Business-Driven/People-Focused: A Case Study on Valuing Library Staff and Improving Service to Users

Abstract

Laupus Health Sciences Library has 3 floors hosting 25 staff and a satellite department, The Country Doctor Museum, with 3 additional staff. If it were not for staff development activities, the departments would not normally collaborate, let alone interact with each other. This presentation will discuss the variety of staff development activities we have hosted in 2019 and have in the works for 2020 to increase employee engagement while improving patron services. By leveraging staff talents and interests, morale has greatly improved. Working together in this way ensures the library serves the users better in a few ways as staff learns more about colleagues, such as knowing which employee can help users find the right answer and being able to effectively market to users library and museum programming.