Human resource Challenges for Public...

HUMAN RESOURCE CHALLENGES FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Survey Results

Rachel K. Fischer

BADM 598: Capstone Experience Master of Science in Management Minot State University December 5, 2016 Advisor: Dr. Gary J. Ross

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Human Resource Challenges for Public Libraries

ABSTRACT: This essay presents the results of a survey about human resource

management in public libraries. The survey was conducted in October, 2016, via the

Internet. The participants included librarians, employed by public libraries in the United

States, with management experience related to at least one function of human resource

management. The majority of the participants responded that human resource

management was challenging to some degree. While the majority were able to solve their

human resource management problems successfully, the majority of the respondents

believed that the human resource curriculum for library science programs was inadequate.

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Human Resource Challenges for Public Libraries

Introduction

In 2015, this researcher published the results of a survey on rural and small town

library management challenges in Public Library Quarterly that she conducted for the

Management Principals and Practice course for the Master of Science in Management

degree at Minot State University. Of the total number of responses to this survey, 59% of

the librarians reported that staffing was their greatest challenge. Although only 25%

reported that funding was the greatest challenge, 68% of the respondents said that their

library was underfunded (Fischer, 2015). Given these results, further research into the

subject of human resource management in public libraries and the correlation with

funding, population size, and other independent variables appeared to be warranted.

This researcher conducted a second survey to investigate the results of the previous

survey further as a project for the Capstone Experience course at Minot State University to

complete the Master of Science in Management degree. The scope of this research included

librarians who worked in libraries throughout the United States, with service populations

of all sizes. Due to the time-period allotted for the study and the lack of funding, the

researcher recruited participants to participate via e-mail discussion groups and online

message boards. Librarians were not contacted personally to ask them to participate in the

survey. The survey questions were located on a website maintained by

https://www.surveygizmo.com. All participants remained anonymous. No personal

information was collected from the survey participants in order to reduce the risk of

answering the questions dishonestly.

https://www.surveygizmo.com/

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The goal of this research was to study all functions of human resource management.

This included the subjects of recruiting, hiring, training, development, performance

appraisal, compensation and benefits, and employee law. The research examined if certain

functions of human resource management were more challenging than others, and if there

was a correlation among the answers and the independent variables, including service

population size, budget size, and salary amounts.

The research included qualitative research to further the understanding of human

resource problems that needed to be solved by allowing librarians to write about their

personal experiences and how successful their solutions were. Given the overall problem

with funding, this researcher hypothesized that some functions of human resource

management would be more challenging for librarians throughout the United States than

others. However, human resource functions related to staffing and recruiting would be the

most challenging for libraries with funding problems and areas of low population.

Literature Review

A review of literature on human resource management in public libraries published

in the last ten years, found that research related to this topic within public libraries was

minimal. Existing reports mostly cover issues related to staffing and budgetary constraints.

Given the connection between the budget and human resource management one can

understand that there could be a correlation between budget cuts and human resource

challenges.

While human resource management can be difficult for any library that has had to

deal with budget cuts, the libraries in smaller towns have had the most difficult time. Many

small and rural towns have experienced a declining population, which has caused a loss of

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tax revenue (Holt, 2009; Lee, 2009). A loss of tax revenue can mean budget cuts for the

libraries, and budget cuts can lead to lower salaries, hiring freezes, and cutting hours.

Lower salaries can make it difficult to recruit librarians with a Master degree in Library

Science (Walters & Byers, 2007). A 2007 survey by Flatley and Wyman of libraries in towns

with a population of 2500 or less found that only 14% of the respondents had a Master

Degree in Library Science. Because the pay is so low, rural libraries had to rely heavily on

volunteers for support (Flatley & Wyman, 2009). A 2009 survey by Lee found higher

numbers of librarians with a Master Degree in Library Science in the small towns of

Southwest Kansas. According to this survey, 61% of the libraries in this region did not

employ a professional librarian (Lee, 2009). So that would mean that about 39% of these

libraries employed a professional librarian, such as someone with a master degree in

library science.

The survey results published by Fischer (2015), included a library service

population of up to 50,000. Only 40.79% of the libraries surveyed did not employ librarians

with a Master degree in Library Science. Even though this survey included larger

populations, and a wider cross section of the country, 69.44% found it difficult to hire the

right staff for the position. Likewise, 61% responded that the library lacked the necessary

number of staff at the time of the survey. Some stated that managing the library was

difficult, because one librarian had too many responsibilities. Given that the majority of

these librarians lacked the necessary funds to hire the proper number of staff for their

libraries, 59.21% of the respondents found staffing to be the greatest managerial challenge

(Fischer, 2015). Despite these librarians’ challenges, this survey demonstrated that there

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had been some improvements in staffing conditions when examining a more diverse

sample, and that the respondents demonstrated a desire to succeed.

Library Journal’s annual budget survey of prior years has provided a glimpse into

certain human resource trends as the economy’s fluctuations affected public libraries.

Kelley discussed the 2011 annual budget survey in Library Journal. Budget and staff cuts

were high that year. For example, 72% of the respondents reported budget cuts and 43% of

the respondents reported staff cuts. While many of the respondents were optimistic that

the future would improve, librarians working in towns with a population less than 50,000

were more pessimistic of the future. The majority of the staff cuts were handled as hiring

freezes, with a response rate of 73%. Other techniques included early retirement, laying off

part-time staff, self-checkouts, recruiting volunteers, outsourcing the management and

cross-training (Kelley, 2011). The article also touched on the power of library districts for

stronger financial support, and how increased political advocacy for libraries can help to

protect the library from budget and staff cuts.

Peet (2015) reported on the 2015 annual budget survey in Library Journal, which

suggested librarians’ optimism of an improved future. While 73% of the librarians reported

an increased operating budget, 81% reported an increased salary and personnel budgets.

Although more than half of the respondents experienced no change in staff, the libraries

from cities of the largest population sizes increased staff, while cities of smaller population

sizes continued to report a decrease in staff size. Even though there appears to be a

correlation with population size and the ability to increase staff, many urban libraries

continued to report cuts in funding for staff, outreach, and hours.

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Peet’s (2016) report on the 2016 annual budget survey in Library Journal suggested

that the economic conditions for many of America’s public libraries had improved for a

subsequent year. Libraries reported moderate budget gains, which affected the salary and

personnel budgets. This meant that many libraries increased salary and personnel.

However, the results of the survey suggested a relationship between the size of the library

and gains in budget. The smallest libraries reported the smallest gains, and some continued

to struggle to meet the needs of their community.

The Public Library Association Recruitment of Public Librarians Committee (2006)

published the results of a survey on the subjects of recruiting, retention, and retirement.

The results of this survey found several human resource challenges. New graduates had to

make certain compromises when accepting a job. According to the survey, 35% accepted a

lower salary than desired, others responded that they had relocated, accepted part-time

jobs, or accepted a job without health benefits. While 43% of the respondents stated that

the libraries hired more part-time employees than full-time, 28% reported that the

libraries hired staff without a master degree in library science. A small number of the

respondents found it difficult to hire high-quality staff, especially children’s librarians and

foreign language speakers. Since this survey took place before the financial crisis of 2008,

36% expected staffing levels to increase, while 49% expected staffing levels to remain the

same. The biggest disappointments among these respondents included low wages and

compensation, poor supervisors, and bureaucracy. The article recommended several ways

to improve recruiting including, paid internships, scholarships for minorities, and job

shadowing to promote the career. The problems related to human resource functions can

be attributed to budgetary issues.

