Monday hours will be restored at the Great Falls Public Library beginning in October, in place of the Sunday hours that typically run October through May.
The library board voted unanimously during their Aug. 27 meeting to approve a new staffing configuration that will allow the library to open Mondays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. year round and be closed on Sundays.
Monday hours will begin Oct. 7.
The library has been closed on Mondays since 2014 and only open for four hours on Sundays October through May.
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The change would add 140 hours of library access annually, according to Library Director Susie McIntyre
Some people won’t be happy about the Sunday closure, staff said, but those hours have often been slow and complicate scheduling for staff.
“Sundays used to be slammin’ busy,” McIntyre said. “It has definitely slowed down. I think we would be better served being open six hours on Monday.”
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Upcoming retirements and staffing costs prompted the review of the staffing structure and McIntyre presented her proposed staff configuration to the library board during their Aug. 27 meeting.
Since two employees are leaving, one at the end of this month and one at the end of September, McIntyre said it was a good time to look at the best way to organize staff to meet their goals.
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Of the departures, one was am 18-hour library clerk position and the other was a 25-hour per week library specialist.
McIntyre proposed:
- promoting one of the full-time circulation clerks to library specialist, which comes with more skills and more flexibility to have that position fill in on other public desks and other tasks;
- increasing the youth services library specialist position to full-time since they’ve had high turnover in that position and it’s the busiest department. The added hours would allow for more programming and services;
- hire a 29-hour per week circulation clerk’
- split the time of one full-time circulation clerk between circulation and tech services.
The changes would increase their staff costs slightly, but would allow the library greater flexibility in having more people who are able to cover more public desks and help retention, McIntyre said.
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Over the next two budget years, the library is looking at nearly a $100,000 in increased personnel costs if they keep the staff exactly the same due to increases in wages, insurance costs, benefits and workers compensation. Some of those changes are driven by legislative changes made this year, staff said.
There are no anticipated increases in tax revenues from the city or county to support the library and unexpected capital costs, including replacing the storm drain pipe that causes basement flooding and other associated repairs, are cause for concern. But library staff said there could be some costs savings through other retirements over the next few years and the switch to the shared catalog system with other Montana libraries.
McIntyre said staff intends to ask the library foundation to fund additional materials this year to free up the available city money to cover personnel costs.
