610 Quincy St. Ÿ Rapid City, SD 57701

605-394-4171 Ÿ www.rapidcitylibrary.org

To: RCPL Trustees
From: Greta Chapman
Re: Library hours
Date: February 28, 2005
Action needed: Approval for a change of library service hours.
In addition to the Board recommendation for approval of library hours, we are working with the city payroll clerk and human resources for an adjustment of the beginning and ending days of a work week for data entry. Weekly payroll data for city employees except the Fire and Police Departments, is entered for work week beginning on Saturday and ending on the following Sunday. Library staff that are scheduled for evening and weekend hours rarely get a Saturday and Sunday off. The library is now open seven days a week nine months out of the year. In making the transition to seven days a week year round, management would like to offer two consecutive days off over a Saturday and Sunday.
Recommendation: That a new schedule of library service hours be implemented effective June 1, 2005:
Mondays – Thursdays 9:00-8:00
Fridays and Saturdays 9:00-6:00
Sundays (year-round) noon – 6:00
Reason for Change: Although patrons use the library from 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. on weeknights, there is not the level of use seen at other times of the day. In addition, patrons have requested that we are open on Sundays throughout the year. With that in mind, the recommendation is to close one hour earlier on weeknights to allow year-round Sunday hours.
With both the current and the proposed schedule, we offer 3,536 service hours per year. Because of the mid-year transition to the new schedule, our service hours would be increased by 21 (to 3,557) in 2005 only.
There will be no staffing impact for the change of schedule; as service hours are the same, staffing demands would remain the same.
Background: In addition to patron suggestions, a survey was conducted from January 31 to February 6. The survey asked for patron input into the hours they would prefer to use the library. The recommended schedule combines the preferred patron hours of service year round with maintaining the same number of overall hours of service per year as is currently offered.
The hours proposed to the public were based on existing traffic patterns; survey results showed a preference for:
Weeknights to 8:00 p.m.
Saturdays, late in the morning and in the afternoon
Sundays, from noon to 5:00 p.m.
LIBRARY HOURS SURVEY Question: We are reviewing our traffic patterns and requests for hours of service. Please place a dot at the time(s) you would most likely use the library. Survey was placed in the lobby from January 31-February 6, 2005. Numbers below show the number of responses in each time category.
	Survey Tally
	Weeknights	6-7	7-8	8-9
	Monday	31	23	11
	Tuesday	31	30	13
	Wednesday	35	27	14
	Thursday	11	16	11
	Friday/Saturday/Sunday	27	20	12
		135	116	61
		15.6%	13.4%	7.0%
	Saturdays	9-10	3-4	4-5	5-6
	Monday	16	11	8	12
	Tuesday	11	17	8	9
	Wednesday	12	16	12	10
	Thursday	8	12	7	12
	Friday/Saturday/Sunday	24	37	20	11
		71	93	55	54
		8.2%	10.7%	6.3%	6.2%
	Sundays	9-10	10-11	11-12	12-1	4-5	5-6
	Monday	7	7	5	9	16	9
	Tuesday	4	5	9	11	14	14
	Wednesday	2	6	5	10	10	20
	Thursday	4	5	4	7	10	8
	Friday/Saturday/Sunday	13	9	9	25	18	7
		30	32	32	62	68	58
		3.5%	3.7%	3.7%	7.2%	7.8%	6.7%
				867 total responses

Results ranked by use:

% who indicated use	Day	Time
15.6%	Weeknights	6:00-7:00
13.4%	Weeknights	7:00-8:00
10.7%	Saturdays	3:00-4:00
8.2%	Saturdays	9:00-10:00
7.8%	Sundays	4:00-5:00
7.2%	Sundays	12:00-1:00
7.0%	Weeknights	8:00-9:00
6.7%	Sundays	5:00-6:00
6.3%	Saturdays	4:00-5:00
6.2%	Saturdays	5:00-6:00
3.7%	Sundays	10:00-11:00
3.7%	Sundays	11:00-12:00
3.5%	Sundays	9:00-10:00