The institution provides a sufficient number of qualified staff—with appropriate education or experiences in library and/or other learning/information resources—to accomplish the mission of the institution.

_X_Compliance                      ___Partial Compliance                       ___Non-Compliance

Narrative

St. Petersburg College is in compliance with this comprehensive standard because it has a large number of highly qualified staff in the library and the learning support centers.

Competencies Required of St. Petersburg College Library Staff

St. Petersburg College has nine types of staff employed in the Libraries:  The Director, Head Librarians (Program Director II), Librarians, Administrative Specialists, Staff Assistants, Library Paraprofessionals, Senior Library Technicians, Library Technicians, and Library Assistants.  SPC reviewed and refined the list of competencies for these positions in 2003 through a committee of Human Resources (HR), library, and other administrative professionals at the college.

Director of Library Services.  The Director of Library Services plans, organizes, manages and directs the Collegewide library programs and services.  Among the Director’s responsibilities are to:

• Direct the overall library services and programs on all campuses and sites.
• Develop program goals and long range plans.
• Develop, implement and maintain the budget for the college-wide library services.
• Manage library staff, including hiring, training, directing, evaluating, and handling grievances
• Develop and recommend revisions to all library operating procedures.
• Direct the college's library program in accordance with SPC goals and established policies.

Minimum requirements for the Director of Library services include a Master's degree in library science (Doctorate's degree preferred) and five years supervisory experience in higher education learning resources area.

Head Librarians (Program Director II):  The Head Librarians at each campus serve as the managing librarians for that library.  In addition to participating in reference and instruction duties, the Head Librarian communicates with the Director of Libraries regarding program policies, procedures, and personnel matters and planning and budgeting for collection and facilities enhancements.  They develop a schedule of reference desk coverage and program liaison coverage.  The Head Librarian also represents the M.M. Bennett Libraries at the campus level, participating in campus leadership meetings and working in collaboration with members of the campus provost’s leadership team.  They also attend Collegewide meetings of other Program Director II as needed.  Head Librarians are Administrative and Professional staff and serve on an annual contract basis.

Librarians.  Librarians at each campus assure library service in support of the College mission.  The primary responsibilities of the campus librarians include providing instruction and assistance to students, Faculty, staff, and the public; keeping abreast of new resources and technology; assuring a comfortable study atmosphere in the library; and troubleshooting, maintaining and helping users with library equipment.  In addition, all campus librarians should provide clear, accurate, and focused classroom or individual instruction to students and staff, prepare and deliver workshops, maintain website or other electronic resources, and collaborate with instructors in teaching specialized topics.  Secondary responsibilities include maintaining a schedule of library instruction classes, evaluating library collections, selecting new materials and deselecting outdated items, filling in as needed at the circulation desk, and representing the Library on campus and college-wide committees. Librarians have Faculty status and must complete the same requirements for tenure and continuing contract as classroom Faculty do.

The minimum educational and experience requirements for campus librarians are a Master's degree in Library and Information Science and demonstrated success in providing library reference and instruction services, preferably in higher education.

Library Paraprofessionals.  Library paraprofessionals at SPC supervise a section or unit of a library under the direction of a professional librarian.  They perform support activities such as bookkeeping, compiling budget data, statistics, controlling supplies, handling mail, routing correspondence, preparing time schedules, and payrolls.  They also assist in the acquisition of library materials and in cataloging and classification of materials.  Library paraprofessionals are required to have two years of college-level study, or an Associate’s degree with or without library technical assistant training, or post-secondary training in relevant skills and three years of experience in library work or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Administrative Specialists.  Library administrative specialists perform highly complex administrative work which involves the coordination and/or performance of specialized staff responsibilities.  Duties include creating and maintaining specialized data, records, reports and statistics; generating complex reports of operations and services; maintaining budget records, payroll, purchase order and other sensitive information; and assisting the Library Director with planning, research and maintenance of library activities and responsibilities.  Administrative specialists I are required to have graduated from an accredited high school or possess an acceptable equivalency diploma and possess four years experience in responsible office administrative work in an educational institution.  Administrative specialists II must have, in addition to the requirements above, an Associate’s degree.

Staff Assistants.  Library staff assistants perform advanced administrative work in the campus libraries, assisting the head librarian in many tasks.  Duties include maintaining files and statistics, providing payroll information to the Library Director’s Administrative Specialist, preparing reports, letters and related materials for the head librarian, and serving as liaison with other college units and departments.  Staff assistants must have graduated from an accredited high school or possess an acceptable equivalency diploma and possess three years of experience in office and administrative work.

Senior Library Technicians.  Senior library technicians perform responsible and advanced clerical and bookkeeping work in ordering, receiving and invoicing materials for all college library sites, including the maintenance of budget accounts for all College library locations. Senior library technicians are required to have graduated from an accredited high school or possess an acceptable equivalency diploma supplemented by college level courses in bookkeeping or accounting and have three years of library, bookkeeping, secretarial or public service experience.

