Medway Town Manager Michael Boynton said in a community announcement on Facebook on Sept. 16 that the Medway Public Library is experiencing a “momentary speed bump” as it faces a staffing shortage that has affected services. 

Boynton’s message was in response to a Sept. 13 Facebook post on a community forum page that claimed the library had lost most of its staff and programming over the summer.  

“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Boynton said in a video post on the Town of Medway page. “In fact, the Medway Public Library, for the first time in my 11 years here, has actually seen a budget increase this fiscal year.” 

He said that recent staffing changes - including the June 27 retirement of former director Margaret Perkins and other recent departures - has put the library “in a transition period, if you will, where some hours are a challenge to fill because of reduction in personnel, not because of budget reductions but because people have left their positions.” 

Boynton said the Library Trustees are “doing a phenomenal job to try to deal with all of this, to keep the library open, to keep the programs going, and to increase the services over the long haul.” 

Boynton’s full video message can be found at https://bit.ly/MedwayLibraryUpdate. 

Technical Services Librarian Ivana Aguilar is serving as interim director and told the Library Trustees at their Sept. 2 meeting that, “With the addition of our substitutes, we are slowly getting in the groove to being fully staffed once more,” according to its meeting minutes.  

The library director job posting can be found at https://medwayma.gov/news-and-notices/medway-library-director-wanted/