Finances cause local library to lay off staff

The Elyria Public Library is laying off staff members due to financial difficulties which have affected libraries across the nation.

Library Director Lyn Crouse told board members at a virtual meeting the evening of July 21 the union was served a notice of anticipated layoffs, as stated in the contract.

Crouse said one of the reasons for the layoffs is the lack of work.

The last time the library had a large layoff, was in 2009 during the Great Recession.

At the time, 11 employees were laid off after the state slashed the library funding.

Crouse, who was hired in 2012, said she’s never experienced anything like this before.

“In my 30 years, I’ve never been in a layoff, so it’s a new experience to me,” she said. “It’s not something you ever want to go through.

“Unfortunately, sometimes, tough decisions have to be made.”

The West River and South branches are open to the public, but the Central and Keystone branches are open for curbside and drivethru services only.

Overall, the library board approved 22 layoffs.

Six of the positions are vacant.

In addition, 11 positions are full time and 11 are parttime.

For the next week, Crouse

will take notices from employees who would like to voluntarily accept layoffs.

“Before make layoffs, we are first required to ask if there are volunteers,” she said.

Programming, public meetings, bookmobile and most outreach services were suspended, Crouse said.

“We are doing virtual summer reading, and that’s actually been very popular and is going well,” she said. “We’re doing other virtual programs and online virtual reading time and some science experiments. “It’s very different.” The bookmobile will be removed from service until solutions can be found for the programming and setup.

“We’re unable to distance in the vehicle,” Crouse said.

“We can’t put two people in the cab and we don’t have room for multiple people in there.

“We tend to send it to places like the schools and nursing homes, and we aren’t able to get into those sites.”

The change has been bleak due to the lack of the nearly 300,000 patrons who annually visit the Library System branches, Crouse said.

“Our libraries have never been particularly quiet,” she said. “We’re community gathering places and there’s always stuff going on and people are coming and going.

“We miss our patrons. I think we are still looking at ways we can expand our services, and we’re hoping our patrons will come back.”