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Learning from other libraries’ successes and failures is the key to overcoming

challenges when managing libraries during difficult economic times. Riggs and Timmins

(2015) recently published the results of a staffing exchange experiment that began in 2008

at the Johnson County Library System in Kansas. Due to a hiring freeze and reduction in

circulation staff, the librarians needed to devise a way to efficiently staff the circulation

desks of multiple sites while stretching the budget further. The librarians experimented

with cross-training the circulation staff at multiple branches. In doing so, the staff was able

to help other locations on short notice. They were also able to redeploy staff to locations

based on circulation statistics. The librarians thought that this experiment improved the

library system’s efficiency while saving money.

The research included in the literature review suggested a relationship between

budgetary issues and human resource management challenges. The most studied human

resource challenges were related to staffing. More research is needed to understand how to

overcome human resource challenges so that libraries can manage staff in an efficient

manner.

Methodology

The survey for this study on human resource challenges for public libraries was

designed for management-level librarians who have had prior experience with human

resource management in a public library. The results of this researcher’s previous survey

on small and rural public libraries influenced the decisions regarding the questions to

include in the present survey. In order to improve the quality of the survey, this researcher

conducted a pilot study by asking several librarians who completed the previous survey for

feedback. The final survey was created as an online survey using the SurveyGizmo website.

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This survey did not collect personal information. All respondents remained

anonymous in order to reduce the risk associated with answering sensitive questions

honestly. The survey consisted of multiple-choice, Likert rating scales, and qualitative

questions. The questions collected demographic information related to the respondent’s

job and human resource-related role, as well as library statistics. The questions about

human resource management focused on rating how challenging human resource functions

have been for the library. The qualitative section consisted of questions about solutions

that the librarians have tried in order to overcome challenges. Then the respondents were

asked to rate how successful these solutions were. The text of the entire survey is in

Appendix A.

In order to recruit librarians with management experience in public libraries to

respond to the survey, this researcher posted a message to existing e-mail discussion

groups and online message boards. She also emailed national and state library associations

to ask if someone would be willing to send the e-mails to their discussion groups without

the researcher being a current member. This researcher sent the message to the following

discussion groups: the LLAMA Middle Managers Discussion List and the LLAMA Library

Administration Discussion List of the Library Leadership and Management Association

(LLAMA) of the American Library Association, and the American Library Association

LinkedIn Message Board. The following library associations confirmed that they posted a

message about the survey to their email discussion lists or newsletters: The Public Library

Association, the Illinois Library Association, the Missouri Library Association, the North

Carolina Library Association, the Texas Library Association, the Virginia Library

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Association, and the West Virginia Library Association. The following text was used to

recruit librarians to participate in the survey:

Subject Line: Recruiting Librarians for a Survey on Human Resource Management of Public Libraries in the United States Body of the Message: You are invited to participate in a study about human resource managerial challenges for public libraries being conducted by Rachel K. Fischer, MLIS, for completing the requirement of a capstone course for the degree of MS in Management at Minot State University. The results of my prior survey on managerial challenges for small town and rural public libraries have already been published in Public Library Quarterly (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2015.1106899). Participants responding to this survey should be librarians who are currently employed by a public library, and have knowledge of human resource practices at their places of employment. Human resource functions include but are not limited to recruiting and hiring staff, training and development, designing performance appraisal systems, compensation and benefits, and human resource law. The purpose of this research is to identify the aspects of human resource functions that are the most challenging for public libraries and how librarians have overcome these challenges. This study hopes to shed light on how to improve the management of public libraries. The survey will take about 15 minutes to complete. All respondents will remain anonymous. Thank you for your participation. The survey is located at: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2850917/Human-Resources-Challenges-for-Public-Libraries. Thanks, Rachel K. Fischer, MLIS

The survey remained open for responses for fifteen days during the month of

October, 2016. Survey responses that included an insufficient number of answers were

removed from the results. Insufficient surveys consisted of the records of surveys in which

a respondent declared that he or she would participate by answering the first question, but

did not answer any other questions. Many partial surveys were still included in the results.

The surveygizmo.com website tabulated the quantity of the answers and calculated

percentages automatically. However, this researcher reorganized and cleaned the data in

Excel to make the answers more precise.

In order to analyze a correlation between multiple variables, multiple regression

analysis was conducted using Excel. This included the comparison of independent

variables, such as budget, salary, and service population to dependent variables concerning

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2015.1106899

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2850917/Human-Resources-Challenges-for-Public-Libraries

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2850917/Human-Resources-Challenges-for-Public-Libraries

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human resource management situations and challenges. In order to create regression

equations from this survey data, Likert scale responses, yes/no answers, and numerical

ranges had to be converted to a single whole number which corresponded to the possibility

of a positive correlation. For example, this researcher informally hypothesized that lower

service populations and lower budgets correlated with human resource management

challenges. So the answer for “most challenging” was given the low number of one to match

the lower values of the independent variables. The tables reporting the results included

multiple r (correlation coefficient), r square (coefficient of determination), standard error

(standard deviation of the sample), and the p-value. The correlation coefficient depicts the

strength of the association between the independent and dependent variables. The

coefficient of determination depicts how well the data fits along the slope of the line of the

regression equation. The standard error is a measurement of the variation of the data. The

p-value is the probability of the results occurring when the independent variables have no

effect on the dependent variables due to a random sampling error. A .05 significance level

has been chosen for the p-value. If a p-value proves to be larger than 0.05, the sample size

may need to be expanded to find a correlation between the independent and dependent

variables. No formal hypotheses were made. Therefore, this is an exploratory study.

This researcher analyzed the qualitative questions by assigning a code to the

respondents’ answers which corresponded to a theme. In situations when an individual

responded with more than one idea, multiple codes were assigned to the answer. This

researcher analyzed the list of codes for the frequency of each answer and the percentage

of the answers in relation to the entire list of answers. These answers provided insight into

human resource-related situations that may be on the respondents’ mind. Qualitative

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questions provided many more details than would be possible with multiple-choice

answers. By allowing librarians to write about their opinions, this researcher gained

information that provided new insight into situations with which librarians struggled. This

information could lead to further research on these subjects.

Results: Demographics

The survey remained open for a total of 15 days. A total of 140 librarians responded

to the survey. Eighty-seven individuals completed the majority of the questions in the

survey. Fifty-three additional individuals answered enough of the survey to be included in

the final statistical analysis of specific questions, but did not answer all of the questions. All

of the respondents except for one, were current employees of a public library. One retired

librarian responded to the survey whose response was significant enough to be included.

The eighty-seven individuals who provided a response about their locations came from a

total of 27 different states in the United States, which included all regions of the country. As

seen in Appendix B, Table A1, States, the largest percentage from a single state came from

Texas, at 26.4%, with Virginia coming in second at 8%. The location was not a required

question due to the importance of anonymity.

Of the eighty-eight individuals who responded to the question on educational level,

86.4% had already completed a Master degree in Library Science (MLS, MLIS, or MIS).

