Library users—especially families with children—rallied together on the evening of May 15th to show support to librarians affected by the Peterborough Public Library (PPL)’s recent restructuring. These changes include the layoff of three full-time senior librarians and the “reclassification of some positions to lower rated positions to deliver operational services and programming in an altered and reduced format.”

“Clap your hands, stomp your feet, library cuts are not a treat,” participants chanted as children paraded around the library’s main branch on Aylmer St.

The rally is one of few recent actions residents have taken to voice displeasure at the cutbacks to library staffing: a Change.org petition to “stop the cuts” has garnered over 2,000 signatures since its launch on April 16th. 

The family-friendly rally featured a variety of open activities for children, including chalk drawing on the library pavilion, and a parade around the library. Attendees were encouraged to share their thoughts on the staffing changes by writing letters to library CEO Jennifer Jones and contacting Peterborough City Council. 

Cutbacks to the Library’s staffing model threaten popular children’s events and programming, including storytimes and parent-child enrichment programs, much like the sing-along led by Children’s Library Technician Kate Jarrett at the rally. 

The Parent-Child Mother Goose program is among the most popular and well-attended programs at the library, yet it too faces a similar future: It is one of the first programs to be cut in anticipation of the staffing cutbacks. 

Positions slated for termination include the Children’s Librarian, who, alongside a programming assistant, develops and delivers all of the children’s programming at the Library. 

PPL Children’s Librarian, Laura Murray, has been an outspoken critic of the restructuring, and was touched at the outpouring of community support shown at the rally. 

“I sometimes feel very energetic and full of fight,” Murray told Arthur. “And then other times, I feel like it's just so heavy, and to have [this rally] happen tonight is just lifting me right up to the top.”

“We put our hearts and souls into this work,” Murray said. “[The cuts] deteriorate our whole community… like you can't have nature and sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion, truth and reconciliation in your strategic plan as a goal and not have early literacy in your children's library.”

“I keep thinking about how once upon a time, there were no children's librarians and there were no children’s sections of the library,” Murray continued. “Children’s librarians are guardians of that, of children's brains.”

“If we take out the children librarian position from our library, then we lose the guardianship for all of that. All that advocacy, all that’s gone.”

“It’s like going back to the Dark Ages,” Murray concluded. “I have kids. I do not want their public library to not have a children's librarian in it.”

The organizer of the rally, Marjorie McDonald, is a local parent whose children are frequent attendees of the children’s programming at the library. Her intent with this rally was to demonstrate how vital and valued library staff are to the community they serve. 

McDonald argues the children’s programming slate is only one of many services affected, and staff morale at the library is impacted as a result.

“They're looking at uncertain job security in their future as cuts happen and people get pushed out of positions,” McDonald said. “Once these library positions are gone, they're going to be hard to get back. We value expertise, and these programs mean a lot to Peterborough, especially the Children's Librarian.”

“[Laura] means so much to us and she is really a wonderful community leader,” McDonald continued. “We'd hate to see her go.”

The reorganization of the Library’s staffing levels was approved on 19 November 2024, during deliberations of the 2025 Budget, as part of a series of discretional spending cuts presented to council that aimed to reduce the proposed residential tax rate increase.

All of the library’s current programming positions are to be consolidated into an Outreach Coordinator position responsible for all library programming, and a lower-paid programming assistant position.

In an April 10th media release, CUPE 1833 President Patricia Scoffield said the elimination of the positions would “hurt the families and communities who rely on the library, its services and its programming as much as it will hurt all of us who work here.”

“Library management has acknowledged the change will mean a reduction in the amount of programming offered,” Scoffield said. 

Library staff are also speaking out about the working conditions of this new staffing structure, with duties like acquisitions and cataloguing being disbursed to lower-paid and less qualified staff.

CUPE 1833 Communications Secretary Becky Waldman fears that these changes bring significant alterations to the Library’s service capacity.

“There’s a lot of implications we're not even sure of yet because we don't know how any of this is going to really pan out,” Waldman told Arthur. “We're already really underfunded. We're all scraping by the best that we can.”

“We're all maxed out in terms of the amount of work that we can do and we don't have capacity or space for more tasks, so by removing these positions, all of those high level tasks are now going to be dispersed.”

During a speech at the rally, Trent University Faculty Association (TUFA) Vice President Dwayne Collins—also a librarian at Trent—argued for the necessity of librarians to the community.

“Professional librarians bring skills training, and they are vital community builders,” Collins said. “They make connections with our community organizations, and this is how we can have some of the city’s best programming that has the lowest barriers to access.” 

“This is vitally important work. It is worth paying for.” 

Collins then cited the recent increases in pay for Library CEO Jennifer Jones, and Peterborough’s next Mayor and City Council. Jones also received two years of retroactive pay from the Library’s reserve fund after a reevaluation of the position. 

“They do not think the library is worth paying for, and I have one word to end on, which is ‘shame,’” Collins continued. “Shame on everyone who voted in favour of making these cuts to vital professionals and downloading that work onto lesser paid positions.”

“The city wants to have their cake and eat it too,” Collins said. “That is not acceptable.”

The Library has been a mainstay for Peterborough families and their children, and the shifting of high-level responsibilities—as well as impacts to service delivery—has already inflicted reputational damage on library management. 

“It's hard to understand what their vision is for having a library without librarians, right?” Laura Murray told Arthur. “I don't understand that vision. I don't.”

(Editor's Note: This article has been corrected to accurately reflect Marjorie McDonald and Patricia Scoffield's names.)