The people of Auckland #LoveOurLibraries and wish to #SaveOurLibrarians
It should go without saying, but:
• Libraries are priceless treasure troves of collective resources, built over time and accessible to everyone in our society.
• Libraries and librarians support people in their educational goals and personal aspirations.
• Libraries serve as community centres. In a time of escalating privatisation and commercialisation, libraries provide safe indoor public space.
• As a consistently friendly and helpful face, community librarians boost the mental health of their community.
• Libraries are especially important to vulnerable people: children, senior citizens, the lonely, the unemployed, the homeless, and new immigrants.
Mirla Edmundson, the General Manager for Libraries, is on the record as stating there will be no reduction of service at the local level; we dispute her claim because we see the existing library staff as an integral part of the service. We are also taking a stand because if staff are being let go and forced to play musical chairs this time, what else will be cut and mutilated in the future in the name of savings?
Mayor Goff campaigned on a pledge not to alter or reduce city services if we had a rates increase of 2.5% or more.
We feel the public should have been consulted on a systemic staffing change of the magnitude underway. In our name, some of our most beloved public servants have been unnecessarily placed under prolonged strain and stress, knowing their positions could be eliminated. We are already losing the skill sets of 74 employees who have agreed to redundancy arrangements and whom Ms Edmundson characterised as people who didn't "want to be part of the future."
Each of our libraries is a distinct entity, reflective and responsive to its community's composition, needs, and aspirations. Our libraries risk losing the institutional and community knowledge of staff members, often gained over years of devoted service, if most present positions are eliminated, staff may not be reassigned to their current library, and too many of the new roles force staff to divide their time between different locations.
Love Our Libraries is a grassroots citizens campaign that arose out of a specific request for help from library employees to community activists earlier this year. Quiet rumours of drastic reforms to our library system under the rubric of "Fit for the Future" were circulating, but mainly among followers of local politics. Although the ~1000 library employees had been given a consultation document, the feeling was that they had little power to prevent the changes being initiated and directed by administration. They were told not to release information into the public realm and indeed were even cautioned not to engage with our group, once management became aware of us.
Love Our Libraries officially launched outside Auckland Central Library on March 4, 2017. To date, our group has shared information with a largely unaware public and collected written and verbal testimonials from library patrons. On March 24, Love Our Libraries members met with Mirla Edmundson and two of her staff to hear their perspective and air some of our concerns. A record of our activities can be found on our public Facebook group page:
www.facebook.com/groups/LoveOurLibraries
Now that the Fit for the Future staffing plans have finally been made public, we have launched this petition. If libraries are to change (and we don't dispute that evolution is inevitable and necessary), changes should be instigated and implemented at the local level. We believe all public servants deserve our respect and support. As our collective employees, paid from our city's shared resources, we wish to see them treated better than private sector standards. Instead of discarding existing staff, there should be opportunities for them to retrain or upskill.
For these reasons, we are attempting to halt the Fit for the Future reforms. Let's go back to the drawing board in an inclusive, bottom-up, and transparent way.
#LoveOurLibraries #SaveOurLibrarians
