For years, staffing levels at Collier Counties libraries have been shrinking, though it’s not an intentional cost-saving measure. Like so many other businesses, the library is having difficulty retaining workers. Economics and the lack of affordable housing is making living and working in Collier County untenable for many.
This hard reality of not being able to attract and secure workers may lead to cuts system-wide.
But at what cost?
Collier County leaders are trying to tackle this subject because, even in the digital age, libraries are still an important part of many lives.
In Collier County, libraries are more than a place to check out books. Banks of computers are available with free internet service. Libraries offer printing, faxing, and scanning services. There’s story time for children. Programs that foster innovation and creativity in science, technology, engineering arts and math for youths are available. Adults can work on painting and knitting skills. There’s even cooking classes for all ages.
This is just a snapshot of what the Collier County Public Library system offers. In the 2023 fiscal year, the libraries drew in some 82,000 adults and 45,000 children to 1,800 programs.
A severe staffing shortage, however, is proving difficult to offer quality programs and continue operating as usual, said Catherine Cowser, the division director of Collier’s library system.
Currently, the county’s 10 libraries are open 475 hours per week. That’s expected to change.
In a perfect world, there would be 96 employees to run the operations and programs for the county. But Collier is struggling to make do with significantly less, Cowser said.
She said an average of one employee has been resigning every month over the last year. On Tuesday, the day she sat in the county commission chambers waiting to make a presentation on proposed cuts, Cowser learned yet another worker called it quits. This comes after someone on Monday also announced they were leaving.
Those two will be added to the existing 25 vacancies.
“It's just in the current economic climate,” she said.
The staffing shortage ranges from salaried management jobs to entry level specialist jobs that pay $17.57 an hour.
Cowser said staff retention has been a problem since 2019. As a result, she’s ready to reconfigure the operations and permanently cut some of the unfilled jobs, which means a change in hours for each library.
For example, that could mean no more Saturday hours for the East Naples and Vanderbilt Beach libraries, as well as additional cuts during the week.
According to Cowser's proposal to the Collier County Board of County Commissioners, those two libraries could halve their hours of operations by 20 hours each.
Also, Cowser's plan includes eliminating 12 operational hours at the North and South regional libraries. Their operations would drop from 60 to 48 hours weekly.
All but Immokalee and Everglades City libraries would have reduced hours under the proposal.
“Closing fully on Saturday -- don't love it,” said Commissioner Rick LoCastro.
LoCastro and other commissioner said they needed more information on how the reduction of hours would impact the community, especially those that rely on and appreciate what the library has to offer.
The board will hammer out the details and vote on the proposal when it meets on June 25.
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