[OT] AW: Unibibliothek mit 4 Angestellten?

[<monika.bargmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dirk Lewandowski leitete weiter:

> The University of Wales Bangor in the UK no longer feel that
> subject librarians / academic liaison librarians are needed
> in the modern academic library
> They have made restructuring proposals which include removing all bar
> one of the subject librarians and a tier of the library management,
> including the Head of Bibliographic Services.

Etwas Ähnliches wird von der Free Library of Philadelphia
(http://www.library.phila.gov/) berichtet, wo man eine "express library"
einrichten will (s.u.). Kommentar eines Benutzers: "this sounds like the Free
Library views the branches as ATMs for books".

Mfg, Monika Bargmann

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Rita Premo [mailto:rlpremo@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Gesendet: Dienstag, 25. Jänner 2005 04:54
An: nexgenlib-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Betreff: [NEXGENLIB-L]: FW: at the Free Library of Philly

[...]
The Free Library of Philadelphia will become, perhaps, the first public
library in the country without librarians or reference service.  To the
surprise of the Free Library staff, the library just laid off 13 library
supervisors.  This is being done despite the fact that the Free Library has
been short of librarians for a number of years.  When asked why more
administrative staff was not laid off instead, the administration refused to
answer.

Of the 13 supervisors laid off, many were branch managers.  The library has
decided they don't need branch heads anymore.  They are restructuring the
system.  They have a new kind of library in mind, an "express library".  These
libraries will be run by non-professional library assistants and will offer no
reference help.  The branches will only be open 4 hours a day.  The
administration says this will allow the library to extend the hours of the
remaining branches.  Currently only 10 of the 55 Free Library branches are
open on Saturdays.

The other day a gentleman said to me that Philadelphia has the worst public
library system he had ever seen.  Branches are closed almost every day due to
staff shortages.  [...]