However, 2.3% were currently pursuing a degree, and 11.4% had not completed or started

the degree yet. Of the 140 individuals who responded to a question about their job titles,

46.4% of the respondents were library directors. While only 10.7% of the respondents

were assistant library directors, 16.4% of the respondents were branch managers or had a

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similar library manager titles. As shown in Table 1, Job Title of the Participants, all but 7.1%

of the respondents had a supervisory or managerial job title.

Table 1. Job Title of the Participants

Job Title Count Percent

Library Director 65 46.4%

Assistant Library Director 15 10.7%

Branch Manager or Library Manager 23 16.4%

Department Manager 16 11.4%

Assistant Library Manager 3 2.1%

Department or Library Supervisor 8 5.7%

Librarian 10 7.1%

Total 140

Of the 140 who responded to the survey, 95.6% responded that their job

responsibilities included training and development activities. Likewise, 90.4% responded

that their job responsibilities included recruiting and hiring activities. Less commonly,

42.6% responded that their job responsibilities included compensation and benefits

decisions, and 55.1% responded that their job responsibilities included decision making

related to human resource related strategic plans and policies. These functions are

commonly performed by human resource departments for the town. This question allowed

the respondents to select more than one answer.

Eighty-eight individuals responded to a question about the size of the library’s

service population. As shown in Table 2, Service Populations of the Respondent’s Public

Libraries, 46.5% of the libraries had a service population of under 50,000, while 53.4% had

a service population above 50,000. More than a quarter of the libraries had a service

population above 100,000. Of the eighty-eight who responded to this question, 46.6% of

the library systems operated only one location, while 53.4% operated more than one

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branch. The librarians who worked for a library system with more than one branch

responded with numbers of branches that ranged between two and thirty-three, with an

average of eight branches.

Table 2. Service Populations of the Respondent’s Public Libraries

Service Population Count Percent

Under 2,500 3 3.4%

2,500 - 4,999 4 4.5%

5,000 - 9,999 5 5.7%

10,000 - 19,999 9 10.2%

20,000 - 29,999 12 13.6%

30,000 - 39,999 5 5.0%

40,000 - 49,999 3 3.4%

50,000 - 99,999 19 21.6%

100,000-499,999 20 22.0%

500,000 - 999,999 4 4.5%

1 million or more 4 4.5%

Total 88

After comparing the results of the question about the number of branches to the size

of a service population, one can see that a matching percentage exists at the point when a

service population is large enough for more than one branch. As a population needs to be a

certain size before a library has multiple branches, it will have a need for a specific amount

of funding. Eighty-four librarians answered the question about their library’s budget. As

shown in Table 3, Budget of the Respondent’s Public Libraries, the $1 million mark matched

the split of the percentages in a similar manner as the service population and branches.

While 47.6% of the libraries had a total budget of under $1 million dollars, 52.4% had a

budget above $1 million dollars. However, the largest percentage of these public libraries

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had a budget of more than $2 million dollars, at 36.9%. The second largest percentage was

actually the $250,000-$499,999 range, at 20.2%.

Table 3. Budget of the Respondent’s Public Libraries

Total Budget Count Percent

$0-24,999 3 3.6%

$25,000-49,999 1 1.2%

$50,000-74,999 5 6%

$75,000-99,999 1 1.2%

$100,000-249,999 6 7.1%

$250,000-499,999 17 20.2%

$500,000-999,999 7 8.3%

$1 million – 2 million 13 15.5%

More than $2 million 31 36.9%

Total 84

Additionally, the librarians were questioned about the number of their full and part-

time staff. Eighty-four of the respondents answered these questions. The librarians

responded that the libraries had a range of 1 to 500 full-time staff, with an average of 50

full-time staff and a median of 12 full-time staff. The libraries had a range of 0 to 350 part-

time staff, with an average of 34.6 part-time staff and a median of 14 part-time staff. Of

these total number staff, the number of managerial level staff ranged from 1 to 75, with an

average of 8.4 managerial level staff and a mean of 5 managerial level staff. Of the total

number of staff, those with a master degree in library science ranged from 0 to 200, with an

average of 14.7 staff with a master degree in library science and a median of 5 staff with a

master degree in library science.

The survey included questions that asked about the starting hourly salary of

paraprofessionals, or library support staff, the starting salary of librarians, and the median

salary of librarians. Some errors in responses had to be removed, and yearly salaries had to

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be corrected for the matching hourly amount. The data from 76 responses was tabulated

for the statistics of the paraprofessional salary. This ranged from $7.50 to $22.00, with an

average of $12.02 and a median of $10.98. The data from 72 responses was tabulated for

the statistics of the librarian salary. This ranged from $8.17 to $35, with an average of

$19.75 and a median of $20.13. Only 62 responses were tabulated for the statistics of the

median librarian salary. These answers ranged from $8.17 to $50, with an average of

$22.74 and a median of $23.50. The large range in salary can be attributed to the cost of

living difference and budget for these cities.

Ninety individuals responded to a question about whether or not the library had a

dedicated human resource staff member, separate from the municipality’s human resource

department. Only 30% had a dedicated human resource staff member who worked for the

library, while 70% did not. As seen in Table 4, Primary Human Resource Decision Maker, the

survey included a question about the primary decision maker of human resource policy.

The largest percentage, 41.1%, responded that the primary decision maker was the town’s

human resource manager. Only 23.3% of the respondents answered that it was the library

director, and 18.9% responded that it was the board of trustees.

Table 4. Primary Human Resource Decision Maker

Human Resource Policy Decision Maker Count Percent

Library Director 21 23.30%

Board of Trustees 17 18.90%

Human Resource Manager of the Town 37 41.10%

Human Resource Manager that is just for the library 2 2.20%

Other Town Employees 10 11.10%

Not Sure 3 3.30%

Total 90

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In analyzing the data from the questions on size, branches and budget, one can see

that the diversity of the sample was representative of all population and budget sizes in the

country. However, this sample was not an exact match for the statistics of the entire United

States. While 46.5% of the survey participants were employed by libraries with a service

population of under 50,000, 88% of all libraries in the United State are in towns with a

population of 50,000 or less (Pearlmutter & Nelson, 2011). This means that the results for

this present survey were skewed towards a larger population rate than if librarians from

all public libraries the United States responded. This was evident in the responses about

budgets, given that 36.9% of the libraries had a budget of more than $2 million. Despite the

difference in the sample compared to the whole population, the sample has proven to be

suitable enough to draw important conclusions. For example, the fact that 70% of the

respondents work for librarians in towns that do not hire a human resource employee

whose sole purpose it is for the library may be a strong indicator that human resource

management will be challenging libraries like these.

Results: Administrative Issues

A section of this survey contained questions about administrative situations that the

librarians had encountered. The purpose of these questions was to analyze current trends

related to increasing or decreasing the budget amount and number of staff. This provided a

picture of how the economy had affected the libraries that employ the participants. The

data was analyzed according to the regression analysis method for a correlation between

variables. The independent variables included: population size, budget amount, and

professional librarian salary. The dependent variables included: change in the amount of

the budget, change in the number of staff, and if the number of staff was adequate. The

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purpose of the regression analysis was to measure how well the independent variables

predict the occurrence of these administrative issues. A qualitative question was included

so that the participants could respond about their experiences with an inadequate number

of staff. This provided insight into the causes of inadequate staff and how librarians have

coped with the problem.

