First the new Library Director. We are looking for a part time 20-30 hour per week person that can run the library under the not so direct supervision of the library board. The Director should have a lot of energy, be outgoing, and have some experience in a library setting. Our thoughts are that the new Director will assist us in hiring another employee, a roughly 15 hour per week library assistant. Using two employees will help with library hours and continuity if one of the employees decides to take another job at some time in the future.
One of the things we didn't discuss but an idea that another bright person had was to integrate the library and recreation department on some level. Moving that idea forward, it might be possible to have our second employee also work for the recreation department part time and be a Buhl recreation director. We have great volunteers in Buhl that handle our recreation department now, but it's a lot of work and we seem to burn the volunteers out quick. A paid recreation director could take a lot of the pressure off the volunteers.
The library board has initially decided to continue the 35 hour per week library schedule, but we are going to strictly monitor the usage and try to find the best days and times to serve the residents. It won't be easy.
We aren't sure if we can stay in the Arrowhead Library System in 2012 since we will not meet the MN State mandated maintenance of effort. The maintenance of effort is the amount of money that the City of Buhl must give the library, based on the amount the City gave the library the previous year. We will be short about $7000, and the Arrowhead Library System could kick our library out of their group of libraries. Time will tell.
I think my old posts were too long, which made it tough for me to write. So I am going to make shorter posts from now on. Let me know what you think.
Chris
