Invest in Fairfax Rally, April 8, 4 pm, Government Center

SUPPORT QUALITY LIBRARIES
AND SERVICES
IN FAIRFAX COUNTY

  Invest In Fairfax Rally

April 8, 2015 at 4:00 pm

Fairfax County Government Center

Questions?  Contact FairfaxLibraryAdvocates@gmail.com

Fairfax Library Advocates have joined a coalition dedicated to advocating around budget issues. Invest in Fairfax is a broad coalition of businesses, non-profits, human service providers and advocates dedicated to the proposition that Fairfax County, Virginia is an excellent place to live.  Libraries are an essential part of Quality public services in Fairfax County.  

The members of the Invest In Fairfax Coalition believe that Excellence is at risk in our community. 

Join the Coalition at the Budget Hearing of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on April 8, 2015 at 5:00 pm.   This will take place in the Board auditorium of the Fairfax County Government Center - 12000 Government Center Pkwy, Fairfax, VA 22035 . A group of folks will be speaking to the Board of Supervisors in support of quality libraries and services in Fairfax County.  Please let us know if you want to register to speak.

Staging Area:  Come to Rooms 2 and 3 between 4:00 and 5:00 pm at the Government Center to receive stickers, signs, and instructions for the Rally.   There will be food and beverages served courtesy of SEIU Virginia 512.

Let's rally together to Save Our Libraries and protect
Excellence and Quality public services in Fairfax County.

 

 

Pimmit Hills Citizens Association Endorses RCA February 9, 2015 Library Resolution

On March 24, the membership of Pimmit Hills Citizens Association endorsed the February 9, 2015, Reston Citizens Association resolution "Additional Resources for Fairfax County Public Library."  The Pimmit Hills' text is below: 

Pimmit Hills Citizens Association

RESOLUTION

The Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) is a public institution that is vital to the high quality of life of the residents of the County and especially important to less fortunate individuals and families who rely on its resources for helping children learn, job hunting, and starting and managing small businesses.

●     WHEREAS FCPL as a whole has experienced a 22% decline in its operating (General Fund) expenditures —while the county-wide budget has increased 15% in the same timeframe;

●     WHEREAS FCPL as a whole has experienced a 14% decline in full time positions over the same timeframe - while county-wide full time positions have increased by three percent since FY2007;

●     WHEREAS FCPL has reduced its collection inventory by 16% in the decade between, including a 12% reduction in children’s books;

●     WHEREAS FCPL has reduced the number of library children’s programs;

●     WHEREAS FCPL’s policy of considering the discard of library materials after only two years of being unused is exceptionally short by public library norms and has contributed substantially to the decline in the FCPL materials inventory;

●     WHEREAS FCPL does not include in-house use of library materials prior to creating the "dead" list;

●     WHEREAS the impact of all these reductions in budget, staffing, and materials collection has caused a decrease in the quality of the FCPL system;

●     WHEREAS this has been exhibited by the American Library Association’s Public Library Division which ranks FCPL in the bottom third of Metropolitan Washington public library systems (14^th of 19 public library systems);

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Pimmit Hills Citizens Association calls upon:

●     The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (FCBOS) to index the FCPL budget for FY2016 and all following FY to other comparable libraries in the Washington DC Metro area;

●     The FCBOS to fill the vacant full-time positions and ensure that FCPL library staffing levels are indexed to regional norms;

●     The FCBOS to increase the number of full-time positions—and fill them—at least at the rate of growth of the County’s population over the next decade;

●     The FCBOS to direct the FCPL to replace any discarded materials at least one-for-one plus increasing holdings at the percentage change in the county’s population year-to-year;

●     The FCBOS to direct the FCPL to include in-house use of library materials such that those books are not included on the initial "dead" list to be discarded.

●     The FCBOS to direct the FCPL to change its “unused” material discard policy to national and regional norms;

●     Fairfax County citizens and homeowners associations to adopt similar resolutions to encourage the FCBOS to treat the libraries as essential to the quality of life for Fairfax County citizens.

web:  www.pimmithills.org 

Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations: Library Resolution for FY2016 Budget

www.FairfaxFederation.org  +  P.O. Box 3913, Merrifield, VA 22116-3913

Resolution on the

Fairfax County Advertised Fiscal Year 2016 Budget

(Adopted by Membership March 19, 2015)

  

Part B:  LIBRARIES 

RESTORATION OF 14 (13.5 FTE) LIBRARY CIRCULATION AIDE POSITIONS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED FUNDING TO FY2016 BUDGET

WHEREAS the Department of Management and Budget has requested the elimination of 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide positions in the FY2016 Advertised Budget as part of a 3% overall library reduction; and

WHEREAS the Library Board of Trustees budget subcommittee and Library Board of Trustees reluctantly voted in October 2014 to eliminate 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide positions as part of FY16 Budget reductions directed by the Fairfax County Executive; and

WHEREAS the Fairfax Count Executive included the elimination of 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide positions in the FY2016 Advertised Budget as part of a 3% overall library reduction; and

WHEREAS circulation aides provide necessary services in the library branches including supervising volunteers, assisting patrons with technology, processing holds/deliveries/transfers, mending books, processing periodicals, overseeing handouts, dealing with lost/damaged items, processing library card applications and entering patron data, sweeping, straightening, marking items that are used in house, helping investigate and clearing up items on patron accounts, ordering supplies, putting up signs for holidays and closings, clearing the book drop, giving directions, helping with surveys, handling book bag sales, assisting with programs, organizing monthly exhibits of the patron’s display cases, advising patrons on specific selections of books, providing translation assistance for patrons who speak languages other than English,¹ searching for items on various lists including “missing," "claims returned" and holds; and

WHEREAS circulation aides allow required staffing levels to keep branches open for their posted hours; and

WHEREAS eliminated staff positions can almost never be recovered; and 

WHEREAS the next Library Director will very likely have a much stronger vision for using all our library staff more productively and by eliminating the 14 (13.5 FTE) positions, we are robbing the current Library Director’s successor of that opportunity; and

WHEREAS the community library survey being drafted by the Library Board has not yet been conducted to provide community input as to what the citizens of Fairfax County want in a 21^st Century library; and  

WHEREAS funding allotments for the 14 (13.5 FTE) vacant circulation positions provide 30% of the total funding for overtime; and

WHEREAS overtime is now required in 90% of library branches to maintain hours of service, in part because of the vacant circulation aide positions; and

WHEREAS much of the library staff is nearing retirement age and cannot be expected to provide extensive overtime hours; and 

WHEREAS the 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide vacancies have not been filled due to Department of Management and Budget policy rather than because of lack of need within the branches; and

WHEREAS the 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aid positions represent a wholly inequitable share of 31% of net positions cut from all county agencies in the FY2016 Advertised Budget; and

WHEREAS the $355,000 cut representing “efficiencies”  in addition to the $500,000 cut for circulation aide positions in the FY2016 Advertised Budget, in of and by itself, represents more than an adequate and proportional cut to the library after multiple years of declining budget and failure to fill library staff vacancies since 2013;

THEREFORE BE IT

1. Resolved that the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations requests that the Board of Supervisors completely restore 14 (13.5 FTE) circulation aide positions and their associated funding in the FY2016 Adopted Budget.    

_______________________________

¹ Available for translation assistance from all FCPL branches are staff, including many circulation aides, proficient in the following languages:  Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese - Mardarin, Farsi, French, German, Hindi,  Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Marathi, Punjabi, Polish, Russian, Telugu, Urdu, Vietnamese.