The new Hamilton Public Library will provide consistent services throughout the city, taking neighborhood needs into consideration. The primary difficult in unifying library services lies not in the pronouncement that such unification will occur but in the enormous number of administrative details required in order to accomplish this task. For example, one goal of the new library system is to reach out to children in schools and to let them know what the library can offer. As a result, the number of staff providing children's services has to increase so that schools can be visited where no such visits occurred before. Since no additional staff will be added to the overall library system, staff have to be redeployed and some services may be deleted.
We have consulted trustees and staff from other municipalities where amalgamation has occurred. We have seen situations where, four and five years after amalgamation, staff still do not know the unified service goals of their new organization nor do they know what permanent duties they are expected to perform, or where they might work. The Hamilton Public Library Board commits itself to make decisions quickly in order to minimize the period of uncertainty and speculation that staff justifiable feel.
We will unify our services and our staff by:
Ensuring that the services we provide transcend all former municipal boundaries;
Ensuring that our collections are accessible throughout the new city;
Ensuring that each library branch meets a high standard for furnishings, cleanliness, signage, and seating;
Creating a single set of job descriptions and responsibilities for our staff;
Allocating our staff in accordance with a common set of criteria;
Training our staff so that they can meet established service levels;
Providing staff with clear, unified policies and procedures;
Providing staff with the ability to fill future library positions by upgrading their educational qualifications;
Paying all staff in accordance with a common scale by January 1, 2003. Moving toward a common set of policies that govern labour issues.
