The new employees, both Union City residents, will be filling the positions of Administrative Assistant in the 43rd Street library branch and one part-time library assistant for the 15th Street library.
Although these new hires mean good news for the library staff, Library Director William Breedlove said that they only bring the staff of the library back to where it was, not where it should be.
Said Breedlove after the meeting, "It doesn't improve our situation."
The administrative assistant position, now being filled by Cynthia Chahin, was left open after the former administrative assistant took a position with the Board of Education in July. The part-time library assistant position, now being filled by Roxanna Cedeno, was left open more than one year ago when one part-time employee was hired as a full-time employee.
The library is currently advertising for applicants to fill the branch librarian position at the 15th Street Library Branch left open earlier this summer.
Breedlove hopes to fill this position be October.
Not up to par
The state releases a list of minimum standards of service for libraries. They're based on population. With the new 2000 Census numbers, the library needs to have 17 employees, of which five must be professional librarians. Currently, Breedlove said that the library only has 12 employees and one professional librarian.
"I haven't added any new positions since I took over here," said Breedlove, who became director of the library in 1999.
The library also needs a total book collection of 67,000, adding 6,700 new books each year.
According to Breedlove, after the library approved their budget last year, the library only met 10 percent of the state standards last year, resulting in a decrease in state funding.
This year, Breedlove expects to meet 20 percent of the state's minimum standards of service. Breedlove explained that the library will meet the requirement for the number of periodicals it subscribes to, therefore increasing the state per capita aid for the fiscal year 2003 budget.
The new computerized catalogue system installed in the library earlier this summer will help with the libraries' periodical subscriptions.
The new system is linked to 5,000 Internet sites that can be accessed automatically from the initial search.
Breedlove expected that 168,000 Internet sites would be available through the system, as well as 50 different databases.
New employees
Chahin, who was hired as the new administrative assistant, graduated from St. Peter's College with a degree in Economics and Marketing. Chahin also worked at the library as an assistant through the work study program at St. Peter's College.
Breedlove said that her background in marketing will be very valuable to the library.
"We need to begin to market the library," said Breedlove. "We need to market the library to the Spanish community. Many of the Hispanic people living in this community come from communities where the library was not a big part of the community."
Cedeno, who was working with the library for three years through the work-study program with St. Peter's College, will be filling the part-time library assistant position.
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