I was at least half a year or more working as a public library director and still doing things the way they had been done for years when I finally stopped and questioned the really odd library hours. They were inconsistent from day to day, and most people couldn't remember them. For three of the five days it was open during the week, I had to shut everything down for a ninety minute lunch break, which I hated because it broke the momentum and meant stopping whatever I was working on. Often I just worked through lunch, but the library was closed.
I finally asked one of the long-time board members why the hours were so strange, and he thought about it for a moment and said, "I think they were set around Mrs. So and So's bridge playing." The librarian he was referring to was at least three librarians ago, or a good ten years since that librarian worked there. I had to stop and laugh, but then I was dumbfounded that nobody questioned the inconvenient schedule or thought about making the library hours more user-friendly.
I started logging the number of people that came to the library throughout the day, and I learned that an average of one patron and the mailman came in during the morning hours before 11:00 a.m. And we were closed 90 minutes for lunch and closed at 5:30 sharp in the evenings, so most of the working folks missed out unless they remembered to come Saturday mornings.
I changed the library hours to open at 11:00 a.m. and close at 6:00 p.m., and we stayed open during lunchtime. The mailman used the book drop to deliver our mail, so that wasn't a problem. On Wednesday evenings we stayed open until 8:00 p.m. The Saturday hours - 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon remained the same. I showed the board of directors that we were still paying the utilities for those three 90 minute lunch breaks while the library was closed, and eliminating the morning hours and working through lunch enabled us to save enough on utilities to cover the utilities used by a GED/Adult Education Class we sponsored three evenings a week.
The point is, we should make the time to stop and question what we're doing. Too often we follow routine and tradition because it's always been done that way. When inventory and all of the end of the year responsibilities are done, take a few minutes to stop and think back over the school year. Ask yourself questions like:
- What worked well with our library services this past year?
- What areas seemed to not work smoothly?
- Could the library be arranged and organized better?
- What part of library services caused the most stress?
- Did the schedule work well?
- Does our technology need updating?
- Do we need more equipment?
- Is our collection meeting the staff and students' needs?
- Is the lighting adequate?
- Does the library look inviting?
Those are just some examples of questions you could ask yourself, and there are many more. Every library is different. Maybe you know something isn't quite right, but you're not even sure of the question, much less the answer. Something that's proved very helpful for me to improve my libraries is to visit other libraries and see what they're doing right. If you can't visit physically, visit virtually. And every librarian I've met has been more than willing to share their ideas and successes.
The beginning and end of a school year are the busiest for librarians, so if you can't find the time at the end, make some time over the summer to reflect and think about how you can do things better in your library. The library is not a static entity. It's constantly growing and shedding and changing with the times. And we should, too.
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