Mismanagement adds to chronic poor service

    In New York, Chicago and Boston, public libraries are open from 55 hours to 68 hours a week. In Detroit: 40 hours. No Sundays. No Mondays. One evening, but that day libraries open at 1 p.m.

    During a funding crisis in the 1980s, library administrators negotiated a contract to pay librarians double-time for Sundays and evenings. Then administrators cut Sunday and Monday hours.

    In February 2000, Detroit voters overwhelmingly passed two millage proposals to give the ailing library system about $21 million a year. Library Director Maurice Wheeler and supporters promised that some funds would be used to expand hours.

    To avoid double-time pay it would require a dramatic reordering of how the library does business.

    Janet Whitson, president of the UAW local that represents the city’s 140 librarians, said they don’t want to work Sundays and evenings unless it’s at double-time rate.

    “No, we’re not touching that, it’s in the contract,” she said. “What can you offer me? Time is money and money is time.”

    Wheeler, who has been director for four years, said previous library heads cut some deals that have come back to haunt the library.

    “Administrators in the past made decisions that they thought were in the best interest of the library,” he said. “But they currently don’t serve us very well.”