Student Assistants

Abstract

Column description. The Best of the Literature column is intended to keep librarians, administrators, and staff up to date with the most recent, relevant, and useful literature of the field. Columns may focus on a specific theme or topic or they may be a review of significant or interesting resources published within the past year. Columns generally begin with a brief introduction to the topic or theme of the column and include references and annotations for between 7–10 different resources. Readers are invited to suggest themes, topics, or resources to Linda Frederiksen.

Abstract

The recently published articles and chapters noted in this column discuss the library student assistant experience, from the perspective of employer and employee.

Keywords:

• public services
• information services
• reference services
• access services
• students

The author is a recent University of South Carolina MLIS graduate who spent two years working as an elementary school library assistant. She describes the benefits of working in a library while also working on her degree. Her interactions with students, staff, and teachers provided a unique perspective on how a school library and its parent organization functioned. Another advantage of working in the library was that it provided a deeper insight on the ways information resources are discovered, developed, and used by different populations.

Each of the 16 chapters in this recently published book discusses an aspect of the student-library experience. Whether serving as curators of resources, ambassadors, clients or patrons, user interface designers, or campus leaders, students have academic and social roles that impact academic libraries. While libraries benefit from their participatory design and contributions to other core functions, students benefit from the professional and leadership opportunities, experiential learning, and campus engagement that libraries can provide; adding value to both the institution and the individual. The chapters on student employment are especially informative and useful, and include the importance of training and positive supervision and mentoring as well as peer education and experience.

Noting that student assistants are an important part of daily operations at Fordham University in New York, the authors describe a recent revamping of their worker-training program. While the initial purpose of the overhaul was to solve scheduling issues, the new program had other strategic outcomes. The literature review covers the role of student employees in academic libraries, training methods, and how to encourage continued engagement. By redesigning the on-boarding process for student assistants, the authors conclude students value increased responsibility and autonomy at work, while libraries appreciate the energy and personality students bring to that work.

Employing students benefit academic libraries in numerous ways, above and beyond fulfilling duties once assigned to support staff. Stack maintenance, circulation, technology assistance, and general customer service bring students into contact with other students, faculty, and staff. Additionally, library employment often helps build information literacy skills and improves academic self-confidence. This article outlines a qualitative study undertaken at Indiana University of Pennsylvania to learn more about the library employment experience from the student assistant viewpoint. It includes both perceived advantages and disadvantages. After calling out the importance of training and mentoring, the authors conclude, “Benefits of the job, beyond monetary benefits, included an opportunity to gain workplace skills, increase their knowledge of beneficial resources, and have a convenient job” (p. 260).

To take advantage of current students’ knowledge of current and emerging technology, a peer support program was implemented at Warburg College, a small private liberal arts institution in Iowa. The Emerging Leaders in Technology Education (ELITE) program served two purposes: to provide timely and appropriate technology and equipment support to internal and external customers of the library and create a professional development opportunity for student assistants. The article describes planning, funding, cross-disciplinary recruitment and training, and assessment of the ELITE team.

Academic libraries continue to change and adapt to new expectations and demands on services and resources. One visible sign of this change is the growing number and variety of reference desk transactions and models. Most academic libraries now provide both physical and electronic reference service, delivered over a variety of devices and platforms. Similarly, an increase in directional and technical assistance has led to tiered reference services staffing. At many libraries, both graduate and undergraduate student assistants provide basic reference service. In this study, an assessment of reference chat transactions is detailed. Findings indicate well-trained library student assistants can provide reference service of comparable quality and content to paraprofessional and professional staff.

Academic institutions benefit financially from employing student workers, often enabling libraries to maintain or increase hours and services even as permanent staff are reduced or cut. Students, in turn, gain technical and customer services skills, work experience, preparation for future employment, and a steady paycheck. In this interesting article, the authors look at the benefits and challenges of employing students as staff, through the lens of human resource management theory. Psychological contracts refer to implicitly held assumptions about behavior held by employees and employers while socialization is the process workers go through to acquire the skills, values, knowledge, and culture of the organization. Both theories inform and are informed by library student assistants’ experience.

This recent review synthesizes 216 publications taken from the professional literature and conference proceedings between 1997 and 2017. Does student employment contribute to student success? Yes, assuming employers pay attention to six essential practices, established by the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U). The high-impact characteristics of successful employment and retention programs include: time and effort; faculty and peer interaction; diversity; formal and informal feedback; integration, synthesis and application; and connection. While more transparency and discussion around student employment and student learning is needed, this meta-analysis of the issue is a good starting point.