Standard 5.D – Personnel and Management
Personnel are adequate in number and in areas of expertise to provide services in the development and use of library and information resources.
The important parts of this element statement stress that the library 1) has enough staff and 2) the staff are qualified to do the work they are doing – which is both 3) developing the resources and 4) helping people to access and use those resources. Hopefully as we explore these next six indicators, we will answer these questions for our college’s library. Here is the first indicator.
5.D.1 The institution employs a sufficient number of library and information resources staff to provide assistance to users of the library and to students at other learning resources sites.
Do we have enough staff? There really is no way to sugar coat the findings in this indicator. Library staffing is less per hour open than any other office at this college that directly serves students. We rely heavily on work study student to maintain hours of operation that include morning, afternoon and evening hours. I believe we are the only college area that is frequently staffed solely by a work study employee, even during the daytime hours. (see sample schedule) This keeps the doors open, but does not provide qualified assistance to users of the library and its resources. In addition, staffing does not allow for weekend hours, for service at the Airport Campus, or for a well developed library/research skills instruction program. A comparison of library staffing at similar 2 year colleges in our region indicates that our staffing, even with our student workers factored in, is low.
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The service by library employees is excellent, but I have seen two, three or more students waiting in line to take a library-proctored text and be handled one at a time, and I could see the last person thinking he is losing precious minutes out of the hour for the taking of his test. The staff handles each person appropriately; there just often isn't enough staff to expediently get everyone going.
The next issue is open hours. There isn't enough staff to to offer the kind of week-end and evening hours that students (and community users) might make good use of.
Also with the very small number of professional staffers, often they can't always provide other services, or provide them at full competence -- work-study students are well trained but limited in the kinds and amounts of services often requested. I frequently arrive but have to return later for my needs to be met.
It must surely be frustrating for some students attempting to meet course requirement deadlines to have to make second trips.
Becasue of the close proximity of the library to my office, I am sometimes called upon to be a back up for the regular library staff when they are out and a work study needs help. This situation alone shows that there is a need for more regular library staff.
We have a great and responsive library staff and the work studies often wow me with their customer service skills and understanding of the library. This said, however, as with many of our departments, when one staff member has to be absent the stress on the other is great.
As to hours, this morning, we had 8 people in the ACCESS center at 7:40; the library doesn't open until 8:30. More staff would allow the library to be open longer hours, and this time would serve well our students.
We need a library that is open on every weekend during the academic year -- we now offer Saturday classes that are very popular. Our virtual library helps out here, but it can't replace the help of a trained librarian when one is doing research.
Just wanted to record that staffing is further stretched by staff participation in institutional committees, attendance at continuing education activities, vacations, and sick leave. All of these "absences" of staff from the library during the 8-5 hours place additional reliance on work study students to provide library services.
The library at UM Helena Donaldson campus:
Strengths specific to standard 5.D.1
Well organized – staff are able to direct customers to available resources with ease
Knowledgeable professional staff – both professional staff members’ posses advanced education and years of experience
Well developed and implemented work study training program – work study staff are knowledgeable about library resources
Friendly customer service – customers are treated individually and given friendly and concerned assistance.
Weaknesses specific to standard 5.D.1
1. Number of professional staff (2) is well below the number utilized at other comparable institutions providing the same services
Result – students must wait in line for long periods of time to obtain assistance with issues to complex for work study staff
Result - Students may make multiple trips before they are able to receive assistance from the librarian
Result - Library hours are limited on weekends and evenings. This limits accessibility to those students who take night and weekend classes
Result - Library hours do not begin until 8:30 a.m. even though students are waiting for services well before that hour.
Result - Work study staff are limited in their abilities due to their experience and education but make up the bulk of the available staffing.
Result - The access center staff are sometimes called upon to support the library staff
Result - Professional library staff have no backup when they are absent due to committee meetings, continuing education classes, vacations, or sick leave. When the professional library staff are absent the above situations are exacerbated.
Result - Services such as classroom assistance must be placed on “the shelf”
2. Library services at the airport campus are virtually nonexistent.
Result – airport campus students must travel to the Donaldson campus if they wish to use the general collections
Result - Airport campus students are most likely to visit the library at times when the library will most likely be closed (evenings, early mornings, and weekends)
Result - Airport campus instructors are limited to the resources in their small departmental “libraries”
Result - Airport campus students are limited to the resources in their small departmental “libraries”.
Result - The inconvenience of access limits library use to students who are extremely diligent, the rest appear to be simply left out.
As a committee we are well aware of the library staffing issues and the issues they in turn create. Before we are able to remedy theses issues, which we acknowledge as being profound, funding must be made available to hire the needed staff and to develop and Airport campus branch. Until that time, we are left to discuss the issue endlessly.
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