The librarians were questioned about whether their budgets had increased or

decreased in the last five years. Eighty-eight individuals responded to the question. The

largest percentage, 43.2%, responded that the budget had increased. While 28.4%

responded that the budget had stayed the same, 25% had experienced a decrease in the

budget, and 3.4% were unsure of the answer. It is a favorable sign that so many librarians

responded that the budget increased or stayed the same. This correlates with the results of

Library Journal’s annual budget survey that reported that a higher number of libraries had

increased budgets during the last two years (Peet, 2015; Peet, 2016).

A multiple linear regression was calculated to predict if a budget would have

increased or decreased based on the budget size, service population size, and professional

librarian salary. The results of the multiple regression analysis for the dependent variable

of a change in budget are in Appendix B, Table B2, Results of the Regression Analysis for a

Change in Budget. Because the lower 95% of the values for all independent variables

straddled zero, none of the variables can be relied on to create a regression equation. From

the ANOVA analysis this equation can be extrapolated: F(3, 65) = 1.041, p = 0.38, with an r

square of 0.046. A coefficient of determination as small as 0.046 means that the data does

not fit well along the slope of a regression line. According to the correlation coefficient, only

21.4% of the variation in the independent variables can predict whether a budget will

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increase or decrease. All of the p-values for the independent variables are above 0.05,

which means that any relationship that could be discovered is most likely by chance.

Because Library Journal’s annual budget survey has previously found a correlation between

a change in the budget and population size, it can be concluded that the sample size for this

survey is too small to find a correlation among the variables.

The participants were asked whether or not the library had to reduce staff in the

last 10 years. Ninety individuals responded to the question. While 54.4% responded no,

36.7% responded yes. However, 8.9% did not know the answer. The number of libraries

that did not reduce staff may correlate to Library Journal’s annual budget survey’s recent

findings, which stated that even though the libraries’ budgets had increased, the staff size

of many libraries had stayed the same or increased (Peet, 2015).

A multiple linear regression was calculated to predict if a staff reduction occurred

based on the budget size, service population size, and professional librarian salary. The

results of the multiple regression analysis are in Appendix B, Table B3, Results of the

Regression Analysis for a Staff Reduction. Because the lower 95% of the values for all

independent variables straddle zero, none of the variables can be relied on to create a

regression equation. From the ANOVA analysis this equation can be extrapolated: F(3, 64)

= 1.69, p = 0.178, with an r square of 0.073. A coefficient of determination as small as 0.073

means that the data does not fit well along the slope of a regression line. According to the

correlation coefficient, only 27.1% of the variation in the independent variables can predict

if a staff reduction occurred. All p-values for the independent variables are above 0.05,

except for population size. The p-value for population size was 0.04. This means that the

relationship between population size and a staff reduction is less likely to occur by chance.

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Because Library Journal’s annual budget survey has previously found a correlation among

similar variables, it can be concluded that the sample size for this survey is too small to find

a correlation among the variables.

The librarians were asked for their opinions about how they coped with these staff

reductions. Thirty-seven of them responded. The answers were coded for themes. In

situations when an individual responded with more than one idea, multiple codes were

assigned to the answer. A total of forty-seven ideas were coded. The responses included

many types of comments, including how the situations made them feel personally,

problems that staff reduction caused, and how the librarians compensated for the

situations. Allowing the respondents to write their opinions, instead of selecting from a

multiple-choice list produced a much more varied list of answers than expected.

One participant stated, “We eliminated Sunday hours at branch locations so only the

main library downtown was open. We cut page staff. We looked at services we could

eliminate. We looked for efficiency in procedures so that we would work smarter with

fewer people.” This one response sums up many of the answers that the librarians

provided. The entire list of codes is in Table 7, How the Respondents Coped with Staff

Reduction. While each of these topics deserves to be addressed in more depth, the top four

answers include the reductions of services or resources available, at 19.15%, increased

responsibilities for the staff, at 14.89%, the reduction of hours, at 12.77%, and instituting a

hiring freeze, at 8.51%.

Increased responsibilities for the staff has been clearly stressful for many libraries.

One librarian stated, “We cope by ‘gathering the wagons’ and being supportive of each

other as we take on additional responsibilities and tasks.” Being supportive of the staff is

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very important in times of stress in order to improve employee moral and continue to

assist customers in an efficient manner. One librarian stated that the increased

responsibilities caused problems with both customer service and employee morale. To

cope with these issues, some libraries stated that they implemented automatic check-out

systems, hired more part-time staff, utilized more volunteers, cross-trained staff to be able

to handle more than one position, and provided professional development training to

improve technology skills.

Table 7. How the Respondents Coped with Staff Reduction

Coping with Staff Reduction Code Count Percentage

Reduced services or resources available 9 19.15%

Increased responsibilities 7 14.89%

Reduced hours 6 12.77%

Hiring freeze 4 8.51%

Improved/reduced processes 3 6.38%

Adjusted performance expectations 2 4.26%

Hire more part-time employees 2 4.26%

Implemented self-check-out system or other automation 2 4.26%

Improved staffing 2 4.26%

Improved training and development 2 4.26%

Controlled by union contract 1 2.13%

Cross-training 1 2.13%

Hire student workers 1 2.13%

Layoffs 1 2.13%

Outsourced cleaning service 1 2.13%

Retention problem 1 2.13%

Staff works extra hours 1 2.13%

Use volunteers 1 2.13%

Total 47

R. K. Fischer

22

Ninety individuals responded to a question about whether or not the library was

adequately staffed. The majority of the librarians responded no, at 60%. While 38.9%

responded yes, 1.1% responded that they did not know. When asked why the libraries

were not adequately staffed, the majority of the librarians, 62.26%, responded that it was

due to a lack of funding. One librarian stated, “The library's per capita funding level is quite

low, so we have little money for staff, resources, or capital investments--and we need all

three. We passed a tax increase in June 2016, but even with that there is not enough money

to hire even one more staff member.” While this librarian was lucky enough to pass a tax

increase, many librarians responded that they experienced a lack of support from the

municipal government for increasing the budget. Not having a suitable budget has made

staffing very difficult. One librarian stated, “Budget reductions and re-allocations of library

staff members from one branch to another has left some of the branches scrambling to staff

service desks and provide services.” As shown in Table 8, Reasons for an Inadequate

Number of Staff, many other reasons were reported. While many comments can be

attributed to a lack of funding, such as a hiring freeze and layoffs, several librarians said

that aspects of the position did not attract the right individuals, such as a low salary and

geographic location. Other interesting responses included a lack of substitutes for

absences, staff retention, and a lack of skilled applicants.

R. K. Fischer

23

Table 8. Reasons for an Inadequate Number of Staff

Reasons for inadequate amount of staff Code Count Percent

Lack of funds 33 62.26%

Low salary 3 5.66%

Hiring freeze 2 3.77%

Lack of skills of staff/applicants 2 3.77%

Lack of substitutes 2 3.77%

Lack of support 2 3.77%

Staff retention problems 2 3.77%

Staffing management problem 2 3.77%

City government regulations 1 1.89%

Geographic location 1 1.89%

Over staffed 1 1.89%

Recruitment problems 1 1.89%

Staff reduction 1 1.89%

Total 53

A multiple linear regression was calculated to predict if a library had an adequate

amount of staff based on the budget size, service population size, and professional librarian

salary. The results of the multiple regression analysis are in Appendix B, Table B4, Results of

the Regression Analysis for an Adequate Number of Staff. Because the lower 95% of the

values for all independent variables straddle zero, none of the variables can be relied on to

create a regression equation. From the ANOVA analysis this equation can be extrapolated:

F(3, 67) = 1.12, p = 0.35, with an r square of 0.048. A coefficient of determination as small

as 0.048 means that the data does not fit well along the slope of a regression line. According

to the correlation coefficient, only 21.9% of the variation in the independent variables can

predict whether a library had an adequate amount of staff or not. All of the p-values for the

independent variables are above 0.05, which means that any relationship that could be

R. K. Fischer

24

discovered is most likely by chance. The sample size for this survey is too small to find a

correlation among the variables.

