Searching for Solutions

Abstract

Lending services units at Indiana State University's Cunningham Memorial Library depend heavily on student employees to fulfill their specific missions. Problems attributed to poor communication and lack of motivation among student employees were causing negative impacts on the units' abilities to function well. To resolve these problems, supervisors established priorities, set goals, and conducted a literature search to identify optimum remedies. Solutions were chosen on the basis of cost and ease of implementation. Strategies adopted included recognizing out-standing students, formalizing peer training, improving communication through electronic posting, expanding training methods, and providing student employee manuals specific to each unit.     

Student Assistant Training in a Small Academic Library

Abstract

At Valparaiso University's main library, the Christopher Center for Library and Information Resources (formerly the Moellering Library), student employees are an integral part of day-to-day operations. Students work at the reference desk and must be able to handle reference questions. Since the fall 2000 semester, the Reference Services Librarian has been creating a training program for the student assistants, consisting of an initial training period and a series of quizzes combined with review sessions. Student assistants are also indispensable in Instruction Services. These students are charged with library web site and instruction materials' updates. Methods, lessons learned throughout the process, and quiz questions are used to illustrate the development of the training program. Student performance evaluations and feedback are positive.     

Training,Supervising, and Evaluating Student Information Assistants

Abstract

Training, supervision, and evaluation of student assistants is not a topic covered in most library school curricula; it is a skill that it is assumed one will have or acquire through on-the-job experience. This article focuses on the hiring, supervision, training, and evaluation of student information assistants in the reference/electronic resource setting. Student Information Assistants are known by many names-reference assistants, peer counselors, research assistants, and database assistants, to name a few-but within this article I will use the name Student Information Assistants (SIAs).     

Personnel Management in Access Services

Abstract

Access services is not unique in its need for effective personnel management. A review of the literature indicates that there are many publications on or relating to library personnel administration; however, relatively few of them are dedicated to the narrow topic of access services. As such, this review encompasses literature that is general to the area of personnel management, with specific applications to access services in libraries. In general, this article references works published between the years 1990 and 2002, but also includes older works that are particularly useful and relevant.     

学生工与高校图书馆人力资源管理

对高校图书馆增加学生工的可行性进行分析，并通过分析，介绍此举对图书馆人力资源管理的影响。     

扩招后高校图书馆面临的困境及应采取的对策

讨论扩招给高校图书馆信息资源建设和读者服务工作带来的困境,提出高校图书馆面对困境应采取的措施。     

人力资源开发与高校图书馆可持续发展研究

针对高校图书馆人力资源存在的问题，从人力资源开发的角度提出高校图书馆可持续发展的建议。     

Student Journey Work: A Review of Academic Library Contributions to Student Transition and Success

This review aims to capture projects, services, and approaches that are being used to ensure student success and sustainability across the stages (or transitions) of the student experience of higher education, where these extend the traditional role of the library, in the UK and internationally. The article examines why the student journey (and supporting it) has become a central part of the contemporary academic library's repertoire. Fundamentally, through a student lifecycle perspective the author will attempt to show how academic libraries contribute to their university's bottom line? Finally, the article will reflect on strategic implications and areas for further investigation.     

Procedures to Follow if a Law Enforcement Official Asks for Patron Information: A Checklist for Access Services Student Employees

ABSTRACT

Since the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act was signed into law in October, 2001, library administrators have become increasingly concerned that staff–especially student employees–continue to protect the confidentiality of patron records. Administrators have also become increasingly concerned that when law enforcement officials provide paperwork giving them legal access to patron records, staff take steps both to divulge no more information than is necessary and to protect the institution from liability. In response to these concerns, the University of Colorado, Boulder, created an easy-to-understand and easy-to-use document for its public services student employees. This article describes the process by which that document was created, how it was introduced to staff and student employees, and what additional steps are planned for the future. Finally, the document itself is included as a possible model for other institutions that may wish to create procedural guidelines for student employees.     

高校图书馆人力资源优化配置的程序及原则

人力资源的配置直接关系到所在组织的长远发展。文章以高校图书馆为例,对实现人力资源优化配置的程序及原则进行了探讨。     

图书馆与高校人力资源开发

图书馆作为高校教学科研的有机组成部分，在高校人力资源开发中发挥着重要作用。图书馆可采取提高信息资源建设水平、加强人力资源信息素养教育等对策，促进高校人力资源开发。     

A Survey of the Value of Library Employment to the Undergraduate Experience

When exploring the overall impact of the academic library on the undergraduate experience library student workers are a unique group to consider. As both direct users and providers of library services to their peers, student workers enable libraries to gain an understanding of the general undergraduate population. The objective of this article is to present the findings of a study of undergraduate students employed at a university research library. A questionnaire distributed to 350 student workers gathered information about who they are and how they engage with their communities. This article will look at the value working in an academic library brings to undergraduates' lives. It will consider whether working in the library promotes student success, builds community, and provides them with valuable opportunities to engage in peer networking.     

