We wanted to highlight this statement made to the City Council by our very own Vi Ha at the City Council Budget Hearings last Tuesday, April 29th.

 

"Good afternoon Councilmembers.

My name is Vi Ha and I am the Young Adult Librarian at the Central Library.

I live in [Council District] 1. 

What differentiates a good city from a great city is infrastructure and the role of city government is to maintain infrastructure. 

The voters of Los Angeles approved Measure L to restore Library services. Our hours have been restored, but our staffing has not been.

Libraries are considered a core service and we are expected to have professional service, but we are struggling. 

Managed hiring prevents us from adding new people what is clearly expected from us as mandated from Measure L, to maintain our services.

As a teen librarian at the Central Library, I work directly with teenagers. I teach classes, lead tours, create activities that encourage teens to be future active citizens for the City. I've had to cancel these activities because of staffing shortages.

Do our services matter? We need new staff to continue our services. City Councilmembers, you need to maintain our infrastructure."

-Vi Ha, Librarian, Teen'Scape and Chief Rank and File Steward

 

If you want to make your own statement to City Council keep an eye on your Guild emails!  We will also be putting a post up with some basic information about how to get to City Hall and how to ask for Furlough time to do it!