Results: Human Resource Management Challenges

In order to analyze human resource management challenges in depth, the librarians

were asked to rate the different human resource aspects on a Likert scale. These aspects of

human resource management included, recruitment, hiring staff, retaining staff, training

and development, performance appraisal design, strategic planning related to human

resource management, benefits plans, compensation, job analysis and job design, and

employee rights/human resource law. The number of responses varied by each aspect. The

ratings of the Likert scale consisted of: serious challenge, moderate challenge, minor

challenge, not a challenge, unsure, and decline to answer. Appendix B, Table B5, Human

Resource Management Challenges contains the entire results of these questions.

In order to calculate percentages more accurately, the answers for “unsure” and

“decline to answer” have been removed. When analyzing this data, the majority of the

respondents clearly found all aspects of human resource management challenging to some

degree. Nearly one-third of the respondents answered that several of the aspects were not

challenging. These included: retaining staff (31%), benefits plans (29.9%), and employee

rights/human resource law (32.8%). While nearly a third of the respondents found

retaining staff to be not challenging, two thirds of the librarians found it challenging to

some degree. Only 18.8% felt that it was a serious challenge. However, 21.7% believed that

it was a moderate challenge, and 28.2% believed that it was only a minor challenge.

Retaining staff may not be very challenging due to the number of people that would want to

be a librarian for a long-term career or feel attached to a location. Given that benefits plans

R. K. Fischer

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and human resource law are typically handled by a town’s human resource department, it

would make sense that more librarians found these aspects not challenging. Only 14% said

that benefits plans were a serious challenge. While 27% believed that it was a moderate

challenge, and 29% believed that it was a minor challenge. Only 16% believed that

employee rights and human resource law was a serious challenge. However, 22.95%

believed that it was a moderate challenge, and 27.87% believe that it is a minor challenge.

The smallest percentage of respondents who felt that an aspect was not challenging

answered recruitment (9.56%) and strategic planning for human resource management

(10.66%). This would mean that these two aspects were the most challenging overall to

these librarians. While one quarter of the respondents found recruitment a serious

challenge and 21% found it a minor challenge, the largest percentage found it moderately

challenging at 43.38%. While only 10.66% believed that strategic planning was not a

challenge, more than one third believed that it was moderately challenging. However, 27%

believed that it was a serious challenge and 25% believed it was a minor challenge.

Similar to recruitment, a large percentage answered that hiring staff was only

moderately challenging at 50.36%. Only 12.41% found it a serious challenge, while 20.44%

found it to be a minor challenge. However, only 16.79% said that hiring staff was not a

challenge. Only 15.9% of the respondents said that training and development was not a

challenge. The largest percentage reported that it was only a moderate challenge at

39.86%. However, 15.94% believed that training and development was a serious challenge

and 28.26% believed that it was only a minor challenge. One third of the librarians

responded that performance appraisal design was moderately challenging. However,

26.77% believed that it was a serious challenge. While 22.05% believed that it was a minor

R. K. Fischer

26

challenge, 17.32% believed that it was not a challenge at all. While compensation is similar

to benefits plans, more librarians found it challenging. While 26.72% believed that it was a

serious challenge, 31.03% believed that it was a moderate challenge. However, 23.28%

believed that it was a minor challenge, and only 18.79% believed that it was not a

challenge. Job analysis and job design proved to be more challenging than expected. Only

20.31% believed that it was not a challenge. However, 16.41% believed that it was a

serious challenge. While 35.16% felt that it was a moderate challenge, 28.13% believed

that it was a minor challenge.

Because a significant regression correlation could not be discovered using multiple

regression analysis for any of the previous variables, the results of the regression analysis

for recruitment was the only dependent variable that was reported as an example for this

section of the report. A multiple linear regression was calculated to predict how

challenging recruitment was based on the budget size, service population size, and

professional librarian salary. The results of the multiple regression analysis are in Appendix

B, Table B6, Results of the Regression Analysis for Recruitment. Because the lower 95% of the

values for all independent variables straddle zero, none of the variables can be relied on to

create a regression equation. From the ANOVA analysis this equation can be extrapolated:

F(3, 67) = 1.685, p = 0.179, with an r square of 0.07. A coefficient of determination as small

as 0.07 means that the data does not fit well along the slope of a regression line. According

to the correlation coefficient, only 26.5% of the variation in the independent variables can

predict whether a librarian thought that recruitment was challenging to some degree. All of

the p-values for the independent variables are above 0.05, which means that any

R. K. Fischer

27

relationship that could be discovered is most likely by chance. The sample size for this

survey is too small to find a correlation among the variables.

Similar to the results of the human resource challenges rating, the majority of these

librarians believed that their previous course work in library science did not adequately

educate them about human resource management. While 67.1% responded that their

coursework did not adequately educate them on the subject, 14.8% believed that their

coursework was adequate. Only 13.6% had not had prior coursework, and 4.5% were

unsure if the coursework was adequate or not. Some of the participants left comments

about their feelings on the subject in a section for additional comments. One librarian

stated,

“There has to be more done on the national/state level to get librarians the education they need to manage human resources more effectively and efficiently. This is the one area I feel that we have not adequately addressed, not just in MLS programs but in general in professional development opportunities. It is not glamorous; but a wrong or poor decision can have huge lasting negative effects on an organization and on the career of a librarian.”

The lasting effects of human resource management is important to note given how the

many functions of this field tie the employees’ needs for safety and security to their place of

employment. Improving the human resource curriculum within MLS programs could help

to improve how effectively and efficiently libraries are managed. The American Library

Association could help to educate librarians on the subject by increasing the number of

human resource management webinars that focus on specific topics within the field. These

webinars would be more effective if they focused on real life problems and how to solve

them.

One librarian illustrated the importance of meeting employee needs as part of

human resource management by stating,

R. K. Fischer

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“More MLS programs need to have nuts and bolts HR management courses, in my opinion. My coursework amounted to ‘Millennials learn differently and you must accommodate them.’ There was no discussion about aging employees, racial discrimination suits, what to do when an employee is hired for a physical job and a year later produces a doctor's note saying they can no longer work that job or that schedule, etc. All of this can be determined by seeking legal counsel, but that's expensive and time-consuming. Management of staff is easily 75% of my job, and should get greater weight in graduate coursework.”

Currently, the human resource management curriculum at this researcher’s alma mater

consists of three chapters within the book on library management. This is clearly not

enough for the participants of this survey. From the results and these two quotations, one

can see that it is time for the human resource management curriculum to be improved.

Library science programs should devote a whole course to human resource management.