Library Technicians.  Library technicians perform specialized and advanced clerical work in library technical services, including performing technical library work in acquisitions, periodicals, audiovisual, and related areas and basic cataloging to add items to the data base.  Library technicians must have graduated from an accredited high school or possess an acceptable equivalency diploma and have three years of library, general clerical, secretarial or public service experience.

Library Assistants.  Library assistants perform a variety of library public service and clerical duties in the campus libraries.  They assist library patrons in checking out materials, maintaining and troubleshooting patron records both in person and on the phone; assist library professionals in carrying out clerical functions including preparing purchase orders, budget records and spread sheets; maintaining library shelves and materials.  They are required to have graduated from an accredited high school or possess an acceptable equivalency diploma and have two years of general clerical or public service experience.

Qualifications and Numbers of Current Professional Staff

A review of the Library staff roster shows that SPC has qualified library staff with appropriate educational background and experience to accomplish the mission of the College.

The library has one administrative position, the Director, and five management positions, the campus Head Librarians (Program Director II).  The Library Director position reports to the Senior Vice President for Educational and Student Services and to the Senior Vice President for Baccalaureate Programs.  The College Library Committee has representation from faculty, students and administration from all campuses and is appointed by the President every two years.  The Library Director also meets with the campus provosts individually and occasionally at their scheduled meetings.

The Library is staffed by professionally trained librarians, paraprofessionals and career staff.  The current Director of Libraries holds a Masters degree in Library and Information Science from an ALA accredited program and has 13 years of experience in academic libraries, including both two- and four-year institutions.  Several librarians have been members of the SPC faculty for more than 30 years and several are beginning their careers at the College.  Professional staff are located at the various campuses as follows:

All librarians are credentialed as faculty and teach Library Science courses in information literacy and research methods.  The Library Director has responsibility for verifying librarians’ credentials.

The libraries are further staffed by adjunct (part time) librarians who hold MLS degrees and who are credentialed as adjunct faculty.  These additional part time librarians are needed to maintain staffing at the reference desks, provide evening and weekend library service and to instruct students.  Hours vary at each site and throughout the semester. 

Part-time librarian availability (average)

 

Location              ______    Number of hours
Clearwater	27
St. Petersburg/Gibbs	30
Tarpon Springs	28
Health Education	30

Each location also has a number of full-time paraprofessional and administrative staff to provide technical and clerical support:

Total number of SPC paraprofessional and career staff

                  Position Title                                             Total

Most sites also employ part-time clerical hours whose hours vary by site and throughout the semester.  Averages are as follows:

Average part-time clerical hours

 

Location                               Number of hours
Clearwater	7
St. Petersburg/Gibbs	20
Tarpon Springs	36
Health Education	11
Allstate	12

*Note: The Seminole campus library is a joint-use with the local city’s library, which provides the majority of personnel support.

Professional Development Opportunities

In preparation for the annual strategic planning process, internally-generated professional development needs are surveyed and reviewed by a Professional Development Advisory Committee, similar in structure to the College’s other Oversight Committees, but with no budgetary authority.  The purpose of the Professional Development Advisory Committee is to help the institution analyze training needs for faculty, administrators, and career staff and coordinate the delivery of professional development opportunities offered by various units within the College in order to provide a coherent approach to professional development.

Librarians are strongly encouraged to actively participate in regional, state and national professional associations, to attend conferences and workshops and to continue their educations.  Part of the annual evaluation process for faculty requires continuing education and encourages writing, research and scholarship.  In the previous five years, SPC librarians have given numerous conference presentations and published articles, book reviews and book chapters.  Two librarians recently completed their coursework for doctoral programs in higher education and are working to complete their dissertations.

For eleven years the Library has sponsored a day long workshop for library paraprofessionals and career staff to provide training and staff development.  This workshop, the “VIP: Very Important Paraprofessional” workshop, is open to local libraries and attendance has exceeded over 300 participants.  The library uses online tools to train library career staff in library management skills.

The library has one annual staff training day for all employees and schedules additional training as necessary.  In January 2007, all staff participated in a half-day professionally facilitated interactive session in the College’s Collaborative Labs.  The focus was on identified excellent customer service and on innovative services.  This was a highly successful professional development activity as evidenced by the feedback from library staff.  Many ideas were generated which will provide a framework for strategic planning and continued improvements to library services.  A special advantage of this workshop was that several city staff from the Seminole Community Library, one of SPC’s joint-use libraries, were in attendance and had an opportunity to interact with College library employees in a positive and productive environment.

Data on quality of Library staff services

Feedback from students and academic staff indicates the library is one of the most respected departments in the College.  Based on feedback from the college-wide committee and the provosts, and from student satisfaction data on the annual Enrolled Student Survey and an internal library survey, SPC has sufficient library staff with appropriate educational background and experience to accomplish the Mission of the College.  On the most recent annual Enrolled Student Survey, the Library received the second highest level of student satisfaction of any of the services provided by the college, 6.18 on a 7-point Likert scale.  Student satisfaction with the SPC libraries has steadily risen over the last four years:

In addition, the rating of satisfaction with the libraries’ reference services on the 2006/07 survey was 8.56 on a 10-point scale and 95% student responded positively when asked if the library was helpful to them academically.

References