On Monday, January 30, 2012, Lu Ann Franklin reported in an article posted on GaryCommunity.com that on Monday, Gary Library Board voted four-to-two to adopt a re-organization plan written by Library Director Otis Alexander that will include fifteen full-time and nine part-time employees will be laid-off effective March 1, 2012 (“Gary Library Board votes to lay off workers”). The GPL Board had postponed making a decision at the regular meeting on January 24, 2012 to give Alexander more time to gather information.
Alexander cut the 2012 GPL budget 53% from $5,700,000 to $2,679,000. GPL Board members Sadie P. Sheffield and Nancy Valentine voted against the measure.
GPL Board President Tony Walker said that some of the people being laid-off “may be eligible for the five part-time positions that we are creating.” He added, “We are also repurposing five full-time positions.”
Ms. Franklin noted that three of the repurposed positions will be from the Main Library’s public relations department and two will be from the Main Library’s financial department. “The public relations department employees have been working as archivists, curators and materials conservationists. They will be assigned to the new conservation and curation department, Walker said.”
Have they been trained? Normally archivists have studied archival theory and practices in the context of a public history program in a liberal arts college’s history department or a library school and curators have studied either public history or art history depending on whether they deal with artifacts or artworks.
Walker also explained that under this plan the South Shore Museum & Cultural Center will be staffed by three employees and a number of volunteers. He announced the four remaining branch libraries would be open longer hours, gain staff members, and have more resources. The Brunswick Branch Library, W.E.B. De Bois Branch Library, John F. Kennedy Branch Library and Woodson Branch Library will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays.
Ms. Franklin wrote, “In addition, Walker said the cultural center will have computers and a library component, emphasizing archives and collections. The materials will not be circulated.”
She noted that during the public comment portion of the special board meeting, “Questions arose about whether Monday's meeting was legal” as “Gary residents Linda Peterson and Richard Barnes said the Indiana Open Door Law requires publication in the media 48 hours before any public meeting, excluding Saturdays and Sundays and legal holidays.” Walker replied that the only notice required under the law was a message posted on the building in which the meeting was held.
Lest there be any doubt, Ms. Franklin cited Indiana Code 5-14-1.5. It states, "Public notice shall be given by the governing body of a public agency by: (1) posting a copy of the notice at the principal office of the public agency holding the meeting or, if no such office exists, at the building where the meeting is to be held; and (2) delivering notice to all news media which deliver by Jan. 1 an annual written request for such notices for the next succeeding calendar year to the governing body of the public agency."
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