For those that do not elect to take the course, the library management course should be

enhanced to place a stronger focus on the importance on human resource management.

This should include an emphasis on real-life challenges that librarians are currently facing,

and how to solve these problems, such as how to manage staff efficiently on a decreased

budget, how to cope with a need for staff reduction, and professional development.

Given the similarity of the numerical results, one could hypothesize that this is the

variable that correlates with the feelings that human resource management is challenging.

However, comparing this question as a three-point answer to a four-point Likert scale

could not generate accurate results. These results were not presented in a table due to the

inaccurate results that it generated. However, when comparing the answers in a Pivot

Table, there was no clear correlation among variables.

Results: Solving Human Resource Management Problems

Asking librarians to respond to answers in a qualitative manner can be a useful

tactic when a researcher is unsure of all of the options that should be included in multiple-

choice questions. This survey included three questions that asked the librarians to reflect

R. K. Fischer

29

on three solutions that they had devised to solve human resource related problems. Eighty

individuals responded by providing at least one solution. The librarians recorded a total of

187 ideas. This researcher coded each answer for themes and found 42 unique ideas. These

ideas represent issues that librarians were actively working on improving or had worked

on improving in the past.

The most common response was to improve professional development. This had

twenty-four responses. One librarian responded, “To make up for the lack of training

opportunities and funding for conferences, the library takes advantage of free webinars

whenever possible. The Director attends a conference every other year to conserve

funding.” When it can be difficult to hire staff with the required amount of experience and

knowledge, webinars and tutorials can be found on the Internet for many subjects from

technology training to human resource management. One librarian recommended, training

the human resource department on human resource management related to the library’s

needs. By training the municipal staff on issues related to library management, the library

may be able to gain an important advocate. Reviewing customer service skills, policies, and

procedures on a yearly basis with all staff, can be helpful to improve the quality of the

library. Another librarian recommended, “training supervisors to handle some HR issues

including documentation of performance issues, performing effective employee appraisals,

and assisting managers in the development of effective interview questions.” Although the

manager may be responsible for human resource functions, training supervisors to be able

to handle these tasks can help to provide the supervisors with the necessary experience for

a promotion while cross-training them to assist with the management of the library.

R. K. Fischer

30

A total of twenty-three individuals responded that they had worked to improve

compensation and/or benefits. Several librarians recommended a salary survey of the

region. This helped them to make the case for increasing the salary by showing how low

their library’s salaries were compared to other municipalities. Some of the respondents

have been successful with switching to a paid time off system that accumulates additional

paid time off each pay period instead of vacation and sick time. This can be helpful because

vacation time is not always provided to new employees. Some participants responded that

they had improved compensation and benefits by improving the job classification, or

worked with bargaining units. One librarian stated, “We've had to cap some salaries in the

Library Assistant level to be able to hire Librarians at a better/higher wage.” While library

assistants would like higher wages too, a higher salary for librarians can make it easier to

recruit the librarians with a master degree in library science.

As seen in Appendix B, Table B7. Solutions for Human Resource Problems, there are

far too many responses to report in this paper. In addition to improving professional

development and compensation and benefits, several other top answers included,

improved the recruitment process, utilized the town’s human resource department for

assistance, improved new hire training, and improved the performance appraisal process.

Some successful recommendations for improving recruitment included working with

college campuses to recruit college students and new graduates. Advertising only on

library association websites helped some participants to recruit only the most qualified

candidates. While some participants were successful with improving the performance

appraisal by redesigning it to include a self-appraisal process that allowed for two-way

feedback, many librarians found that adding incentives for good performance was an

R. K. Fischer

31

unsuccessful tactic. It can be difficult to implement a bonus system in non-production

environments.

The next set of questions asked the librarians to rate the degree of success of each of

the solutions that they wrote about on a scale of unsuccessful to very successful. As shown

in Table 10. The Success of the Solutions, 185 of the ideas were rated. Even though the

majority of these librarians reported that human resource management was a challenge,

the majority of these librarians thought that the solutions to problems that they devised

were successful to some degree. The largest percentage reported that their solutions were

somewhat successful, at 42.7%. However, 30.8% felt that the solutions were very

successful. Only 5.4% felt that the solution was somewhat unsuccessful, and 13% felt that

the solutions were completely unsuccessful. The remaining 8.1% responded that it was

neither successful nor unsuccessful. Although human resource management challenged the

majority of these survey participants, the degree of success shows that the librarians were

still able to solve problems related to human resource management with the resources that

they had available.

Table 10. The Success of the Solutions

Degree of Success Count Percent

Very Successful 57 30.8%

Somewhat Successful 79 42.7%

Neutral 15 8.1%

Somewhat unsuccessful 10 5.4%

Unsuccessful 24 13.0%

Total 185

R. K. Fischer

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Discussion

After reviewing prior research on human resource management, one could

hypothesize that there would be a correlation between the independent variables, such as

size of service population, and size of budget; and the dependent variables, such as whether

a budget increased or decreased, whether or not staff was reduced, whether or not a

library is adequately staffed, or how a librarian thinks about how challenging the different

aspects of human resource management seem. Despite such a diverse sample, from various

service population sizes and budget amounts, regression analysis demonstrated a lack of

correlation between the independent and dependent variables. While the results of the

questions related to changes in budget and staff sizes showed similar improvements or a

stabilization in the economy as Library Journal’s annual budget survey, the lack of

correlation and high p-values may mean that the sample size was too small.

Given that the majority of the participants believed that all aspects of human

resource management were challenging to some degree and that their human resource

curriculum was inadequate, the lack of correlation among variables appears to mean that

human resource management was challenging for librarians regardless of the size of the

library’s service population or budget. While the high p-value may mean that the sample is

too small to discover correlations among variables, increasing the sample may prove that

there could be a correlation among variables.

Although all of the respondents did not respond to the entire survey, the sample size

for each question was suitable for analyzing the impact of how challenging human resource

management was for the participants. Even though the survey remained open for 15 days

due to the deadlines for the course, the results appeared to be consistent with prior

R. K. Fischer

33

research. However, analyzing the results according to regression analysis did not result in a

clear correlation among variables. While this may mean that human resource management

is challenging for the majority of all libraries in this country, the high p-values for most

equations most likely means that the sample size was too small. Increasing the sample size

to the extent of Library Journal’s surveys may be necessary for properly analyzing the

correlation among variables.

Due to the fact that the majority of the respondents found some aspect of human

resource management challenging to some degree, further research into each of these

aspects is warranted. It is important to understand the source of each specific challenge

and how librarians have overcome these challenges so librarians may improve their

abilities to manage libraries. The qualitative questions generated many more answers than

this researcher could address during this study, but each issue deserves further research.

Because the librarians reported that human resource management was not adequately

included in their library science courses, this researcher recommends that library science

professors should improve library management curriculum to address human resource

management in a more in depth manner than the current curriculum allows. By including

discussions of the situations that challenge librarians on the job in coursework, future

librarians will be able to solve their own problems more efficiently.

Conclusion

Given that human resource management is tied to an employee’s sense of security

and self-fulfillment, solving problems related to this subject should be made a priority for

librarians and library science professors in the United States. Although many of these

librarians had the resources to solve the problems that they encountered, the majority of

R. K. Fischer

34

them thought that human resource management was not adequately taught in library

science programs. Given that the majority of the librarians answered that human resource

management was challenging to some degree, improving the library science curriculum

and professional development opportunities related to human resource management is an

important step towards improving public library management in the United States. Further

research, networking, and curriculum development can help librarians work together to

solve problems and improve everyone’s ability to manage libraries in the future.

