Shortage Cuts Hours At Library

Faced with a staffing shortage, the manager of Pasco County's library system won approval Tuesday to shorten hours across the county.

The cuts will close all of the county's seven libraries on Monday and limit each to 40 hours a week, even as demand for computers and other library services has grown.

The new schedule also would open every library at 10 a.m. and require each one to stay open until 8 p.m. once a week.

The new hours take effect April 6.

The changes are the beginning of what likely will be more drastic cuts to library services in the next year as the county sorts out a projected $30 million budget deficit, Libraries Director Linda Allen said.

"We're brainstorming every possibility," Allen said.

The library system costs Pasco County about $7 million a year.

Library officials, like those at many of the county's public service departments, have been asked to cut 18 percent to 20 percent from next year's budget. That could force more cuts in hours or even closings, Allen said.

"We're trying not to," Allen said of the prospect of closing libraries. "But it may boil down to that's all we have left."

The decision to limit library hours was driven by the hiring freeze County Administrator John Gallagher put in place last year. The library system has lost 17 employees and expects to lose four more before the end of September, Allen said.

That amounts to a 14.5 percent decrease from the system's regular staffing of 144 full-time positions, Allen said.

The library system depends on volunteers to take up some of the slack from missing staff members, but that hasn't been enough, Allen said.

Commissioners lamented cutting library services at a time when out-of-work residents may depend on them for job-hunting or other research.

"Our libraries have been the shining star for our county," Commissioner Ann Hildebrand said.