customer service representative

branch manager

information systems manager

director of marketing

associate director

Mid-Continent Public Library

Working here, you will love your coworkers and the people who come into your branch but management will destroy you. Yiu will find that the people who control almost every aspect of your job dont know what you do or what you have to do to do it. There are changes to your job description, duties and expectations without explanation or warning. You will be have your complaints and feelings acknowledged but dont expect any action to follow. Placating people is their forte. It's enough to make most people forget their very valid complaints. They will never stop telling you about your empowerment and our transparency while telling you nothing and taking away your power/authority over anything that matters.

You will be punished at some level for speaking out against anything bad you see, experience or feel obligated to take a stand on. Be prepared for that. 

Getting to wear what you want and the benefits are perks. The work/life balance is great. The pay is okay. 
Covid had made things a little strange but all my comments are pre covid concerns. all upper management doesnt know what to do with themselves, refuse to fix any gaps in their knowledge/understanding, lash out against branches and branch staff, and instead of doing anything about their ineffectiveness, they restructure everything, get rid of beloved practices/programs, give themselves raises then pat themselves on the back. 

Corporate culture masquerading as small non-profit community.

Administration consistently creates barriers for branch staff to provide services to their community. Large gaps in education and skill levels among staff in same positions, with pay scale relying almost solely on tenure rather than merit.

For a library, there is a potentially surprising lack of social tolerance among staff, and practically no diverse representation. In most locations, more than half of the staff are remnants of a time long passed, with no interest in serving the community outside of their own in-groups.

MCPL's leadership is lost at an administrative level (outside of a few recently overhauled departments) and is squandering great talent at the community level for the sake of the Director's "legacy".

What a typical day at work was like is that I would come in and was greeted by my coworkers and after that, I scan by badge to clock-in. I would then go toward my work area and see what needs to be done. I would put away books as well as other items and if that were already done I would ask my boss(es) what other tasks needs to be done. Clean restrooms, take out trash, vacuum the children's area as they done arts and crafts often were part of my job. I learned the Dewey Decimal system during my time of working at the library. The management was nice and very understandable. My coworkers were some of the most mature and friendly coworkers anybody could ask for. The hardest part of this job was finding an item that was said by the catalog was in the library but could not be found as someone may have picked it up, read some pages but put it down somewhere else. Reading books that I have never read is what I enjoyed the most about this job.

A typical work day was generally busy with helping people find books, helping them downloading items on their laptop, computer or cell phone.  In generall helping customers with whatever they needed.  We also did background work such as checking in books, and dealing with overdue items, etc.  We also made sure the library was generally in good order by picking up items.  Checking to see if people needed help and making sure the drop boxes were unloaded.  I learned that libraries are not what they used to be.  To work at a library you need computer experience as well as people skills.  Also a desire to investigate things.  The staff was nice and easy to work with.  Management was also very helpful and easy to talk to.  I would recommend this library to anyone.  The hardest part of the job was not being able to help someone you really wanted to help.  The most enjoyable part of the job was helping people.

The library is amazing, they are dedicated to customers, staff and work together toward a common goal....except my manager.  I work at HQ and my experience is not the norm.  My department is managed with blatant biased.  If you have a degree you are worthwhile, if you don't you are an idiot.  I do not, so it is a wonder I can even tie my shoes without my manager giving me explicit instructions.  Tears are a daily part of my job, I would consider my relationship with my manager as abusive and I am not the only one, there are at least 4 others that have been moved from this department. My department is a chaotic dumpster fire on a daily basis, while every other department is laid back and calm.  If you are considering an administrative position, ask good questions and for the love of all that is Wholly, steer clear of the dumpster fire.

Individual branches of the Mid-continent public library have their hands tied and their mouths gaged by the Headquarters constantly. Any programing a branch does is dictated by headquarters so if headquarters doesn't find trans 101 appropriate, no branch is allowed to make that decision. 

You will have a honeymoon phase of about three months when you join the library. You will probably love the branch you are in and want to grow in your career. If you are a man it's much more likely you will get hired up. Even though librarians are predominantly women, the management is more male. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The other employees are great at the branch where I worked.  The board members from Platte County kept this score from being higher 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management changes were a challenge but not a huge challenge 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Good at the time I left    I saw the books we checked out and never thought of the word culture and the 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I said hello to people I considered close friends. I did my job. I said goodbye to the great coworkers and came home

Big disparity between HQ staff and branch staff. Big turnover in branches because pay is low unless you want to get into management, and HQ hyper controls all branch decisions. A day or two a month PTO, but have to get any further unpaid leave signed off by head of HR, which is a process that reflects on you unfavorably no matter what the issue is. HQ has doubled in last five years, with increasingly higher pay ranges while branch staff has steadily decreased and majority make under $16 an hour.

Mid Continent Public Library is a large library system that values its employees and customers. They truly want to satisfy everyone. There are some ongoing communications issues due to the large size of the system and the large number of employees. I feel these can be resolved by over communication and transparency between senior management and the front line staff

I enjoy working here, some days are busy some are slow. Having good coworkers and mangers can really make or break your experience. If you work part time don’t expect a lot of full time positions to open within the company. They do sometimes but you’ll likely have to move to a larger branch or become a manager. The hours can go late into the evening, some people won’t like that. You will also have to work on Saturday or Sunday. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Customer service representative 6 salaries reported	$17.17 per hour
Branch manager 3 salaries reported	$59,667 per year
Information systems manager 1 salary reported	$86,768 per year
Director of marketing 1 salary reported	$86,768 per year
Associate director 1 salary reported	$80,562 per year

Working at Mid-Continent Public Library: Company Overview and Reviews

Mid-Continent Public Library

Mid-Continent Public Library Ratings

Popular jobs at Mid-Continent Public Library

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected