Hiring, Training, and Supervising Library Shelvers

Starred review from March 15, 2010
Many libraries will find this well-written book very useful. Tunstall (information assistant, Indian Trails P.L., Wheeling, IL) started as a page at her the library, where she has gone on to become the supervisor of pages and shelving. She takes you step by step through the process of recruiting, interviewing, and hiring shelvers. Screening tests, along with interview questions and employment letters, are also included. Training, maintaining shelver performance, and evaluations are thoroughly covered. Forms and tools are included in appendixes, with samples of three different letters to candidates, training slips, job descriptions, work assignments and logs, sample reports, a conduct agreement, a manual for shelvers, and more. VERDICT Both new and experienced supervisors have much to gain by using this book. Additional tools can be found on a listed web site, which contains usable forms. This down-to-earth, easy-to-use resource should be purchased by all supervisors who oversee shelvers in their libraries. Highly recommended.Marie Bruni, Huntington Memorial Lib., Oneonta, NY

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2010
This entry in the ALA Guides for the Busy Librarian series focuses on the needs of any library worker who hires, trains, and manages pages. Like other titles in the series, it provides practical information, examples of questions, samples of procedures, and, in the appendix that completes the volume, forms and goals. Author Tunstall discusses performance assessment and working with other departments as well as basic recruitment and training. With a practical attitude toward the vital role of shelving, she provides options that have been tested in libraries, and the sections on hiring and firing dos and donts offer information that can be applied in other work settings. This is an excellent manual for libraries, their shelving staff, and any person who supervises them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)