Every large library system intends to staff its branches optimally. As tasks are added and deleted from a staff person’s routine, a statistical approach is necessary to review the busyness of each location to determine which branches may need more staff, which may need less and what type of position would best suit the need. The impetus of the busyness study was to help with staffing post-branch construction during our system-wide construction project but it continues to prove helpful beyond the construction phase.

Branch busyness is calculated by synthesizing data of visits, circulation, programming, computer usage, holds, incident reports, new cards, branch square footage, number of floors per branch, points of service and meeting room usage. For each category, a branch is assigned a percentage of the whole. Each is averaged giving an "Overall Busyness" percentage. This percentage is compared to FTE percentages for each branch. Branch Busyness is the percentage of overall desk staffing hours assigned to each branch in comparison to the other branches.

These comparisons help managers when hiring staff. HR uses it to optimally allocate staff, for instance a branch that appears to be light on clerks but heavier on library assistants may choose to reallocate staff to help with the unmet need. Recently, the data was used to determine the need for a third managerial position at a busy branch location that was experiencing more incidents. The data was also used when we completed construction of a replacement branch moving from a one-room, mini-branch to a full-service library.