Just Wondering - Coping with Staff Shortages

In this month's column by Manitowoc (WI) Public Library Youth Librarian Susie Menk , she is thinking about summer and how to cope with shortages caused by staff turnover and COVID absences. And she's wondering....what do you think?

So… summer reading programs are winding down.  School is just around the corner.  How are you doing?  Did you enjoy the summer or was it just something to get through?

How were your attendance numbers this summer?  Did you feel excited to see so many faces like I did?  Many of our programs had huge numbers—much higher than last year. Maybe even back to pre-COVID numbers?

I think our youth department did a better job of keeping the programs manageable this year.  We did fewer programs but they were high quality and the patrons seemed to really enjoy them. 

Staffing was our biggest issue this summer.  We were short a full-time person and we had another round of COVID go through the staff.  We did, however, have two fantastic interns.  They were able to quickly jump in with prepping craft bags, helping with storytimes, photocopying and assembling materials for handouts, making signs and filling book displays. 

There are many libraries who have tight budgets, us included.  A few years back we found a program called WAICU.  WAICU is Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.  They offer internships to students in various fields. We were fortunate to get an intern from this program for the last few years.  This program targets non-profits.  Non-library local foundations work together with this association to host an intern for a non-profit.  The non-profit gets the benefit of an extra staff person, but the local foundation and WAICU cover the costs.  In addition, the interns that complete the program earn a scholarship.   It’s a win-win situation.

Interns who participate, work 400 hours over the course of the summer.  They keep journal entries and do a meet up with a WAICU staff member.  We were super excited to have our 2021 intern back for a second year. Even better, there is the possibility of having her back for a third year!  It helped so much to have an intern who knew our program.  We only had to do a little refresher training and she jumped right in.  We used a spreadsheet to track her activities.  At the end of the summer she got to take a copy of the spreadsheet along to add to her portfolio. 

If you haven’t heard about WAICU please check them out here.  During the summer months they can be an invaluable resource!