Library Student Employees

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Library Student Employees

• Matt Anderson

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Library Student Assistants

• Make it possible to be open at odd hours
• Can do routine work, freeing librarians to do
  more complex tasks
• Can work brief shifts
• Bring valuable, hard-to-find skills (like foreign
  languages or technical skills)
• Are not replacements for full-time people

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Library Student Assistants

• Student assistants in the past
• Emerged in 1800s
• Didnt work with the public until the 1930s
• Usually handled card-filing and basic
  preservation of materials
• Were in demand in the 1970s to help improve
  cultural diversity of the library staff
• Source Sweetman, K.B. (2007). Managing student
  assistants a how-to-do-it manual for librarians.
  New York Neal-Schuman.

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Library Student Assistants

• In access services
• 75 of ARL libraries have more student employees
  now than they did in 1995
• Often fill positions as
• Acquisitions assistants
• Circulation desk assistants
• Government information assistants
• Interlibrary loan aides
• Reserve desk assistants
• Shelvers

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Why Students Work in Libraries

• As a student, what would make you apply to work
  in a library?

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Why Students Work in Libraries

• Students want to work at libraries because
• They can work night and weekend hours
• There is access to materials they need
• They see libraries as a place where they can
  socialize with their friends

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Why Students Work in Libraries

• The primary reason students choose to work in
  libraries
• 42 learning to balance my time between work and
  studies
• 21.1 purely to earn money
• 21.1 training myself to be a responsible
  person
• 15.8 gaining some work experience
• Source Yang, Z.Y. (2007). Survey of
  interlibrary loan and document delivery student
  assistants' job satisfaction communication and
  feedback. Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document
  Delivery Information Supply 17 (4), p. 149-159.

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Why Students Work in Libraries

• Studies indicate on-campus jobs increase the
  likelihood of graduation

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Your New Job

• When you interview for an academic librarian job,
  do you ask about the librarys student employees?

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Your New Job

• It is important to adapt to the librarys culture
  at first, rather than imposing changes
• People do not want to hear about how different
  things were at your last library
• Asking existing employees about themselves is
  like an informal interview
• Identifying each individuals needs is important

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Recruiting and Interviewing Students

• Students can have many different statuses,
  including
• Volunteer
• Research assistant
• Intern
• Hourly
• Fellow
• Federal Work-Study

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Recruiting and Interviewing Students

• Federal Work-Study
• Allows students to earn money while attending
  school without having to repay
• Students must be at least half-time
• At some institutions, FWS makes for a higher
  hourly wage
• Institutions only end up paying 25-50 of the
  wage
• FWS employees can be reassigned

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Recruiting and Interviewing Students

• The interview should address
• Experience (but not be totally based on
  experience)
• Technical knowledge
• Creativity
• Experience working with the public
• What the student likes about the library and the
  collection
• Future plans (but realize that many students
  change their plans fairly often)

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Training a Student Employee

• Employees without much work experience need A LOT
  of training and repetition
• Training two 20-hour students takes more time
  than training one 40-hour employee

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Training a Student Employee

• Nothing can ruin the students experience faster
  than miscommunication with a supervisor

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The Students Experience

• Yangs survey of 19 (17 undergrads and 2 grad
  students) student assistants at Texas AM found
• Only 5.3 felt daily job assignments were too
  large
• 15.8 said their supervisor had not trained them
  thoroughly
• 57.9 thought they worked as hard as their
  supervisors
• Fewer than half would like to have a student
  training manual
• 84.2 preferred supervisors to offer feedback in
  person

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The Students Experience

• 68.4 felt free to voice frustrations to
  supervisors
• 89.5 felt free to voice frustrations to other
  staff members
• Source Yang, Z.Y. (2007). Survey of
  interlibrary loan and document delivery student
  assistants' job satisfaction communication and
  feedback. Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document
  Delivery Information Supply 17 (4), p. 149-159.

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The Students Experience

• Problematic student employees
• Complain
• Procrastinate
• Become lazy
• Have low morale
• Are absent or late
• Have personal problems
• Have personality problems
• Refuse to do things
• Gossip
• Dress inappropriately

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Communication

• When communicating with student employees
  face-to-face
• Listen
• Smile
• Acknowledge their good work

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Communication

• When communicating with student employees via
  email
• Avoid rambling
• Proof what you send them
• Make sure your audience can understand what you
  mean
• Dont work too hard on trying to impress

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Good Student Assistants

• Will have a more positive academic experience for
  having worked in a library
• Will help you get work done
• Will make you a better librarian

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Library Student Employees

• Questions? Comments?