I was a branch manager too; before they decided one part time person could manage three libraries and gave all the senior staff the flick to save money. Hey, how hard can it be, just put everything in alphabetical orderoand say shhhh. Right? Stats dropped by 30% in the first year now they are talking about turning one branch into a 'shop front library' which is one step up from a deposit box with RFID where you can pick up holds.
My FOL group invited me to be their guest speaker at their Xmas do last year. It made me sad to see how much money had been pulled out of the service. I used to chase grants for programming and shmoose authors to get them to visit, no one does that any more. Oh well. No point hanging around being the ghost of librarians past.