09/18/11 Praise For Greenwich Library Staff For Efforts During Storms

On behalf of the Greenwich Library board of trustees and the board of the Friends of Greenwich Library, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the employees of the Greenwich Library (main library, Byram Shubert and Cos Cob branches) who once again stepped up to provide services to Greenwich residents who found themselves looking for that "port in the storm" following Tropical Storm Irene, much as they had done after the nor'easter of March 2010.

Once again employees shifted gears to accommodate the thousands of extra patrons who came in for electricity and Internet, a place to work, entertainment for children, cell signal to collect phone messages and email, etc. Additional chairs and tables were set up and power strips were added to make more locations available for charging all those ubiquitous devices upon which we all have come to depend. A new television in the Children's Room played movies, and wireless access was expanded near to capacity.

Greenwich Library had been scheduled to be closed from 5 p.m. Friday until Tuesday morning for Labor Day weekend. However, as the weekend approached with many residents still lacking electricity and Internet, a core group of library employees volunteered to work late Friday and all day Saturday to keep the main library open and serve these needs.

Greenwich Library management and staff have been working very hard to gauge and adjust to the growing and changing needs of our community. In the last 18 months alone, they have twice stepped up to support town residents in the wake of large storms, even as their own families and residences were similarly afflicted. Working on these boards, we know that we have great staff -- this past Labor Day weekend their efforts truly went above and beyond. We want to be sure that our staff knows that we truly appreciate their efforts. We also want the rest of the town to know how hard their library staff is working for them.

Jenny Baldock
Nancy Fertig

The writers are presidents, respectively, of the Greenwich Library board of trustees and the board of the Friends of Greenwich Library

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