Library Board Mitigates $50K in Cuts

Summer jobs and Sunday hours are among the cuts the Scarsdale Library will make to close a $50,000 budget gap, officials say.

"Like any company, we've had to tighten our belts," Library Trustee Judd Cohen said.

The cuts to the library's $3.4 million budget include:

• Opening the library one hour later and changing the staffing on Sundays which will save $25,000
• Reducing (by $12,000) the budget for a staffer who will create and support programs the library provides to the community
• Eliminating part-time summer hires that cost $1,000
• Ending subscriptions to the Standard & Poor's database and The New York Times on microfilm, which cost $7,000 and $5,000, respectively.

Library Board President Joyce Hirsch said cutting the Sunday hours was the hardest choice.

"This is a very well-used library, and a lot of people are here on Sunday," she said.

The library is currently open from noon to 5 p.m. for 38 Sundays throughout the year. It's closed on Sundays in July and August. But starting in June, it will open at 1 p.m.

Library Director Beth Bermel said the subscriptions services that are being cancelled are among the least used.

Despite the cuts, Scarsdale is faring relatively well. Governor David Paterson has proposed a $2.4 million cut in library aid this year, which would bring the cuts to $18 million since 2008.

Library usage generally goes up in tough economic times, one advocate said, so cutting library funding to close a $9.2 billion budget gap is unwise.

"Whether it's food banks, job training programs, unemployment assistance or supporting our libraries, it would be pennywise and pound foolish to cut the very services that are now in the greatest demand and can do the most good to those in need," New York State Library Association Executive Director Michael Borges said.

On Monday the Scarsdale Library Board also announced who its new officers would be come May.

Current Vice President Sara Werder will become President and current Secretary Barbara Josselsohn will take Werder's place as VP. Trustees Joan Rothman and Judd Cohen will take up the Treasurer and Secretary positions.

[Editor's note: An earlier version of this story posted March 25 at 10:00 a.m. misstated the following: How the library plans to save $25,000; where the $12,000 in programming will be cut; when new hours and closures would take effect; when new officers would take effect; and the positions of two new board members. The current version has been amended.]