Best Practices for Staff Sharing

Medium to larger academic libraries often hire and train staff members to perform a variety of duties within a single department. However, in the current difficult budgetary environment, such academic libraries may use sharing of staff members between departments and cross-training in order to maintain the provision of high quality library service. This poster session will present a set of best practices for staff sharing, including scheduling and prioritizing tasks, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of such sharing from the perspectives of the supervisors and staff members. Examples of staff sharing as implemented at Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University will also be provided.