Ahead of the 2026 budget season, AFSCME Local 1215’s executive board asked our members to tell us how understaffing affects their work and well-being. Many of these stories are being shared on our Instagram, and you can help pressure the city to support the library by following us and liking, reposting and boosting our stories. You can also use our Action Network tool to write to the Mayor, library Commissioner and your alder about what the library means to you, and what you will lose if they cut positions and funding.
Most staff wished to share their experiences anonymously, or with only a first name provided. This post collects those stories into specific categories, so you may learn more about how library workers are struggling behind the scenes. A shorter post with stories that staff were comfortable sharing along with their branch name is also available.
This post is still under construction, as many stories were and still are being shared by Chicago Public Library workers. Please check back to learn more about how understaffing affects the services we provide, and the well-being of our workers.
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Health and Safety
Doing the Jobs of Many
We Are Essential to the City
Outreach and Reference
Children’s and Teen Services
Health and Safety
I’m honestly so tired of being short staffed. It feels like I’m doing the work of two or three people, and it’s just too much. I’m overworked, stressed, and honestly, I don’t feel appreciated for how hard I’ve been trying to hold everything together. It’s frustrating giving your all and still feeling like it’s never enough. I love what I do, but this constant pressure is draining me. -Vonkisha
“Unsurprisingly, the slower service and lack of programming… have aggravated patrons. Staffing isn’t a comfort issue, it’s a safety issue.”
“The severe understaffing at my branch creates a stressful and unsafe environment for staff and our community… We drastically cut YOUMedia hours, many days closing it completely. Our teens lose access to important resources and a safe space to learn and create.”
“I often say that when one person is out we go down like dominoes – because that is how we are staffed, at a bare-bones minimum. The desperation and guilt we feel as librarians when one of us has to be out for illness or other issues makes us feel like we are pitted against each other, because not being at work means we’re not alleviating someone else’s over-stacked workload. The toxicity, danger and stress understaffing creates are all felt the moment we’re down a single staff member.“
“Every day we do the jobs of 10 people with just 4 people at the Branch. There is no room for sick days, schedule conflicts, personal life.“
“On a good day, we’re already spread thin to fill in the gaps of a library system that has long been whittled down. If someone calls out, we’re forced to scramble. Staff have lost trust in management’s ability to find replacements, due to systemwide understaffing, the increasing lack of approved overtime, and a corporate culture that encourages us to “pitch in and push through” on behalf of our coworkers and the public…. Until Chicago Public Library is fully staffed, the cycle of sick and stressed out workers taking turns covering for each other will continue.” -Emma
“As an librarian, I am frequently working circulation due to short staffing. If even one person calls off the entire schedule falls apart. This has led to high tensions at the branch. We’re already short as it is. A layoff would make it impossible to provide programming while staffing service desks.”
“I myself do not call out sick because I feel pressured to be here… I am a reference librarian, and there are many days when I am the only reference librarian at the branch. I am on desk all day except for a meal break. Besides helping patrons, I have to do all the things that a person in charge is expected to do while trying to fit in my own work. If I have a difficult interaction with a patron, I cannot take a moment alone to recover.“
“If there’s an incident downstairs, I often have to step away from the desk, leaving 1 other staff on the public floor, to get the security guard. That is just not safe! Finally, patrons get less variety when we are short staffed. In a perfect world, if a patron doesn’t vibe with the librarian working, they will just go to another staff member for assistance. If it’s the same librarian working each that, the patron doesn’t have that choice and might be angry or lash out due to this. I’ve noticed at my branch that there are more incident reports written when there are less staff members working that day.”
“As a chronically ill individual, the short staffing issue has been especially detrimental to both my mental and physical health. I worked at the Lincoln Park location for a few years, a very busy and heavily circulating branch location. To my knowledge, there are supposed to be 3 FT librarians and 2 PT librarians, 3 FT clerks and 2 PT clerks, and 4 PT pages. While I still believe this would not be enough to handle the daily workload at that location, at no point during my time working did we ever have a full staff.…
Personally, the workload resulted in frequent flareups of my chronic pain and required me to take more time off work than allowed, continuously exacerbating my situation. Even at my new, less busy location, we are extremely short staffed having 0 pages and only two clerks.” -Annie
“It is very tough to do the work with less people. There is a lot that goes into a workday, many issues can arise. It will feel like you can’t take a break at times. You get stretched too thin. You can’t have the amount of programming for children or families you would like to. ... All positions are important to the library and the community. Cutting positions would seem to indicate that a community doesn’t need or deserve those staff… Every branch should serve their community, and every community deserves those positions available and filled.”
