Rochelle spotted A Post To The WI Lib List on the Marathon County Situation from the director.
The reduction in reference questions does NOT necessarily mean less work at public service desks. Public service takes place at all points of contact with the people who enter our buildings or visit us on the web, be it the Reference Desk, the Circulation Desk, the Information Desk as you enter the building, or in the stacks as books are being shelved. The real question is “How much of that public service work requires a Masters Degree?” If the answer is that a declining amount requires that advanced degree, then how can we justify maintaining the same staff to do less work?
why stop?
If the work at the library is becoming so un-bibliographic and ill-suited for professionals, couldn’t Marathon save even more and fire the director? They could contract out accounting and budget work. Maybe a part-timer admin for scheduling.
Who wants to bet her zeal for efficency stops where her own top-of-the-pay-scale salary starts?