Changes are brewing for the Redondo Beach Library, a two-building institution whose management structure hangs in the balance as the City Council considers the 2013-2014 budget.
City Manager Bill Workman has proposed de-authorizing the director’s position – incumbent Jean Scully is set to retire at the end of the month – and diverting the leftover funds toward opening the North Branch one additional day a week.
Presently the Main Library is open six days a week, and the North Branch four days a week. Staff – 13 full-time and 60 part-time – rotates between both buildings.
The library receives no funding from the state, and the revenue it earns from fines and fees is dwindling, meaning it has to depend increasingly heavily on donations and support from Friends of the Redondo Beach Public Library and the Library Foundation.
Workman has proposed assigning the library director’s duties to the director of recreation, transit, and community services as a means to cover the $37,000 personnel expense associated with opening the North Branch on Tuesdays from 12 to 8 p.m.
Another component of Workman’s proposal is the hiring of a consultant to draft a mid-term strategic plan for the library, in light of the fact that technological advances are changing the library game.
“The entire library services field is now quickly changing with challenges to library relevancy, use of space, funding and digital integration… A mid-range plan of services and strategic outlook is proposed to address library needs in the next 1-3 years,” reads Workman’s proposal.
Indeed, the American Library Association has acknowledged that “American libraries will confront formidable challenges during the next few decades of the 21st century.”
“Both the media and technologies they deploy will continue the digital transformation that has already eroded or swept away in years what had lasted for decades or centuries. Nor is the rate of change slowing. Libraries also are challenged by the financial constraints facing the agencies that support them as well as shifts in the nature and needs of library users,” reads its analysis.
City staff has reported that the purpose of the proposed reorganization is “to improve performance and address the specific challenges confronting the Redondo Beach Library… all within a fast-changing environment where past staffing, structure, strategy, services, systems, style and sources of funding are no longer optimal ways to operate the library.”
Workman told the library commission at its May 29 meeting that drafting of a strategic plan to determine how best the library can weather said challenges could cost anywhere from $12,000 to $100,000.
At the June 4 meeting of the Redondo Beach City Council, Alice Taylor of the Library Foundation said she was “disappointed” by the proposed changes, and warned the council of the “unknown impact” the restructure could have.
She said the city manager has known for a year that Scully would be retiring June 28, but is now “rushing to reorganize before a budget deadline.”
“De-authorizing the library director’s position and moving it under Parks and Rec…does not make for effective operation of either department,” she said.
She advised the council to delay making any major changes until the strategic plan has come to fruition.
Workman responded: “Libraries are undergoing dramatic changes and the connectivity we need with other departments, the connectivity we need with the business community, the connectivity we need with schools has not occurred despite my urging of the director and despite the need to improve the performance of the library in those areas in order for us to move that next level.”
Councilmember Matt Kilroy said the issue begs questions of “how the needs of the community and services of the library should change over time to adapt” to technological advancement.
At this week’s council meeting, Taylor again approached the pulpit and said that in nearby cities with comparable populations, “the majority” are managed by a “variation on library director or library services director.”
She left the council with a haiku: “Redondo Library / Give us a new director / Keep us strong and free.”
The council is set to vote on the budget at its June 18 meeting.