“There are very limited options of safe places for kids to spend time after school, but they know the library is always there. Since we are short-staffed, it’s only possible for one or two people to staff the children’s room or a children’s program at any given time. At our busiest, this presents safety concerns. We cannot have eyes in the back of our heads or be in multiple places at once. Kids deserve spaces for unstructured play and exploration…Being short-staffed is a disservice to the kids we serve.”
“It’s incredibly hard to keep a library open with 3 staff per day 7 days a week, with only 4 full time and 2 part time staff. Staff have felt really overwhelmed and exhausted, and tensions can get high at work because of that.”
Content warning for the following story: Sexual Harassment
“I was working at the check-out desk of the library. There was a man in the entrance of the library who was acting strangely and was staring at me quite a bit. After about an hour, the man started masturbating while looking at me. We kicked the man out, but I was obviously very distraught after the experience. I left the desk to collect myself, but had to return to continue helping patrons on the computers and printing their documents.
Only 3 of us were on staff that day. If I would have gone home early to recover from the experience, there would have been only 2 staff members present (both of whom were older women). Since this was the 3rd Sunday in a row that we had filed police reports, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving only 2 people there, and I know that CPL would not have sent someone to fill in for me. Thus, I stayed and continued to help patrons while pushing aside the trauma, mostly to ensure that everyone else remained safe.
If we had more than 3 people scheduled on Sundays or gave out overtime more readily, I would have been able to go home and properly start processing the trauma that I experienced that day. Instead it was business as usual, and don’t forget to provide excellent customer service, since that is what’s expected of CPL workers.”
“Our staffing situation is so bad that I often feel like I’m not allowed to be sick because it means creating trouble for my coworkers. Earlier this year, I came to work straight from a medical procedure that left me in immense pain because I had a district-mandated program and felt like I had no real choice.”
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Doing the Jobs of Many
“One of the main issues at my branch is our shortage of pages. We do not have enough pages to do routine shelf reading which means books are out of order and we cannot find the books that patrons are searching for.” -Annie
“As city employees, we get a generous amount of sick and vacation time. However, it feels difficult to use this time without worrying about the position it will leave coworkers in. I try not to let it stop me from tending to my own life and needs, but the concern of leaving my coworkers in the lurch is due to the fact that branches are short-staffed. When one person is gone, the day becomes tight for everyone.“
“We are consistently short-staffed especially when it comes to clerical. In addition, I often have to work Sundays alone which can be very challenging… It takes way too long to ensure that we have a full staff to where those who are scheduled end up on the desk longer or experience burn out especially at the circulation desk. We need more staff ASAP and no gaps in waiting for reinforcements.“
“My branch has not had a Head Clerk in almost one year and we’ve gone months without additional clerks to work the circulation desk. Librarians like me cover the desk and keep things going, but that means we aren’t able to do programs, outreach, or other professional duties that we are paid to do. We also end up working overtime to keep the branch open 7 days per week which is not saving the City any money.“
“For over a year we have had an unfilled Head Clerk position. Having this crucial role vacant has led us to hold off on many organizational decisions, as well as stressing the schedule, and requiring our two remaining Clerks to work more than their share of weekends. Additionally, it has meant that other staff are pulled away from their tasks to fill in at circulation.”
“We have no page or clerk in our department. All of those duties take time away from specialized professional duties such as programming, collection develop and maintenance, cataloging, instruction, and more. At my last branch there was no Children’s Librarian for the two years that I worked there… It breaks my heart to see the city deciding to gut the library budget and staffing once again, as if we were not already operating on razor thin margins.“
“20 years at CPL and in that time, I have never had a full staff or even a “mostly” full staff for more than a year at best. We are chronically being promised more staff only to lose staff to transfers at the worst times, positions downgraded or eliminated.
