Music Library Association

Career Resources

STUDENT EMPLOYEES


NOTE: This is only a selective list of articles that have been published since 2000. Additional citations may be found through Library Literature.
  • Avila, Antoinette, Collete Ford, and Rayna Hamre. "Library Training Day: Developing an Effective Academic Library Student Training Program." Library Mosaics 16, no. 1 (January/February 2005): 18-19.

    Since student assistants may present the first impression of the library a user may have, whether at a service desk, on the phone, or working in the stacks, the University of California Irvine (UCI) Libraries have developed a comprehensive student assistant training program. This program has evolved over a two year period. Historically each department of this large, multidisciplinary trio of libraries had individual training programs that duplicated efforts and consumed many hours of staff time. The Student Assistant Training Task Force (SATTF) has created and now maintains a streamlined training program that saves staff time and guarantees that each student receives a uniform overview of workplace expectations, library information and policies, basic OPAC training and Library of Congress call number training. Coordinating the needs of the various Public Services (PS) departments in our three libraries took some time and effort, but the finished product has been beneficial for both the student assistants and the supervisory staff. (Library Literature)

  • Borin, Jacqueline. "Training, Supervising, and Evaluating Student Information Assistants." The Reference Librarian 34, no. 72 (2001): 195-206.

    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). (Library Literature)

  • Gatti, Timothy. "Utilization of Students As Cataloging Assistants at Carnegie Category I Institution Libraries." Library Resources & Technical Services 49, no. 1 (January 2005): 27-31.

    A survey of 261 libraries was undertaken to determine the level of use of and duties performed by student assistants in monographic cataloging operations. Ninety-five of 142 responding libraries (64.1 percent) indicate that they use student assistants for some type of monographic cataloging tasks. These tasks are downloading of bibliographic and authority records, monographic cataloging, classification, subject heading authority control, holdings, database maintenance, and editing of 246 or 505 MARC tags. Some respondents expressed reluctance to use student assistants for higher-level cataloging tasks. (Library Literature)

  • Hasty, Douglas. "Student Assistants as Library Ambassadors: An Academic Library's Public Relations Initiative." Technical Services Quarterly 18, no. 2 (2001): 31-40.

    The successful delivery of customer service skills in the library is an important component of public relations. Within academic libraries, there is a group of employees who are willing and able to provide excellent service skills. The library student assistant has been relied upon to staff service desks and areas where direct, repeated daily contact with patrons is part of his or her job. However, these part-time, temporary employees are seldom given formal training and recognition to ensure that the library’s service philosophies receive full compliance. The development of a customer service training initiative and an employee recognition program for the library student assistant would be an advantageous staff development concept. (author)

  • Holtze, Terri L., and Rebecca Maddox. "Student Assistant Training in a Multi-library System." Technical Services Quarterly 19, no. 2 (2001): 27-41.

    Large academic library systems have always struggled to ensure consistent and quality training across their student-assistant workforce. With a unique combination of patron-service seminars, Web-based training exercises, and standardized training checklists, the University of Louisville Libraries have made extensive progress in providing an effective, unified, training regimen for student assistants. This article discusses this training regimen, examines the issues behind developing service seminars and online training programs, and investigates how other education tools can be incorporated in student training. (authors)

  • Kathman, Jane, and Michael Kathman. "Training Student Employees for Quality Service." Journal of Academic Librarianship 26, no. 3 (May 2000): 176-82.

    A conceptual model for training student employees of college libraries is presented. The model focuses on preemployment activities, including well-written job descriptions, performance measures, interviews, and education; orientation to the job, including a focus on knowledge, attitudes, and skills; specific training for the duties to be performed by the student employees; follow-up training; and evaluation of the training program so that it can be continually improved. The importance and benefits of quality student training are discussed. (Library Literature)

  • Neuhaus, Chris. "Flexibility and Feedback: A New Approach to Ongoing Training for Reference Student Assistants." Reference Services Review 29, no. 1 (2001): 53-64.

    Scheduling conflicts and budget deficits forced the termination of a classroom-format training program for student assistants serving at a university library general reference desk. In its place has arisen a year-round alternative approach to training that combines individualized instruction, hands-on learning, scavenger hunts, and regular review of reference desk policies, practices, and procedures. This reincarnated undergraduate student assistant training program now allows for ongoing practice and increased feedback. Additional benefits of this new training program include greater student-student and student-staff interactions, the flexibility to quickly address perceived problems, and the ability to rapidly focus on new reference tools and reference policies. (author)

  • Rapp, Karla, and Millini Skuba. "An Interactive Library Classification Systems Module: A Viable Solution for Training Student Workers." Technical Services Quarterly 18, no. 3 (2001): 11-19.

    All libraries shelve and organize books according to classification systems, and patrons rely on accurate shelving to easily locate specific books. This article describes the development of an interactive library training module to effectively train student workers in the Access Services Department of the Harvey A. Andruss Library, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA. The training module addresses the following classification systems: Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress and Superintendent of Documents. The module was developed using Asymetrix's ToolBook II. Test scores averaged 94.4%, proving the training to be an effective alternative to individual staff-student training. The library is implementing this training module with current and future Access Service student workers. (authors)

  • Slagwell, Jeff. "Don't Tread on Me: The Art of Supervising Student Assistants." Serials Librarian 44, nos. 3/4 (2003): 279-284.

    The presenter provided a commonsense, practical approach to supervising students, based on respect for the student employee, the need to see that the necessary work gets done well, and the belief that coaching and mentoring will grow excellent student employees. The presentation was organized so that basic areas of managing student employees were covered as well as overarching themes of consistency, training, and supervision. (author)