ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: March 8, 1996
Dept. File: CMTCLS96.rev/
h:ddir\reports
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: Director of the Vancouver Public Library
SUBJECT: Central Library Staffing - Interim Report
RECOMMENDATION
THAT Council approve 14.5 new, regular library assistant
positions, and auxiliary hours annually, for a total of $475,200,
less an offset of $133,900 from the Library's operating budget
target for an increase in the annual operating budget of
$341,300.
BACKGROUND
In September 1993, City Council received recommendations from the
Director of The Vancouver Public Library, in consultation with the
Director of Finance to approve - $3,168,800 in additional staffing as
follows:
1) Additional positions (62.25 fte) at an annual cost of
$2,422,400 (1993$) to maintain current level of service.
2) Funding of 20.9 fte at an annual cost of $746,400 (1993$) to
implement the telephone information service, Audiovisual and
Young Adult Divisions, and a proposed expansion of the
Multicultural Services Division.
There was also a third recommendation dealing with costing of service
delivery alternatives for building maintenance and security.
The City Manager noted that Council had already approved additional
positions of 33.48 fte in 1992 and 1993 at an annual cost of $1.2
million.
The City Manager did not recommend approval of these recommendations,
but submitted the following alternative recommendations:
1) THAT Council approve the principle of an additional $1.5
million of staff funding for the new Central Library, with
specific funding decisions in 1994 and 1995 to be made in
conjunction with the respective annual Operating Budgets.
2) THAT the Director of the Library, in conjunction with the
Director of Finance, report back on Library operations in the
new building, including the identification of any additional
needs, one year after the opening of the new library.
These recommendations were approved by Council.
However, it should be noted that this amounted to one-half of the
original request which was designed to support an increase in activity
level of 40% in 1995 and 20% in 1996.
BUDGET MANAGEMENT PROGRAM 1994
In 1994, along with the other City of Vancouver departments, Vancouver
Public Library was required to reduce its annual operating budget by
5% - $991,000.
In terms of the Central Library, Thursday evening hours were reduced,
as well as sick and replacement budgets.
CENTRAL LIBRARY 1995
The 1993 Staffing report requests were based on a projected 40%
increase for Circulation in the new Central Library when it opened in
1995 and 20% in 1996.
June, 1995 - January, 1996 Statistics
Circulation (based on checkout)
1995 1994
June 167,565 * 109,261 + 53.4%
July 177,712 * 103,504 + 71.7%
August 171,099 * 114,667 + 49.2%
September 156,191 112,602 + 38.7%
October 187,726 129,528 + 44.9%
November 192,287 131,515 + 46.2%
December 153,450 96,118 + 59.7%
January, 1996 205,881 130,085 + 58.3%
52.8% average
* The self-service portion of circulation is based on the average
for the final quarter of 1995. The counter did not work
properly for these months.
Patron Registration
1995 1994
June 6,634 1,796 269.4%
July 5,982 1,656 261.0%
August 5,566 1,870 197.6%
September 5,036 2,085 141.5%
October 6,008 2,472 143.0%
November 5,473 2,376 130.3%
December 3,273 1,265 158.7%
January, 1996 5,303 2,112 151.0%
181.6% average
The circulation increase averaging about 52% over 8 months is somewhat
more than we anticipated and has caused most of the pressure on staff.
In addition, in-house use of library materials increased in the same
proportion to circulation. The gathering and shelving of library
material used in the Divisions but not signed out therefore increased
by approximately 50% over the previous survey in November, 1993.
Traffic activity levels for the new building are significantly above
the 4,000 to 5,000/day VPL averaged in the old building. Currently
the are averaging 7,500. The sheer volume of people in the new
building is making increased demands on staff time for materials and
information.
ACTION TO DEAL WITH INCREASED DEMAND
Self Service Strategies
- placed as many collections as possible into self-source access
(newspapers, phone books, language learning, annual reports,
etc.). We have had some complaints about less orderly
controlled collections.
- purchased self serve formats - full text electronic access to
documents (e.g., CD ROMS).
- equipment (photo copiers, etc.) away from service desk to force
self service.
- installed self-service checkout stations.
- automated notification of holds.
- checkout receipts replaced date due cards in each book.
- the number of free holds per person per year was limited to 24
with a fee charged beyond the limit.
- installed phone service to call attendant system (phone tree).
- developed more finding aids to encourage people to find
information independently.
- continued to automate information and service delivery
processes to encourage self service and information sharing.
- installed vertical and horizontal materials handling system so
that staff no longer move materials manually from floor to
floor; materials are sorted, put in containers and addressed to
specific floors of the building.