We make progress with community partnerships, programming and outreach only to lose traction every time staff is lost. This greatly impacts our communities and patrons notice the reductions and take that out on staff because their expectations remain the same even if our staffing levels change. Additionally, we never saw the increase in staffing for the Sunday hours and the expectations on staff remain the same if not increase each year.”
“Understaffing has reared its ugly head in all facets of our work. Often it means we have to do the work of multiple job positions, cancel our outreach to the community we serve, or even be asked to work in a completely different branch due to their understaffing. It also means our deep commitment to the city and its people is being abused.
When staff are being asked to work in multiple positions in addition to their own for long periods of time (and in this case, that ranges from days to years), what we are realistically able to provide to the city in service, programming, outreach, operations is in jeopardy. Still, staff is asked to do more on less and less. We’ve been told the city loves the library, but now is the time to show it.“
“Being the only person for my department can be challenging. You want to provide excellent service for your patrons but unfortunately it becomes very tough when there isn’t staff available to help.”
“When I was a Page, I spent more than half my time covering circulation because there weren’t enough clerks. So I was doing work I wasn’t being compensated appropriately for. Due to staffing inequality, I also agreed to extra Page hours at neighboring branches that had NO pages. At those locations I was often required to act up as a Clerk, at my Page pay rate. I have never experienced a fully staffed branch.“
“In an unmistakable moment of the story telling itself, today I’ve literally spent hours attempting to complete this testimonial about the justified and crucial need for stable employment and continuous growth of the Chicago Public Library’s workforce. This is because I’ve been pulled in several directions with no time to spare, racing to keep up with the public service demand and completion of specialized projects and responsibilities with oncoming deadlines.
Our workflow balance has tipped out of control due to the persistent loss and lack of available workers on our roster. It has been this way for some time now, as the lack of staff and the news of possibly even more devastating slashes to CPL’s workforce frankly clashes with the philosophy and promises the Chicago Public Library has made to our communities. Our neighbors and friends—who need the Chicago Public Library as a safe, dependable, and principled service and space–more than ever, are affected when we are short staffed.“
“I am forced to balance the workload of two jobs, as a part-time employee with no benefits, and in two separate departments. I am the lowest paid employee in both departments. If I don’t do the work it will be insubordination. In my actual department there are only three employees including me, while the other department I’m forced to work in has 8 employees.
I am being taken advantage of, my morale is low and my mental health has been deeply affected. Cutting jobs and vacancies is not the solution especially when a lot of the work is being thrown on part-time employees with no benefits. I feel so sad and depressed all the time because I just want to do the job I applied for.”
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We Are Essential to the City
“We can’t face any more staffing cuts or budget cuts. We already do so much with so little in the ways of program resources — and are called to fill so many gaps in community care.“
“When we don’t have an associate I often end up on adult reference during my drop-in programs, so I have adults asking for help on the computer or with finding books while I’m also showing teens how to use the vinyl cutter or set up the 3D printer. This leads to long wait times for either the teens or adults and pushes me to have to prioritize in ways that are unfair – I’m a teen librarian, my priority is teens, but adults have time ticking down on their computers and are sometimes getting angrier the longer it takes to get assistance.”
“I implore the City of Chicago to support the Chicago Public Library system by providing adequate staffing. We often boast about having one of the best public library systems in the country, yet we risk abandoning the very staff who make this possible in their time of need. Investing in staffing is not just about efficiency, it is about safety, equity, and ensuring that our libraries remain the welcoming and dependable community spaces that Chicagoans deserve.”
“We do so much for our communities and our neighbors all over the city, from access to knowledge to computers to classes and programs and having a space afterschool for teens to food pantries and promoting literacy and information for parents and more. The ones who would suffer from layoffs are not only the employees but every citizen in the city.“
“Dear Mayor, the Chicago Public Library is an essential source for the city. It provides free services that should not be taken away. Cutting our budget will make serving our city incredibly difficult. During these difficult times with ICE, the library remains a safe haven for our communities.”
“A nearby “sister” branch has faced staffing shortages. Short staffing at a “sister” branch means we and the other neighboring branch have been asked by district on several occasions, often with less than 24 hours notice, to cover a shortage… This creates worse service. Short staffing is not our fault nor problem to fix.”
“Who and what is the Chicago Public Library without the staff that fosters our identity and brings to our communities the resources, opportunities, and gatherings to learn more, grow more, and succeed in life?
