Lack of manpower: Cebu City library to temporarily open for only 16 hours 

The Cebu City Public Library will temporarily hold an 8 a.m. to midnight schedule until the city government can provide the manpower to run the place 24/7. | CDN file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Public Library (CCPL) will temporarily limit its operation from 8 a.m. to midnight due to the lack of manpower to run a 24/7 schedule.

This is until the library will have the needed manpower to implement the 24/7 operation.

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, however, assured the staff of the CCPL that he would continue the 24/7 library schedule of the library and he will be deploying more staff to man it as soon as possible.

The CCPL announced on its facebook page on Sunday morning, June 30, that it will be open from 8 a.m. to 12 midnight daily.

”Due to manpower shortage, the Cebu City Public Library will temporarily limit its daily operation from 8AM to 12 Midnight starting June 29, 2019. Thank you,” said the CCPL management.

Read more: 24/7 Cebu City Public Library: The First Year

Labella said that the library’s 24/7 operations had been beneficial to the students and workers since it began in 2018 and his administration would not be the kind to stop a good program just because it was started by another administration.

Read more: 24/7 Cebu City Public Library: The First Year – Change for the better

“We will continue with the 24/7. We will continue anything that would be beneficial to the people,” said the mayor.

He said that he will be sending a memorandum to the CCPL management to keep the library open for 24/7 as the city government would continue to support the library.

Labella said he would be sending more staff to man the library so it could resume its 24/7 operations as soon as possible.

Read more: 24/7 Cebu City Public Library: The First Year – Moving forward

He said the city government had no shortage of employees and could hire more if needed just to keep these kinds of service available to the people.

“I will direct the city administrator to send more staff to the library. We can easily place people there. We have so many employees, it’s a matter of streamlining them,” said Labella.

Read more: Bar topnotcher on 24/7 library: It provided me a safe quiet place to study

The CCPL has been credited for helping Board and Bar topnotchers from Cebu, who were seeking a place to study, to succeed in their chosen fields.

Read more: Cebu City’s Rizal Library: A breeding ground for exam topnotchers like Justine Lei Ramos

Labella said that the good programs of his predecessors would be retained because his purpose in office would be to serve the public.

Aside from the CCPL’s 24/7 operations, Labella also promised that the foreign language classes conducted in the CCPL would also continue.

“Is it beneficial (language classes)? For as long as it is beneficial, we will continue,” said Labella.

Read more: 46 students complete Japanese Language Course in CCPL

Labella said that his administration would seek to be non-partisan and objective when it would come to delivering service. 

He said that although he would continue to review the programs of the city, he would not order to stop programs that would help many of the people.

Rosario Chua, CCPL chief librarian, expressed her gratefulness to the mayor’s support to the library and his promise to let it continue to operate a 24/7 schedule.

“Of course, I am m pleased to hear of Mayor Labella’s support to CCPL. Thanks to the new mayor. I’m so grateful he understood the value and relevance of the public library to the community,” said Chua in a text message to CDN Digital.

Once the new staff will be deployed, the library will immediately return to its 24/7 operations. /dbs