Mandatory Student Fees and the Academic Library

As academic libraries' budgets remain flat while their expenditures rise, library leaders must seek out alternative sources of funding. One option is a mandatory student fee dedicated to the library. This article presents the results of a survey of 152 deans and directors of public R1 and R2 research universities that were asked whether their libraries benefit from mandatory student fees. While a library-specific fee is unusual, nearly half of responding libraries are eligible to receive some portion of another mandatory student fee. Study results can serve as evidence for libraries preparing to make a case for the significant, positive impact possible through even a modest library fee.     

Books Not Burgers: Six Highly Effective Ways to Motivate and Retain Library Student Employees

Although there is a healthy amount in the literature about the importance of motivating student library employees in an academic setting, very little of it discusses the practical aspects of how to motivate students. A supervisor must often use ideas from other disciplines, including the business world and academia. In this article, the author suggests six highly effective, yet cost-conscious methods that have been used successfully in an academic library setting to keep student employees motivated and to retain them year after year. These six methods are: (a) encouraging autonomy, (b) holding contests, (c) providing food, (d) being open to suggestions, (e) using employee strengths, and (f) celebrating seasonal or university-specific events.     

Libraries Across the Sea: Using a Virtual Presence and Skilled Student Assistants to Serve Students Abroad

The authors discuss methods and challenges of supporting branch academic libraries overseas that are not staffed onsite by librarians or permanent staff. The authors present their two-pronged approach of creating a virtual presence carefully customized to the needs of the students studying abroad along with specially and highly trained student workers. The new program, grounded partly in theories from education and business management, is shown to have substantially improved both library services for our study abroad students as well as library student workers’ performance.     

Let's Circulate: A Report on the 1st Annual New Jersey Access Services Meeting

In 2014, access services librarians and professional staff from various institutions all over New Jersey came together at The College of New Jersey, in Ewing Township, to discuss regional trends and issues in access services. Library staff at these institutions face many of the same issues from managing student assistants, to dealing with stacks management, and handling building security. The goal of the daylong meeting was to build bonds between access services staff at the different institutions, and to learn from one another's experiences during a series of roundtable discussions, and informal conversations over coffee and lunch. It was the first meeting of its kind in New Jersey and the organizers plan to make it an annual occurrence under the name Let's Circulate. This article is a summary of the first meeting.     

Developing Professional Services Staff to Enhance The Student Experience

This article outlines how cultural change was achieved for enhancing the student experience. The engagement and development of staff and a model of partnership is presented that delivered new services and developments. The change is disclosed from a staff development perspective including an examination of differentiation and what makes a good facilitator. The relevance of the facilitator's own continuing professional development is considered before reflecting on the authors’ delivery of a conference workshop in the north west of England to promote the techniques. It is hoped that the reader will critique the approach and embrace elements for their own practice.     

Expanding the Role of the Student Desk Assistant in the Electronic Environment

Abstract

Fulfilling the “promise inherent in the student workforce” (Burrows 1995, 85) must be a collaborative effort involving the Library administration, Circulation staff, Reference librarians, and the students themselves. Advances in library technologies have dramatically changed the way that libraries do business. Just as access to Internet resources has widened the sphere of the Reference librarian, automation has expanded the role of the Circulation desk assistant in filling the information needs of library users. Library policy and training of student desk assistants must reflect the evolving electronic environment.     

More Than Just a Student Voice: Facilitating Student Leadership Development Through the Library Student Liaison Program

This article explores how the library-student liaison program at Eastern Washington University (EWU) Libraries has evolved into an opportunity for students to develop leadership skills. Originally designed to foster better communication between the EWU Libraries and students enrolled at the university, we recognized that the process of achieving established goals for the program provided a vehicle for students' leadership-skill development. To facilitate the leadership process, librarians employed the Social Change Model. Designed specifically for college students, this model engages the student to develop individual capacities to strengthen group activities that foster positive changes in the community and society.     

READ-ing Our Way to Success: Using the READ Scale to Successfully Train Reference Student Assistants in the Referral Model

The Reference Services Department at Radford University's McConnell Library has been developing a training program in the reference referral system for student assistants (SAs) over 3 academic years. The program's goal is to effectively instruct SAs in balancing high quality customer service with the importance of appropriately referring users to librarians and to assess the accuracy of their referrals and responses. The trainers have met these goals with the successful incorporation of a modified version of the Reference Effort Assessment Data (READ) scale, a reference transaction assessment tool developed by Bella Karr Gerlich, into the student training program.