Our closing staff (2-3 people) stay till 15 minutes past closing. We have a list of closing duties which include tidying up the library (picking up stray books, pushing in chairs, emptying trash that might contain food, making sure the restrooms have paper stock, etc), closing out the cash register, clearing the door counter, refilling displays, and making sure everything is ready for morning opening. We also have at least 2 staff come in 15 minutes early to get computers booted, restock printers, set up for early programs, clear the book drop, start the coffee machine, etc.

(Also from a mid-sized library in Texas – Hi Susan!)

Ours is sort of weird: we have digital time clocks, but all punches are rounded to the nearest fifteen minutes. So as long as we get out by 9:07, we get paid until 9. If we stay until 9:08, we get paid until 9:15.

We rarely stay until 9:05. All library services are available until closing except the computers, which automatically log off at 8:55. We make closing announcements at 30, 15, and 5 minutes before closing time, and a final one just before we close the door. During the last hour, library aides straighten the shelves and pick up stray books. When closing time hits, we lock the doors, put the cash drawer in the safe, and hit the lights.

All opening staff members start an hour before the library opens. That’s when we run our reserve lists and other shelving tasks and balance the cash drawer from the day before.

Since the work day starts with no customers in the building, we can afford to be a little flexible on arrival times. Just like closing, if you clock in by 8:07 you’re on time. That helps to justify the few minutes it takes to get out of the building in the evenings.

My library works the same way as Librarian With No Name, except the opening staff comes in a half hour early not an hour.

Honestly we usually don’t have many patrons that stick around after closing BUT that 15 minutes we are scheduled past closing is to clear the building, clean up messes left behind & restock displays. If a patron is still browsing the collection after 9 we inform them that the library is in fact closed & our Check Out desk is shut down. We do keep the lights on for our sake.

We are supposed to walk out the door at closing time. This often does not happen and we are fine with that. There are usually three people working, often all three are part-time. At least two are part-time. If we consistently do not have the alarm set by closing, administration will question the branch supervisor as to the issue. However, this has never changed the policy. We recently changed administration, so this may be an issue that changes soon. Our closing duties have changed recently and are minimal. They include, locking up and setting the alarm. We usually count the money earlier in the day and our computers and lights are on timers. I am at a small library in North-Central Kentucky.

I’m the author of the comment that sparked this post (which is pretty exciting!) and really appreciate seeing everyone’s replies. I should mention that I work at the big, downtown main branch of an urban library system. With multiple floors and a lot of people using the library for things other than checking out materials, it’s definitely a struggle to get people out the door by nine.

I think what frustrates me is just how it’s presented. At the library where I work currently, we have to digitally punch a clock (which rounds to the nearest quarter-hour, as other people mentioned) to keep track of our time. Every closing shift, we clock out at 8:55 in order to put our laptops away, do sweeps of the building, etc., and then work an additional 10 minutes. I used to work at a library that was also fairly large and also didn’t pay staff past closing time. However there we self-reported our hours into a time sheet. We still worked more minutes than we were paid for, but somehow it didn’t annoy me nearly as much when I wasn’t in the daily situation of having to report that I was ending my shift when I’m really still working.

I want to provide good service to patrons, but I think there is a tendency in libraries and in other service professions for administrations to take financial advantage of staff’s dedication to the mission of the institution. Maybe if hourly staff were paid higher wages, I wouldn’t be uncomfortable with putting in some ‘volunteer’ time, but considering they are paid at most libraries, I think it’s kind of a crummy practice to expect them to stay later.

I like Brian’s library’s practice of always having a salaried person on the closing shift who can stay later, and take a little time off elsewhere if it ends up being significant. I imagine that someone who is salaried is probably high up enough that they aren’t always on the desk both the first and the last hours of their shifts, so they can come in a little late or leave a little early on a different day. It would be nice to implement that at our library. Do your salaried people know enough about circ to do all the closing circ tasks, though, if that’s what ends up pushing things past closing time? I think our problem would be that no one but the clerks (and their department head) knows how to close out the cash register.

I forgot to say that I’M one of the lucky ones who gets to work till closing one night a week.

When I was the director at a small public library, I changed the working hours to cover 15 minutes before opening as well as 15 minutes past closing, like Mary Jo posted above.

It worked out well for our staff. Now, I work at an academic library and am salaried so just eat the time, when patrons keep me late. I work three nights a week. The other part-time staff that close are on the clock so they get paid for the time they stay past closing.

We have time clocks and we don’t expect staff to clock out until they’re done. They get paid for what they work. If a late patron or a problem with closing procedures holds them up, then they get paid. Time is recorded in tenths of an hour, so it rounds to the nearest 6 minutes. It seems odd to me to expect staff to work without getting paid for it.

Since most of our lingerers are on the computers, we have them shut down automatically at closing time, so they have little incentive to hold us up too long. And we keep our closing procedures pretty simple.

At my library we expect staff to be leaving the building at closing time. On weekdays we do have staff arrive an hour before opening (we open at 9), but this is paid time and gives full-time staff an 8-hour day after an hour lunch break is taken into consideration. This is when we do pull lists, have meetings, and do other preparation tasks. A small number of staff arrive 30 minutes early on weekends. We use an online time clock system that tracks in 15-minute intervals and rounds at the 7-minute mark but we try to stick to the scheduled times.

