Library programs have been canceled in the wake of layoffs. (File photo. Click to enlarge)

[See correction below]

By JOHN T. WARD

Following a layoff that eliminated half the staff at the Red Bank Public Library earlier this week, the facility has cancelled all children’s story times and other kids’ programming and won’t open this Saturday, when a much-anticipated book reading was scheduled.

A notice on the library website says that the facility will open Friday, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., with a yoga class going ahead as scheduled. But it won’t open at all on Saturday, meaning the cancellation of an appearance by author Eileen Moon, whose new photo-history book, ‘Legendary Locals of Red Bank,” is packed with images culled from the library’s archive.

That book might not have been possible if not for the library’s resources, laid-off history librarian Elizabeth McDermott told the borough council at an emotional meeting Wednesday night, hours after she and five other library employees were pink-slipped. No new date for the event has been given.

“The Library will be open limited hours due to a recent staffing reorganization,” the notice says. “Please check back for an update on hours for the week of March 17. All children’s programs and story times are cancelled until further notice.”

[Correction: The ‘Legendary Locals’ event we reported had been scheduled for Saturday was actually on for March 29. But author Eileen Moon believes that event will be cancelled “since it appears the library won’t be open on Saturdays at all,” she tells redbankgreen.]