The Orange Cove LIBRARY - a PUBLIC resource

[thompson-Western Mavrick]

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Plan for Fresno Co. library layoffs approved

Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2011
By Kurtis Alexander / The Fresno Bee

Fresno County supervisors Tuesday approved plans to lay off up to 20 full-time county librarians.

The layoffs are part of a reorganization of the 34-branch library system aimed at cutting costs and streamlining service. The plan includes eliminating library programs, such as an information and referral service for social services, and possibly reducing hours at branches.

For the last three years, the library system has been forced to dip into a shrinking reserve fund because of declining sales and property tax revenues, a contingency that is not sustainable, library managers say. The reorganization will trim about $2.7 million from the system's $24 million annual budget.

"I don't like reducing the number of professional staff, but I'm not sure we have much choice," Supervisor Susan Anderson said.

Approval of the layoffs, which were opposed by many in the community, came with conditions. Among them: librarians inform the Board of Supervisors about changes to the library's historic collections and consult the public when they dispose of old library materials.

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/03/22/2320313/p...

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[Mister_Sunshine]

Hooray! A budget getting trimmed instead of increased! Yahoo! The Fresno Supervisors are doing the right thing,(if you don't have the money, cut spending!!!) Now only if Jerry Brown and Barry Sotero would do the same thing...

[titan student]

hey the lady at the library talks a lot of crap about nick lawsons mom and dad

[Somebody]

titan student wrote:

hey the lady at the library talks a lot of crap about nick lawsons mom and dad

Yeah she always talks about him...idk why. It bores actually.