Week 25 - Saying Goodbye

Yesterday was my last day as a Sunday Librarian. After 6 months of working at the library, I decided that working 6 days a week was too much for me - and that I wanted a full weekend (with the accompanying ability to go out of town occasionally).

I enjoyed my public library experiment, but I am very much looking forward to all the upcoming free Sundays - and I'm already filling them up with travel and sporting events.

Like all things in life I have mixed feelings about my tenure. I very much liked being able to help patrons when I could, although on the flip side, I often felt very frustrated by all the things I couldn't help with - when books that were supposed to be on the shelf were missing or when the wi-fi didn't work for example. Some of the problems were systemic and will need to part of a much bigger solution, but some were a direct result of not receiving any training. Who do I tell when the children's computer won't print? What am I supposed to do when a book we are supposed to have is missing? I found work around for these problems (help the patron print from another computer, put the book on hold for the patron and have it delivered from another branch), but I wasn't really helping the problem get solved in any instance. if anything, I was just perpetuating it.

So, I have a few suggestions for every library system that hires part-time employees:

Figure out a way to ensure that they get all regular employee communications. If you don't want to give them an email address (and really, that is a lot of work for a person who is only there 4.5 hours a week), send email updates to their personal addresses. Our patrons don't know (nor should they have to care) that we are only there one day a week (although I certainly told enough patrons that when trying to explain why I didn't know where the neighborhood association forms were or if we had a projector that could be used in the meeting rooms). They just want information. There shouldn't be a different level of service on the weekends (or evenings or "non-standard" times), just because the staffing is different. Especially since non-weekday times are usually when most folks have time to use the public library.

Train your employees. This goes along with the point above - but part-time employees should get the same training as full-time staff. And if you aren't training your full-time staff on the catalog (and any other software that is regularly used), standard procedures (what do you do when you have to call 911?), and your library policies (how do you handle a complaint? what do you do when a patron is looking at porn on the internet? answer: nothing), you should be.

Give employees good contact information. If a computer goes down, who do you call? If you need to take a day off, who do you ask? Even better, pair new employees with a mentor to ask all those little "how do i..." questions. It will make the learning curve a little less steep.

Pretty basic things, but they will make both your employees and your patrons happier.

And thus ends my tenure in public library land.