Gumby Meets Dewey: Rethinking Library Staffing Issues

Instructor: Jeanne Goodrich

Gumby Meets Dewey: Rethinking Library Staffing Issues

If libraries are to survive, let alone thrive, in the new, highly competitive information economy, library managers and staff must adopt "flexibility" and "agility" as their watchwords. Libraries need to respond to both organizational and community requirements. Though the staffing options available have expanded, the pool of MLS-degreed librarians is both dwindling and keenly sought after. It's time to rethink library staffing.

Workshop Description: In this all-day workshop, participants will explore the implications of the shortage of librarians (and non-librarians) and options for dealing with it by analyzing job requirements and competencies, developing new staffing models, considering how hiring from other professions can help, and consciously planning for succession.

Highlights: Through discussion, exercises, and real-world examples, participants will gain a deeper understanding of these issues and acquire a number of tools to use in their own libraries as they struggle to meet the needs of a fast-changing service environment:

• Are we in a staffing crisis?
  • Where have the librarians gone?
• The future of the public library
  • Edgy or extinct?
  • Technology's impact is far greater than PCs and networks
• Analyzing the nature of library work today
  • New Breed Librarians--and non-librarians
• Conscious Organizational Design
  • Traditional hierarchy vs. organic structure
  • Strategic staffing
  • Staffing model options
• Recruitment, Retention and Succession Planning
  • Strategic Staffing keyed to library needs and labor market realities
  • Using behavioral interview questions to make the right hire
  • Continuous skills development and job enrichment
  • Deliberate succession planning
• Staffing challenges in the public employment environment
  • Employment law
  • Working with HR
  • Collaborating with unions or employee groups

Who should attend: Library Directors, Assistant Directors, Department Heads, managers and anyone else responsible for library staffing decisions such as local HR or personnel analysts.

Prerequisites: None.

Please Note: There is a $75.00 fee for this workshop. Infopeople does not provide parking passes, lunch or refreshments.

Check-in: 8:30 to 9 AM Instruction: 9 AM to 4:30 PM