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Joan Joakim, a strong supporter of the South Norwalk Library, has been fighting for better services at the library for many years. The latest issue stems from personnel changes made a year ago. This puts her at odds with the library board once again.
Stan Siegel, president of the Norwalk Public Library Board of Trustees is concerned about the South Norwalk Public Library. After a multi-million dollar renovation, Siegel thinks that the library is under siege by homeless people using the computers and library resources at higher numbers than before. He appeared before the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) at last night's public hearing to ask for additional money for security personnel. The library, he said, is open 51 hours a week and they only have funding for four hours a week for security. He claims between the two libraries that only 44 out of 106 hours of operation have security..
Joan Joakim, a volunteer who has worked in the library for years says that it a misplaced priority. "We need professional librarians, not security," she said to the BET.
Siegel claims that there is vandalism and stealing of library items, and that those incidences decrease when a security guard is present.
Joakim has been working at the library teaching ESL (English as a second language) classes. She claims that since the previous Director of the South Norwalk Library, Reggie St. Fort, was let go, the remaining staff has been unable to service customers. She said that St. Fort was working well with customers and agencies that ran programs to tutor students and help with job placement. His position was defunded at the request of library board in the 2009-10 budget process. The LIbrary Board, at the time, recommended that the branch librarian at the South Norwalk Library be eliminated. The original budget recommendation sought to eliminate funding the assistant librarian at the Main Library, but was reversed.
Now the library board is seeking additional funding for security at the library, which Joakim claims wasn't needed before.
She says that currently no one is in charge and that there is a stream of strangers coming into the library, but understands their need for access. "They have a critical need for the library,'' she said. She wants a trained librarian running the South Norwalk Library than a security guard.
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