R. K. Fischer

35

References

Fischer, R. K. (2015). Rural and Small Town Library Management Challenges. Public Library

Quarterly, 34(4), 354-371.

Flatley, R., & Wyman, A. (2009). Changes in Rural Libraries and Librarianship: A

Comparative Survey. Public Library Quarterly, 28(1), 24–39.

Holt, G. E. (2009). A Viable Future for Small and Rural Libraries. Public Library Quarterly,

28(4), 287–294.

Kelley, M. (2011). Bottoming out: Severe cuts today put big question marks on the future.

Library Journal, 136(3), 28-31.

Lee, M. (2009). Wild West Libraries: A Study of Southwest Kansas Public Libraries. Public

Library Quarterly, 28(2), 176–191.

Pearlmutter, J., & Nelson, P. (2011). Small Public Library Management. Chicago, IL:

ALA Editions.

Peet, L. (2015). Paying for People. Library Journal, 140(2), 30.

Peet, L. (2016). Gaining Ground Unevenly. Library Journal, 141(2), 28-30.

Riggs, K. R., & Timmins, J. T. (2015). The Johnson County Library Staffing-Exchange

Experiment. Public Libraries, 54(3), 9-10.

Walters, H., & Byers, J. (2007). Current Statistics in Rural Librarianship. Rural Libraries,

27(1), 25–29.

R. K. Fischer

36

What Are They Thinking? Results of a Survey on the Profession. (2006). Public Libraries,

45(1), 53-57.

R. K. Fischer

37

Appendix A – Survey Questions

CONSENT FORM

Human Resource Challenges for Public Libraries Invitation to participate: You are invited to participate in a study about human resource challenges for public libraries being conducted by Rachel K. Fischer, MLIS, for completing the requirement of a capstone course for the degree of MS in Management at Minot State University. Basis for Subject Selection: Participants responding to this survey should be librarians currently employed by a public library who have knowledge of human resource practices at their places of employment. Overall Purpose of Study: The purpose of this research is to identify the aspects of human resource functions that are the most challenging for public libraries and how librarians have overcome these challenges. Human resource functions include but are not limited to recruiting and hiring staff, training and development, designing performance appraisal systems, compensation and benefits, and human resource law. This study hopes to shed light on how to improve the management of public libraries. Explanation of Procedures: The survey will take about 15 minutes to complete. This is a blind study, in which all participants will remain anonymous. The questions consist of multiple-choice questions and fill in the blank responses. Potential risks and discomforts: Due to the anonymity of the participants there will be minimal to no risk in answering the survey questions honestly. The publication of any quotations from the answers will be anonymous. The answered surveys will be saved in a confidential manner. A slight risk may occur if a participant’s embarrassing response becomes accessible by other employees. However, the risk is minimal and sufficient steps have been taken to prevent any risk due to the anonymity of the survey. The confidentiality of the responses will be maintained by not collecting any contact information. The answers will be maintained on the www.surveygizmo.com website and on this researchers personal computer, and will be password protected to avoid data being leaked. The responses will be reported in the aggregate and not individually. Some individual test responses that are significant may be reported individually, but will not be associated with a particular respondent, library, city, or state. Potential Benefits: The goal is to publish the survey results in an academic journal after the results have been analyzed. Hopefully, the results of the study will help librarians to improve conditions in public libraries and aid others in their research. Withdrawal from the Study: Your participation is voluntary. Your decision whether or not to participate will not affect your relationship with your current employer, with this researcher, this university, or the librarian profession. If you decide to participate, you are

http://www.surveygizmo.com/

R. K. Fischer

38

free to withdraw your consent and discontinue participation at any time by not submitting the survey. For further information: Feel free to ask questions now or at any time during the study. If you have questions, you can contact Rachel K. Fischer at [email protected]. The sponsoring faculty member, Dr. Gary Ross, can be contacted at [email protected]. The Institutional Review Board chair of Minot State University, Dr. Jynette Larshus, can be contacted at [email protected], 701-858-4324.

Do you agree to participate?

Qualifying Questions

1. Are you currently working for a public library? If your answer is no, please do not complete this survey.

a. Yes

b. No

2. Are you responsible for participating in any of the following human resource functions? Check all that apply. If you do not have experience working in any one of these functions, please do not complete the survey.

a. Recruiting and hiring activities

b. Training and development activities

c. Compensation and benefits decisions

d. Decision making process related to human resource related strategic

planning and human resource policies

3. What is your current job title or equivalent corresponding job title?

a. Library Director

b. Assistant Library Director

c. Branch Manager or Library Manager

d. Library Department Manager

e. Assistant Library Manager

mailto:[email protected]



R. K. Fischer

39

f. Library Supervisor

g. Librarian

Human Resource Management Challenges

4. Think about how challenging the following human resource functions are for your library. Rate them according to their difficulty.

Serious Challenge

Moderate Challenge

Minor Challenge

Not a Challenge

Not Sure

Recruitment

Hiring staff

Retaining staff Training and development

Performance Appraisal Strategic planning related to human resource management

Benefits Plans

Compensation Job analysis and job design

Employee Rights/Human resource law

5. List up to three solutions that your library has tried in order to overcome the

human resource related challenges. a. b. c.

6. Think about how successful these solutions were for your library. Rate them according to their success.

Unsuccessful Somewhat unsuccessful Neutral

Somewhat Successful

Very Successful

Decline to Comment

Solution A Solution B Solution C

Administrative Questions

R. K. Fischer

40

7. What is the total amount of your library’s budget?

a. $0-24,999

b. $25,000-49,999

c. $50,000-74,999

d. $75,000-99,999

e. $100,000-249,999

f. $250,000-499,999

g. $500,000-999,999

h. $1 million – 2 million

i. more than $2 million

8. Has your library’s budget increased or decreased in the last 5 years?

a. Increased

b. Decreased

c. Stayed the same

d. Not sure

9. Does your library have one or more dedicated human resource staff members that work within the library, separate from the town’s human resource office?

a. Yes

b. No

10. Who is the primary decision maker when it comes to making decisions about human resource policy?

a. Library Director

b. Board of Trustees

c. Human resource Manager of the Town

d. Human resource Manager that is just for the library

R. K. Fischer

41

e. Other Town Employees

f. Not sure

11. Has your library needed to reduce staff in the last 10 years? If the answer is “no” or “I don’t know,” skip the next question.

a. Yes

b. No

c. I do not know.

12. How has your library coped with its need to reduce staff?

13. Do you feel that your library has an adequate number of staff? If your answer is yes, please skip the next question.

a. Yes

b. No

c. Not sure

14. If your answer was no to the previous question, why have you not been able to adequately staff the library?

Demographics 15. In what state or US territory do you reside?

