Public Library Survey Walkthrough - Week 5

Welcome to Week 5, the FINAL week of the Public Library Survey tour!

Please note: Although the tour is wrapping up today, you should continue to keep those questions coming in. The survey itself will be open until April 12, which gives you over 8 weeks to finish up. Need individual help to wrap up a few questions?  See the end of this email for a link to my office hours.

Today we’ll be working on the Staff and Digital Services sections:

The staffing questions are asking for numbers that represent the hours worked in your library as a snapshot in time. Any library that has had turnover during the course of the year may find it challenging to know how to complete this section. Since they are looking for a “snapshot in time”, even if you had turnover in your library during the year, you will only be reporting this information for one day; typically, the staffing on the last day of the year you are reporting on.  For the purposes of the survey:

1.    Report the number of hours worked in a typical week. If you have employees who do not work a set number of hours per week, please use the number that you feel best represents the typical hours per week for those people.

2.    Include the hours for all funded positions for the library, whether they were filled on the last day of the year or not. You are reporting on all positions that were filled at that time and that you were authorized to fill.

3.    If there were staffing changes during the year that changed the number of hours worked in any category, use the more recent staffing schedule of hours for your numbers.

         As in other sections, the totals for each category are grayed out and will change as you enter your local numbers.

Paid Staff (Full-Time Equivalent)
 
To provide comparable data, the IMLS has set 40 hours per week as the measure of full-time employment (FTE). For each staffing category that you report, the system will divide the number of hours entered by 40 to determine the number of FTE staff.

In this section, you will report the number of hours worked per week for staff in several categories:

1.    ALA-MLS Librarians – The total number of hours worked per week by all librarians holding an MLS degree from an ALA accredited school.
 
2.    Non-ALA-MLS Librarians – The total number of hours worked per week by all librarians without an MLS degree. This would include the hours of anyone with the job title of Librarian, who does paid work requiring professional level skills and responsibilities.
 
3.    All Other Paid Employees – The total number of hours worked per week by all other staff who are not employed as professional librarians. This may include library support staff, technicians, pages, maintenance, security personnel, and others.

Staff Salary & Benefits

To ease the data entry burden, you will see that this section is prefilled with the information you entered last year. Please update the information for the year in question., and be sure to report the data for each position only once. In cases of staff turnover for any position, respond using data from the person who held the position longest for the year.

1.    Position – For each full or part-time employee, select a position title from the dropdown list. The list was created to provide a standardized selection to avoid compound job titles and make the salary and benefits information more comparable across libraries. All librarians wear multiple hats and often job descriptions cover multiple roles, but try to avoid using the “other” category. Instead choose the title that is the primary role for that person in your library. If your library is a one-person operation, select the title “Director/Head Librarian”. If someone is the Assistant Director, but serves in other roles as well, select the title “Assistant Director”.

2.    Education – For each full or part-time employee, select their highest degree from the dropdown list.

3.    Years in Position – Enter the number of years this individual has worked in this position in your library. If the person has worked at your library less than one year, you will need to leave this item blank. The system won’t allow us to enter a number smaller than 1 in this field.

4.    Hours Per Week – Enter the number of hours the person works in a typical week.

5.    Hourly Wage ($/hr) – Enter the hourly rate of pay for each employee rather than an annual salary so that we will have comparable numbers to transfer to the shared spreadsheet.  Only an hourly rate of pay provides a meaningful comparison between libraries. For those who have avoided answering this question in the past, I encourage you to complete it this year by providing my own hourly pay rate here to you: $24.90.

6.    Min. and Max. Salary Range – Enter the salary range as it would appear on a job posting for that position.

7.    Number of Vacation Days – Enter the number of vacation days earned annually by the person in that position – not the total number of days that person has accrued.

8.    Benefits – Check all benefits that are included for each position regardless of whether the person currently in the position has selected to receive the benefit.
 
Digital
 
In this section, you will report the numbers related to computer use, wi-fi, and the like.

1.    Internet Computers Used by the General Public – The number of computers in your library (desktop & laptop) having internet access that were available to the public. Do not include computers that are restricted to a single, dedicated purpose such as an OPAC.
 
2.    Number of Uses (Sessions) of Public Internet Computers per Year – The total number of uses (sessions) of all the public computers having internet access for the year. If the computer is used for multiple purposes (Internet access, word-processing, OPAC, etc.) and Internet uses (sessions) cannot be isolated, report all usage. If an actual count is unavailable, an annual estimate is acceptable. To calculate an annual estimate, count the number of visits during an average week (not too busy, not too slow) and multiply it by 52.
 
3.    Wireless Sessions Per Year – The total number of wireless sessions provided by the library for the year.  Each time a device connects to the library’s wireless network counts as one session. This number should be available from your internet service provider. If you do offer wi-fi connectivity in your library, but can’t get the number, use the response “Unavailable”. If you do not offer a way for people to connect to wi-fi in your library, your answer to this question should be zero.
 
4.    Library Website Visits – The total number of visits, either inside or outside the library, to the library’s website. For the purposes of the survey, the library website includes all webpages under the library’s domain. A “visit” occurs any time a person connects to a library website for any length of time or purpose. The use of library social media accounts (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, etc.) should not be reported here.
 
5.    What ILS does your library use? – This is a prepopulated field based on information we have on your library. If your ILS has changed, please notify me so we can make the correction.
 
6.    Does the Library Charge Overdue Fines? – As of the last day of the year you are reporting on, did your library charge overdue fines to any users who failed to return physical print materials by the date due? Note: This does not refer to replacement costs for damaged or lost materials.

If you have followed along with me, you are now well on your way to finishing the survey. Let me know if you hit any sticky patches. I’m here to help!  If you would like to go over anything with me that you have questions about, feel free to set up a time for an individual Zoom meeting or phone call where we can look at your survey together and you can get things finished up. To set an appointment, go to: https://nhsl.libcal.com/appointments/mary-ann to find a date and time that works for you.

Thanks again for all of your diligence in completing this important work which will help all of us to demonstrate the value of NH libraries to our communities.

Regards,
MaryAnn Niles
Reference Librarian & State Data Coordinator
New Hampshire State Library
Phone: 603-271-2060
Email: maryann.niles@dncr.nh.gov