Student employees are the backbone of the academic library, particularly for access and circulation departments. Many of our student employees go on to enjoy careers in library and information services. Managers in circulation and access services develop early-career information professionals by promoting student employees to advanced roles, assigning advanced tasks and providing advanced training and mentorship. Additionally, advanced student workers help overburdened staff with their operational tasks like circulation reports, responding to patron emails, and stacks maintenance projects. Trusting our student employees with advanced mission-critical tasks more thoroughly engages them in our work, improving the quality of service our patrons receive and providing invaluable workplace experience to young professionals.
This conference session will involve a short discussion of advanced student worker roles in UW-Madison Access Services, including our recent role leveling project as we bring student roles from multiple libraries into alignment under one department. We will also discuss training and supervision best practices for advanced student employee roles. Interactive activities will follow, in which session attendees will examine tasks and roles from your own libraries to identify opportunities for advanced student employees. Templates and other take-home materials will be provided. This session will be most beneficial for managers and supervisors of student employees in access and circulation services but all are welcome to attend.
In this session, you will learn how to:
- Design advanced student positions, tasks and projects that match library needs with student career goals and interests - Train lead students to train and guide other student workers - Provide mentorship opportunities for early-career information professionals
You will leave with strategies you can use right away.
