Question of the Day - Why Hold In-Service on Columbus Day and Martin Luther King Jr Day?

The Library closes twice a year for in-service training. On these days, the staff of the Library has meetings and workshops, planning sessions and refresher courses on topics ranging from Disaster Recovery to Library policies.

Several years ago, we studied our usage patterns on certain days of the year, over 3 years, to determine what might be the best days to use for In-Service training. We focused on Fridays in the summer after Summer Reading was finished and holidays for which the Library was not closed: Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, Martin Luther King Jr Day, and Good Friday. The holidays were selected because staff noticed that usage tended to be down on those days, with frequent phone calls about whether or not the Library was open. Summer Fridays were the default In-Service days prior to the study. The anecdotal lower-than-average usage of the Library on holidays the Library did not close was corroborated by the study. Summer Fridays were found to have average usage. Columbus Day and MLK Day were selected in an attempt to spread the dates out as much as possible through the year. Good Friday was not seriously considered due to the religious beliefs of certain staff members and the fact that the date varied year to year.

So, when the Library is closed on January 18, your staff will be inside, brushing up their skills and preparing to better serve you!