I will never be without appreciation and pride representing the Chicago Public Library. As a born-and-raised Chicagoan from the West Side that grew up to become an Adult Services Librarian, I have an at-once universal and unique understanding of what the public library has and continues to mean to our neighborhoods. Yet right now, I can say with great exhaustion that the pressing lack of necessary staff has unquestionably taken a toll on myself and the hardworking team surrounding me.
The trust, respect and care CPL staff have dedicated to put forth towards our communities should never be in danger of diminishing. Our library staff are the representatives and the providers of the Chicago Public Library’s definitive mission–daily, annually and without end.”
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Outreach and Reference
“Outreach, especially to vulnerable groups like our seniors in group living, is difficult to schedule since many days we have the minimum number of staff scheduled. This constant understaffing creates a domino effect of staff burnout and stress leading to even more shortages due to illnesses… Our communities deserve a well-resourced and fully-staffed and safe library.”
“Short staffing impacts things that the public may not recognize. With minimal staffing, we are unable to attend offsite programs or outreach, a key part of our jobs. With two desks that need constant coverage, scheduling programming can be impossible if you’re short staffed. We regularly welcome 500+ patrons a day through the doors of our branch. Do you think 3 staff members are able to help each one? No! We would provide better service if we were better staffed.”
“We don’t even know what full staffing feels like. For the past 10 years we’ve been working very hard to manage services with 3 Full time and 4 Part time staffers, staffing the library over 80 hours/per week. We’re constantly calling on the overtime list, and staff are working all hours to make sure the doors stay open. There is no time for programming, outreach, children’s or teen services. Every ounce of energy just goes to keeping the doors of the branch open and keeping things running smoothly so that the public doesn’t notice.“
“There are many days where there is only one reference staffer available for the entire day. This limits the amount of focused and uninterrupted work we can do on planning programs, making connections with local organizations, and doing outreach.” -Carleigh
“We give not only reference assistance to patrons but provide patrons with job resources and training, provide unique programming which foster a greater sense of community, serve as a cultural hub in all of Chicago’s neighborhoods and act as both a warming and cooling center in poor weather. To slash our budget, you not only do harm to CPL you bring suffering to the countless patrons that grace our doors each and every day.” -Daniel
“The current understaffing at my library forces us to turn away patrons who need one-on-one assistance with job applications, finding housing, or accessing reliable information. When Chicagoans have nowhere else to turn, they rely on the library for support. Ongoing and future understaffing will only exacerbate homelessness and mental health challenges in the city, while stripping away the only free resource for education and opportunity.”
“People with mental, financial and legal issues use the library as a safe haven, and we are proud to help in whatever way we can, but when other organizations use the library as a dumping ground for their own failings, we would appreciate having the minimum amount of resources to serve our community.”
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Children’s and Teen Services
“We also haven’t had a full-time Children’s Librarian for the past year and haven’t been able to have many programs for the many kids that come in. We have a lot of great equipment at the branch that patrons want to use or learn to use, like sewing machines, but we don’t have enough staff to offer programs on those items.“
“We have had no Children’s Librarian since this spring. We had a part-time Children’s Library Associate, but she just transferred to another branch after having to handle the whole summer program by herself. People have been asking why we have no more story times, crafts, etc., and all we can say is that we don’t have any children’s staff and that we hope we will get someone soon. But who knows when!“
“We have zero children’s programming due to no children’s staff despite being the twenty-sixth busiest branch in the city with plenty of demand for children’s programming.”
“As the only children’s staff member at a branch in a densely populated neighborhood, filled with families and organizations that serve low-income and immigrant families, I’ve had to cut back on programming and outreach services. When I’m asked to provide more branch and outreach programs, I explain that we are short-staffed (at a bare bones level of 8 staff members) which limits the services I’m able to provide both to the public and to our neighborhood organizations.”
“I have been without a children’s librarian nor pages for one year. I am still expected to provide programs and services to the children in my community.”
“I’ve dedicated my skill set and education to children’s programming my whole library career. Because of the inadequate amount of staff, I do not have the ability to provide the programming and outreach it takes for a branch to be functional. Short-staffing has directly impacted my ability to exercise these skills and years of experience I have dedicated to the city. We all deserve better.”