16. What is the service population that your library serves?

a. Under 2,500

b. 2,500 - 4,999

c. 5,000 - 9,999

d. 10,000 - 19,999

e. 20,000 - 29,999

f. 30,000 - 39,999

g. 40,000 - 49,999

h. 50,000 - 99,999

R. K. Fischer

42

i. 100,000-499,999

j. 500,000 – 999,999

k. 1 million or more

17. Do you work for a library that operates more than one branch? If yes, please answer question 18. If no, or not sure please skip to question 19.

a. Yes

b. No

18. How many branches make up your library system?

19. How many full-time employees work for your library?

20. How many part-time employees work for your library?

21. How many of these employees are managers?

22. Do you have a Master Degree in Library Science (MLS, MLIS, or MIS)?

a. Yes

b. No

23. Did your previous course work in library management adequately educate you about human resource management?

a. Yes

b. No

c. I have not taken a class.

d. Not sure

24. How many employees have a Master degree in Library Science (MLS, MLIS, or MIS)?

25. What is the starting hourly wage of paraprofessional employees at your library?

26. What is the starting hourly wage of professional librarians at your library?

27. What is the median hourly wage of librarians at your library?

28. Do you have any additional comments?

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Appendix B – Tables

Table B1. States

Value Count Percent

Texas 23 26.40%

Virginia 7 8.00%

Iowa 6 6.90%

Pennsylvania 5 5.70%

West Virginia 5 5.70%

California 4 4.60%

Illinois 4 4.60%

New Mexico 4 4.60%

Connecticut 3 3.40%

Missouri 3 3.40%

Florida 2 2.30%

New Hampshire 2 2.30%

New York 2 2.30%

Ohio 2 2.30%

Oregon 2 2.30%

Wisconsin 2 2.30%

Alabama 1 1.10%

Delaware 1 1.10%

Georgia 1 1.10%

Idaho 1 1.10%

Maryland 1 1.10%

Massachusetts 1 1.10%

Nebraska 1 1.10%

North Carolina 1 1.10%

Tennessee 1 1.10%

Utah 1 1.10%

Washington 1 1.10%

Total 87

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Table B2. Results of the Regression Analysis for a Change in Budget

Regression Statistics

Multiple R 0.21411672

R Square 0.04584597

Adjusted R Square 0.00180809

Standard Error 0.81940105

Observations 69

ANOVA

df SS MS F Significance

F

Regression 3 2.09695478 0.69898493 1.0410576

4 0.3804033

9

Residual 65 43.6421756

5 0.67141809

Total 68 45.7391304

3

Coefficients Standard

Error t Stat P-value Lower 95% Upper 95% Lower 95.0%

Upper 95.0%

Intercept 2.49008492 0.39905619 6.23993553 0.0000000

4 1.6931146

7 3.2870551

7 1.69311467 3.28705517

Budget Amount 0.07513590 0.06287717 1.19496328 0.2364433

0

-0.0504384

7 0.2007102

7 -

0.05043847 0.20071027

Service Population Size

-0.06442909 0.04871139 -1.32267011

0.19057994

-0.1617124

5 0.0328542

6 -

0.16171245 0.03285426

Professional Librarian Wage

-0.01892862 0.01886357 -1.00344848

0.31936553

-0.0566017

8 0.0187445

3 -

0.05660178 0.01874453

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Table B3. Regression Analysis Results for a Staff Reduction


Multiple R 0.27105

R Square 0.07347 Adjusted R Square 0.03004


Observations 68

ANOVA


F

Regression 3 1.19600 0.39867 1.69157 0.17766

Residual 64 15.08341 0.23568

Total 67 16.27941


Error t Stat P-value Lower 95% Upper 95%

Lower 95.0%

Upper 95.0%

Intercept 1.88838 0.23430 8.05963 2.53071E-

11 1.4203 2.3564 1.4203 2.3564

Budget Amount 0.03076 0.03653 0.84187 0.40300 -0.04223 0.10374 -0.04223 0.10374

Population Size -0.05846 0.02856 -

2.04698 0.04477 -0.11552 -0.00141 -0.11552 -0.00141 Professional Librarian Salary -0.00574 0.01071

-0.53551 0.59415 -0.02713 0.01566 -0.02713 0.01566

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Table B4. Results of the Regression Analysis on Adequate Number of Staff


Multiple R 0.21892



Observations 71

ANOVA


F

Regression 3 0.83699 0.27900 1.12419 0.34560

Residual 67 16.62780 0.24818

Total 70 17.46479



Lower 95.0%

Upper 95.0%

Intercept 1.33997 0.23298 5.7515 2.38558E-

07 0.87495 1.804997 0.87495 1.804997

Library Budget -0.03966 0.03730 -1.0634 0.29142 -0.11412 0.03479 -0.11412 0.03479

Service Population 0.03905 0.02955 1.3216 0.19078 -0.01993 0.09804 -0.01993 0.09804

Professional Library Salary 0.01222 0.01087 1.1237 0.26515 -0.00949 0.03393 -0.00949 0.03393

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Table B5. Human Resource Management Challenges

Human Resource Aspect Count Percent

Recruitment

Serious Challenge 35 25.74%

Moderate Challenge 59 43.38%

Minor Challenge 29 21.32%

Not a Challenge 13 9.56%

Total 136

Hiring staff





Total 137

Retaining staff





Total 138

Training and development





Total 138

Performance Appraisal Design





Total 127

Strategic planning related to human resource management





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Total 122

Benefits Plans





Total 107

Compensation





Total 116

Job analysis or job design





Total 128

Employee Rights/Human resource law





Total 122

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B6. Results of the Regression Analysis for Recruitment


Multiple R 0.2649



Observations 71

ANOVA


F

Regression 3 4.41493 1.47164 1.68505 0.17855

Residual 67 58.51465 0.87335

Total 70 62.92958



Lower 95.0%

Upper 95.0%

Intercept 2.17481 0.43672 4.97983 4.72437E-

06 1.303103 3.04651 1.30310 3.04651 Budget Amount -0.05855 0.07056 -0.82984 0.40957 -0.19939 0.08228

-0.19939 0.08228

Service Population -0.05005 0.05458 -0.91703 0.36242 -0.15899 0.05889

-0.15899 0.05889

Professional Librarian Salary 0.04045 0.02044 1.97957 0.05186 -0.00034 0.08125

-0.00034 0.08125

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Table B7. Solutions for Human Resource Problems

Codes of Solutions Count

Improve professional development 24

Improve compensation and benefits 23

Improve recruitment process 19

Utilize HR department 13

Improve new hire training 11

Improve performance appraisal 10

Improve interview process 9

Improve staff communication 8

Improve policies 6

Redesign jobs/improve job descriptions 6

Hire new HR staff 5

Improve staff schedules 5

Improve evaluation process 4

Improve hiring process 4

Improve understanding of HR law 4

Cross-train staff 3

Improve performance incentives 2

Improve policies 2

Improve problem solving process 2

Promotion from within 2

Reorganize staff according to needs 2

Utilize outside consultant 2

Utilize volunteers 2

Add hours 1

Hire temporary employees 1

Hiring new executive staff 1

Improve ability to handle disciplinary issues 1

Improve background check process 1

Improve communication with board of trustees 1

Improve communication with HR department 1

Improve documentation process 1

Improve networking with other libraries 1

Improve retention by allowing creativity 1

Improve strategic planning for future 1

Improve information systems for HR 1

Increase number of internships 1

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Increase number of supervisors 1

Increase part-time positions 1

Promote librarianship as a career 1

Remove part time positions 1

Team building 1

Utilize substitutes 1

Total 187

Human resource Challenges for Public...

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