The library in Badhoevedorp will no longer open on Saturdays in the new year, because the employees no longer feel safe there. This Saturday closure is not seen as a solution by residents, so they appeal: “If it is unsafe, the municipality must do something about it.”
From January 1, these Saturday visits to the library in Badhoevedorp are no longer possible. “That is the safest thing for us,” says employee Marcella of Cpunt Library in Badhoevedorp. “We have been harassed many times.” She prefers to keep what exactly happened to herself.
The biggest problem is that on Saturdays there is only one employee in the entire building and that is the library employee. The village hall, the playgroup and the gallery are closed during the weekend.
Unsafe
The municipality confirms Marcella’s story: “The employees feel unsafe and no longer want to be there alone. The library employee is alone in the building and has no insight into who enters and perhaps who stays behind.”
Two employees are scheduled to support each other until the end of December, but after that there is no money for an extra Saturday employee.
Text continues below the map of the library’s location.
Bob Erb is retired and comes to the library almost every day to read the newspaper and meet other people. “I can imagine it: if no one else was present in a large building, I wouldn’t feel comfortable either.” Yet he thinks it is important that there is another solution, especially for people who still have to work full-time.
Fulltime job
This also applies to Babette van Zanten-Vos. She often goes to the library with her family on Saturdays. Other days are not feasible due to her full-time job. Her two- and four-year-old children enjoy browsing around there and choosing books to take home. “I think it’s important that they learn to read well and that they also enjoy it,” she says.
She mentions purchasing a bell with a camera as a solution, so that the employee can see who is coming in. She also suggests organizing more social activities on Saturdays in the village hall and in the library itself. That’s killing two birds with one stone: “There is little organization, while there is a great need for it.”
Bob proposes moving the library – which is now on the first floor – downstairs and closing off the rest of the building. “Then the municipality, Maatvast and the library must cooperate. There are costs involved, but the municipality should just pick up the slack. Then they won’t make beautiful Christmas decorations in Hoofddorp.”
Deserted
Babette recognizes what Bob says: “Many people feel that everything is focused on Hoofddorp. They feel abandoned, even now,” she says. For many social services, residents already have to leave the village. “A library simply belongs in the village.”
The library is still in discussions with the village hall and the municipality.