Lots of turnover/training issues
Keeping P/T staff committed & excited
Large volumes of p/t staff
Creative ways to maximize student workers in the face of budget cuts

Things we've done that haven't worked
Have overwhelmed P/T staff with information, basic knowledge for job
Number of patrons/patron groups they must be familiar with
Lots of what they have to do are things they need to learn first-hand
Training sessions are too theoretical - can be a waste of our time to do it over and over again for only one person at a time
Training sessions can also cover things that don't come up for months or at different times of the year
On a tight schedule - no money for overlap between staff members. Someone exiting the job should be able to help train the person coming in
Too much training can work against you too - there's too much time that can be spent training and not working
Get the knowledge out of people's heads so when Sally leaves, Sally's job doesn't walk out the door with her
Training restricted to local servers - not fully on the free web
P/T staff often try to figure things out themselves because they don't want to "bother" us, can ask staff who are also unsure or are doing it the "wrong" way
Often students or volunteers don't understand library concepts like confidentiality, etc. and it's hard to make the time in training to cover these sorts of fundamental topics.
How to motivate them to take care of the library in librarian's absence/at night, off times, etc. - a sense of ownership
How to reward staff for getting their stuff done, learning, doing extra, above and beyond - extrinsic motivation works for young people who are used to getting that in school, etc.
Identifying good potential hires that have motivation while working, and not just turning on the charm in the interview process
Combat the perception that a library job is just sitting around reading books, etc.
customer service is difficult to teach - but so important to the job!
Staff who would never dream of going above and beyond for the patron - seat warmers
How to deal with coverage while you're hiring/training another person

Things that have worked or might work
Have created a wiki to answer questions when we're not there to help train them
Creating short videos that they can watch and learn from - Jing, etc. Use to illustrate a particular procedure or concept
Creating quizzes to target skills/tasks that are not being performed up to snuff
Create a staff facebook page so that you can mass contact everyone at once where they look for messages
Get they to create videos/wiki pages to demonstrate mastery of skills/concepts
Use students to create buzz and do outreach to drive up traffic, etc.
Spend more time with nighttime/weekend staff to help give them a sense that we see their work, etc.
Good pointed interview questions to try and learn potential staff members' motivation