Student Employment in Academic Libraries (SEAL)
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The Student Employment in Academic Libraries Virtual Symposium seeks to showcase educationally purposeful student employment. We're providing a space for colleagues who care deeply for the growth and success of students to share ideas about student employment, and connect with and learn from other practitioners. Our focus is on approaches to student employment that are compassionate, strive to be inclusive and equitable, and center learners and learning.
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SEAL website
Contribute to the SEAL community conversation by joining our listserv. Send a blank email to:
seal-community-l-subscribe@list.iupui.edu
SEAL website
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Browsing Student Employment in Academic Libraries (SEAL) by Issue Date
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Item 1. Power and Convenience; 2. Unifying the Student Experience(2022-10-20) Sexton, Manda; Peters, Amanda; Bruce, Allyssa; Davis, Erin; Ervin, EricaPRESENTATION 1 ABSTRACT: Power and Convenience: Methodological and Ethical Considerations for Student Workers and Assessments - Manda Sexton, Kennesaw State University. The use of student workers as the initial (or beta) testers seems to be a growing trend in academic library assessment. While this convenient sample might allow for “impromptu” testing for the assessments, the use of student workers as these testers not only puts the students in a place of negative power-differential, it also does not allow for accurate initial testing of these various assessments. These ethical and methodological considerations are often ignored. Librarianship is already on the fringes of the academy and if we continue to do things, like use convenience sampling to justify our existence, we continue to perpetuate our positions on the edge of what is considered a “legitimate” academic profession. This presentation details an upcoming paper in the Journal of Academic Libraries which calls for librarians to take those extra steps to promote strong ethical and methodological results and suggestions on how this might be accomplished.Item 1. Bringing Their Whole Selves to Work; 2. Navigating Fulfilling Student Employment(2022-10-20) Wenger, Kate; Hebert, Shelby; Laddusaw, SierraPRESENTATION 1 ABSTRACT: Bringing Their Whole Selves to Work: Capitalizing on Student Employee Strengths to Improve Their Employment Experience and the Library - Kate Wenger, Chatham University. Student employees bring unique perspectives, skills, and interests to their work in academic libraries. They are also a wealth of knowledge and ideas about what students actually want from the library. Libraries can and should capitalize on this to both enhance the student employment experience as well as to benefit the library. This presentation will discuss efforts at a small university library to connect student employee coursework to library work, assign special projects based on personal interests, and solicit and act on student employee ideas for improvements to library services and the library experience.Item 1. Career Readiness and Advanced Information Literacy Skills; 2. Beyond Bookshelves(2022-10-20) Proctor, Christopher; Ofsthun, FranklinPRESENTATION 1 ABSTRACT: Career Readiness and Advanced Information Literacy Skills: From High Impact Practices to Programmatic Assessment - Christopher Proctor, IU Southeast. This presentation is designed to explore the multi-phase changes we’ve made to student employment at IU Southeast. After conducting a research study surveying six years of student employees, we set to work developing strategies that would strengthen retention, persistence, and completion for our students, and this led to redesigning not only the training program but also the daily workflow of students to incorporate High Impact Practices (HIPs). Examples include: Increasing complexity of responsibilities; Deconstructing the supervisor/supervisee hierarchy to create a culture of collaboration and mentorship; Increasing time and effort on purpose-driven activities; and Engaging in higher-level research interactions to enhance information literacy skills. Then, to ensure continuous improvement, a thorough assessment plan was developed, which meant developing program-level goals, student learning outcomes, and both direct and indirect measures of student learning. In this presentation, we will highlight how each of these various components align, the results thus far, and resources other libraries can use.Item 1. Making Student Employment Meaningful to Student Employees; 2. Motivating and Retaining Library Student Assistants in Access Services(2022-10-20) DeVito, Jennifer A.; Paolillo, Catherine; Marcum, ChristopherPRESENTATION 1 ABSTRACT: Making Student Employment Meaningful to Student Employees - Jennifer A. DeVito, Stony Brook University. Increasingly, academic libraries use student employment to help students to develop job skills and build their resumes while also providing needed support in the library. The Access & User Services department at Stony Brook University Libraries employs between 40-60 students each semester. Over the years, we have grown our student employee program from being one in which we trained solely for the tasks in the library to one in which we use online training, in person training, encourage professional development, and work with the student employees to identify and develop transferable skills that they can use to build their resumes. This presentation will demonstrate how we set expectations for student employees, incorporate feedback, and set the stage for progressive career development. The presentation will also include areas for improvement and our process for continually updating the student employee program.Item 1. #Bookstagram; 2. Why the Library?(2022-10-21) O'Keefe, Alex; Bortell, Alex; Vine, Liz; Moffett, PaulPRESENTATION 1 ABSTRACT: #Bookstagram: Implementing Collaborative Social Media Training in the Library - Alex O'Keefe and Alex Bortell, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Social media has become an integral component of outreach, providing a distinct voice for the library. Recognizing the importance of student workers’ perspectives and the fact that they are at the forefront of content creation in their own lives, the John M. Flaxman Library piloted a Student Worker Content Creators program. Making institutional Instagram content modernizes students’ professional development and provides skills they can use beyond the library. Through the program, students learn to design appropriate content while collaboratively shaping training implementation. The individualized and independent approach gives students agency to learn through hands-on processes, while their honest feedback improves the quality of the experience. The presenters will discuss developing training through collaborative modifications and the outcomes for one student worker. They will also share advice based on their successes and failures for others who are interested in building a content creators program or generally creating collaborative training processes.Item Creating a Culture of Gratitude with Library Student Employees(2022-10-21) Webb, KatyCreating a Culture of Gratitude with Library Student Employees - