited employees intact.” To cover the workload, existing staff, including Custen, will be expected to do 15–20 minutes of shelving daily. Custen also noted that no hours would be cut.
Losing those pages and one janitorial position will save the city about $242,000 or, according to the Press Enterprise, three percent of the library’s expected $8 million FY08/09 budget.
