After the South Portland Library closed on Saturday, March 14, and staff went home, the locked teen resource room was emptied of books.

When the library re-opened the following Monday, employees discovered the books for teens had been moved upstairs to the adult library.

They have yet to find out who moved the books and why the transfer was done in secrecy.

“I just walked in and saw the Young Adult Room was three-quarters empty,” said Marie Chenevert, the circulation librarian.

“I was quite surprised the collection was moved after we closed,” she said. “I worked Saturday. We were never told a word about it.”

The mysterious after-hours transfer of the teen books followed the abrupt closing of the popular Young Adult Room and the layoffs of library clerk Monica Dubay and Reta Nappi, the librarian who managed the teen room.

Although the two women had a total of 40 years working for the city, the library’s directors have yet to meet with staff to explain the cutbacks or how operations should proceed.

The changes come as greater numbers of residents are using the library in lean times. More than 173,000 books were checked out from the main library in 2008, up from 152,898 in 2006.

At the same time, the city has been locked in a contract dispute with library workers, who voted three years ago to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Tom Werley, the children’s librarian and union president, said this week that AFSCME is preparing a response to the layoffs but declined to comment further.

Kevin Davis, the library director, has not talked publicly about the library cutbacks or sat down with his staff. At the same time, union officials have made it clear they want to be part of any future meetings. Davis declined on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing union dispute.

Davis taped a sign to the door of the Young Adult Room after the public started asking questions, when it closed Feb. 24.

The sign states: “The Young Adult Room Is Closed” and advises people to see library staff for materials. An unsigned memo also was sent to library staff detailing where various materials were re-located in the adult library.

Davis this week described the new upstairs space for teens as “temporary.” He said he hopes interior renovations can be made in the future to allow for “a more suitable” place for the teens to meet and read.

“The teen room was not targeted; the position was eliminated with the service to continue,” said Dana Anderson, who directs Public Works, Parks, Recreation and Libraries. “The services to the public are running fine, thanks to the commitment to the public by the existing staff.”

Anderson has not attended or spoken at recent public meetings to address the situation, which has provoked an outpouring of complaints by South Portland residents, including students who used the resource room after school while their parents were at work.

Anderson was appointed libraries director a year ago by City Manager Jim Gailey, and receives a $4,000 annual stipend, in addition to his $100,000 a year salary, for the oversight he provides. The city operates the main library and a west end branch.

Also, Tim Gato recently was appointed deputy director of Public Works, Parks, Recreation and Libraries, a new position in the city. He reports directly to Anderson. Gato also has not commented on the teen room closing or layoffs.

But resident after resident has voiced concerns at recent City Council meetings, asking why the basement teen resource room had to be eliminated, since it served a vital role in the community.

Many people have called on Gailey to rescind his decision to make the cutbacks, which he said were needed to fill a projected budget gap for next fiscal year.

“The door was shut and the books were moved to a different part of the library,” said resident Angela Griffiths, whose son and daughter had been regular after-school visitors at the teen resource room.

“But the integral part of the program was Reta Nappi, the teen specialist. It is ridiculous to think the program can keep going without her.”

“I was disgusted at the closure of the library’s Teen Room,” said Vicky Smith, a South Portland resident and children’s editor at Kirkus Reviews, a book review service.

“It was the first of its kind in the state of Maine and a model for other libraries that understand the importance of serving teens in a developmentally appropriate way,” she said.

Smith oversees the review of 150-300 kids’ and teen books a month in her job for Kirkus Reviews. She expressed dismay at the loss of Nappi’s advocacy for teen readers.

“There’s a universe of books out there, and it takes a teen specialist – someone who knows books, teens’ needs and her community – first to select the right books for her collection and then to put them into the hands of the teens who need them,” Smith said.

“Reading teens don’t get a whole lot of support from their peers; the role of the young adult librarian in supporting them and coaxing their non-reading schoolmates toward books is a critical one.”

Teens headed to the small basement room after school to read books, write poetry and essays, play games and use the computer.

They did it all under the direction of Nappi, who created a Young Authors Program that recruited volunteers to work with kids to create original stories and verses. The works were published in collections housed at the library.

“I used the teen room with my friend Gabby on Mondays and Fridays after school,” said Laura Mills, a sixth-grader at Mahoney Middle School. “She would help me with my math. We would finish our homework together.”

Although much of the teen collection has been moved to the back of the library, students interviewed said that they cannot hang out and play games in the main library as they did in the teen room. They are required to sit still and be quiet, because there are adult patrons nearby.

Indeed, library staff reported that students came upstairs to the adult library the first day the basement teen room closed, but have not returned.

Nappi also provided space for an adult literacy program that sent volunteers to work with adults. She secured a grant for learning materials for the adult readers.

“Reta wrote the grant that brought the literacy program to South Portland,” Griffiths said.

Despite the level of concern expressed by library staff and patrons, city officials insist that services will not be disrupted and will improve.

“The Library has taken action on the Young Adult Room and from what I understand, the new room is bigger, brighter, will be open more hours, have more staff and more resources available,” Mayor Tom Blake said in an e-mail Monday.

“The development is still in transition,” Blake said. “The Young Adult Readers program is also being maintained. The Library will be issuing a (press release) when the process is done or close to it.”

Gailey said “the room will ultimately be located in what I believe is a better location and will be opened more hours of the day to the public.”