Staffing
Staff continues to maximize the use of technology to gain efficiencies
and control costs.
We are proceeding with a fee-based information service which we hope
will not only take pressure off our regular services, but will
generate revenue and raise our level of support in the community.
As part of our Strategic Planning process, we will be examining more
processes although this activity is difficult to do while trying to
keep up to the increased demand.
CRITICAL STAFFING NEEDS
a) Divisions
The 52% increase in circulation of materials has provided the
greatest challenge. Last year, using funds available due to a
delay in the hiring of new staff, we have been able to apply over
$210,000 towards Library Assistant I time - checking out, checking
in, sorting and re-shelving materials throughout the Central
Library. Without these funds we would have reached a serious
situation by August. When this gridlock occurs, all areas
available for returned materials, and the materials handling
system are full. Unless staff are available to sort and re-shelve
materials, an impasse is reached; materials continue to be
returned by the public, increasingly large stockpiles are created,
the public complain because they cannot get access to returned
materials for several weeks and thousands of books are piled
randomly on every floor of the building waiting for sorting and
shelving. (Currently, the re-shelving time for materials is up to
7 days.) Staff have worked hard to improve speed and efficiency
in sorting and re-shelving. A shelving shift works one evening a
week during non-public hours.
It is clear that our most critical staffing requirement is for our
most junior staffing level - Library Assistant 1's (this was part
of our original staffing proposal) to manage the increased flow of
materials in the new Library. Library Assistants are also
managing increased in-house use of materials, increased photocopy,
microprint and computer equipment, increased floor plate sizes for
shelving and compact shelving collections. The loss of sick and
vacation budgets in 1995 as a part of Budget Management, have
impacted on our staffing levels as well.
In staffing workload levels for Public Service Divisions, 14.5
additional staff will be needed to handle the 40% increase in
materials use and circulation as well as equipment support, etc.
The estimates for the additional staff requirements for 1996 is
$333,500.
This additional staff is required to meet current activity levels, and
does not take into account anticipated increases in 1997. The Library
will report back in early 1997 for approval in advance of budget.
b) Circulation - Factors affecting service in Circulation
- Circulation (check in and check out has risen by 35-40%).
Circulation per hour has risen from 456 to 630.
- The checkin and checkout lines currently hold 40 and 100 people
respectively waiting to borrow material. On busy days 3 checkout
stations are staffed and 4 self-service checkout stations are in
operation. The lineup often exceeds 200 and it takes 15 - 30
minutes to check out materials. Without the funds requested the
gridlock situation in Circulation will create longer lineups at
both checkin and checkout desks.
- The RHA (Hold alerts report) each morning is being done jointly
with Technical Services staff. Currently, two Circulation staff
spend approximately two hours each day collecting reserved items
and taking them to the holds pick-up area. Circulation will be
assuming this duty entirely in future.
- All materials must be sensitized/desensitized now. Even with
better equipment, (e.g., Knogo desensitizer wand, "966"
sensitizer), it creates an extra step that did not happen in the
old building.
- Circulation Staff are now located on two floors making it
somewhat more difficult to supervise. It has also taken away
some flexibility of moving staff during peak times to the
pressure areas, i.e., from sorting to check in or check out.
- Telecirc (an automatic telephone system) has helped siphon off
some of the phone calls to Circulation but we continue to receive
complaints from the public that they cannot get through to a
staff person.
- Self service check out accounts for 10% of the circulation
checkouts. (It should be noted that these stations handle books
only - not cassettes or CD's). At peak times one Circulation
staff member trains and assists patrons in the proper method to
check out material. Better step-by-step signage may help but the
biggest factor has been the unwillingness of some patrons to
follow instructions. We will need to work very hard to reach our
target of 40% of checkouts being done at these stations.
- An average 182% increase in the number of new borrower
registrations has occurred. Each registration takes
approximately 3 minutes.
The estimate for the additional staff required for 1996/97 is $187,200
for 12 months.
c) Records Management
The Library has established a formal records management system.
We require staffing to manage our internal operational
information and to deal with the freedom of access to information
requests.
- .5 administrative support $ 17,500
Total new staffing requested 1996: $ 475,200
SUMMARY
While the requested increase in operating costs is significant, the
Library is able to provide a partial offset of $133,900 due to the
unanticipated increase in fines revenue experienced in 1995 and
projected for 1996. This will still keep the increase well below the
$3.17 million which was our original request and of which $1.5 million
was approved.
* * * * *