Date: January 9, 2006
To: Executive Committee, Budget Subcommittee
From: CPS Division
Re: Library Personnel Planning
The poor state of the Library’s budget in recent years has created personnel shortages and increased workloads library-wide. Every unit has been affected, and consequently most units have needs for new Faculty and/or new and/or upgraded support staff positions to keep up with the demands on their time.
The Central Public Services Division believes that the best way to deal with a Library-wide staffing shortage is to come up with a Library-wide staffing plan. This plan would identify measurable workloads and staffing needs through a staffing assessment of the entire Library, and develop a set of priorities for filling faculty and staff positions based on identified areas of high activity and growth that are seen as critical to meeting Library-wide goals. These goals should be identified from documents such as the Strategic Plan, some of the many Library vision documents, SWOT analyses, etc. that divisions have developed in recent years to reflect future library directions.
The current system for filling vacant positions or creating new positions does not seem to follow any set sequence of goals for the Library, and the lack of any articulated plan for personnel growth makes it extremely difficult for libraries to relate their staffing needs to EC and the Budget Subcommittee in any consistent way. Having a plan in place will not only allow libraries to apply for new positions more effectively, but it will also make it easier for the Library as a whole to know where to spend its money as it becomes available. With a personnel growth plan in place, if the Library receives new money or opportunistic funding for staffing, there will be no mystery as to what strategic direction that money should be allocated.
To summarize, CPS strongly advocates that EC and the Budget Subcommittee pursue developing a Library personnel plan that will identify critical areas to allocate staff and faculty as opportunities and funding arise. The outcome of this would be a plan to best match our resources to our needs. We look forward to your response to our proposal, and the CPS Advisory Committee would be happy to discuss with you any aspects of it you might have questions about.
Sincerely,
Central Public Services Division Faculty Members