For closing procedures, our main computer lab shuts down at 20 minutes till so that it can be cleared out and cleaned. Before we remodeled and expanded it, the time ran up until 5 till but that resulted in many people sticking around trying to print past close. We do keep the printer and some express stations open until 5 till still but these have been less of a problem. We make closing announcements on the intercom at 20 and 10, and usually dim the lights at 5. Circulation stops making new cards and closes out the cash register at 5 minutes, but people can check out right up until the last minute. We try to get people to stop browsing before then though, and we do close out several of the computers at 5 if there aren’t many people left. The restrooms are closed at 5 as well, if no one is in them, and we make sure to check before that to make sure no one is asleep in there. We also start partially locking the doors at 10 till because it is a complicated procedure, but they are not locked fully until we actually close. Meanwhile, staff are also cleaning up their areas and checking to make sure people have found what they are looking for and that no one is lurking in a distant corner out of sight of the person in charge of closing.

We have a large number of circulation clerks, shelvers, so they start clocking out at about 5 till, which rounds up to a full hour. Our youth and reference staff clock out closer to closing since they have fewer people and individual desk stations to do it at. They all leave together while the professional librarian in charge of the building for the night ((either from youth or adult on a rotating basis) and the circulation supervisor finishes locking up, which involves setting the alarms, shutting off the lights, and so forth. Usually this goes quickly and we are out within a couple minutes of closing, but sometimes there are problems with the doors or people having checkout disasters, so if it goes over 7 minutes we get comp time later in the week. If there are unattended children left at the building who are unable to get home, we wait up to 15 minutes before calling for police assistance.

We used to wait longer to shut down a lot of those services, but it resulted in people having to stay way too often. The computers and restrooms were the biggest culprits. We also expect anyone using the meeting rooms to be packing up at 30 till, and make that clear as part of their reservation slot, but often they end up staying later. We have gotten stricter about them absolutely being gone by 10 till. While it does mean a few services are not available at the last minute, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people to work when they’re not being paid, and even if they’re paid it’s not fair to ask them to stay late for something that’s not actually an emergency.

We are very strict that hourly staff must get paid for hours worked – it’s the law. Circ staff and the closing person-in-charge are scheduled to work15 minutes after closing to accommodate late patrons and to count the cash drawer. Everyone else stops working at closing, but aren’t released until the last patron leaves the building – in our case,usually a minute or two after closing most days.

Computers automatically shutting down has caused problems to patrons hurrying to finish, etc. But, we always try to make an announcement to let them know. Unfortunately, people are people-some listen, some do not. And you always have the issue of headphones, did they hear you?

As it’s our long time library assistant that closes up, he usually sticks to our age old routine meaning that he informs patrons we’re closing in 15 minutes at 6.15. He then proceeds to turn the printer off closer the time, probably around 5.25. I’ve tried to stress to him that as our ours have been reduced a great deal it is important to hold off on turning the printer, locking the cashbox and turning off his own pc at 5 minutes or less to, but in some ways he’s very set in his ways so i’m not sure this is always followed.
We recently moved to a much smaller library with less machinery etc to turn off so hopefully this helps with leaving it as close to the time as possible. For example, our computers are moved to another room in the building (which does not close til later in the evening) and we have automatic lights so there is no need to switch off lights. Now we only have the one printer and pc to shut off and close the windows.

I have worked the closing shift at two campuses of a mid-sized university in Canada. At both, we would announce closing 30, 15, and 5 minutes ahead of time, along with the notice that the circulation desk closes 15 minutes before the doors do. One person would do the sweep – alerting students, picking up in-house books, pushing in chairs, etc. – while the other did the cash after the desk closed. We did occasionally need to stay past closing to deal with a cash imbalance or a student with a last-minute checkout or return (especially if it was video or photography equipment), but it happened rarely. We didn’t have any sort of clock-out system, and our managers were always very understanding, so we didn’t sweat a few minutes here or there. It was always two full- or part-time circulation staff (we never used student assistants to help close or open the library) and while we were unionized, there was only one staff member who was very rigid about wanting to be out right at closing – so if I was working, I would deal with whatever the problem was and finish balancing the cash after we locked the doors so she could leave on time.

I think for most libraries in Massachusetts that I have worked in the library closes and staff leave at the same time. In Wisconsin, the staff came early or stayed late. (As others suggested, there was 15 minute offset.) I prefer this from a customer service standpoint. Patrons are not rushed to leave and staff have the time to prepare for the opening and closing (i.e. shelving books, ILL, clearing tables, housekeeping, and clearing outstanding items.) Another important consideration is safety. If everyone has enough time to close off computers, etc., it would be expected staff would exit together. When staff leave immediately, it opens the opportunity for staff being isolated in the building or parking lost. It is a far better closing policy.

The major issue that I faced was unions. Union members felt any change including staying late was a concession and therefore needed to bargained for. In addition in one library, staff were very well aware about closing and would begin closing portions of the facility 15 minutes prior through Pharos and staff sweeps. By closing time, the patrons were gone. Issues arose when patrons showed up at 3 minutes until and staff had already closed down or patrons had a time sensitive project and did not read the fine print in the hours reducing the closing time by 15 minutes for computers.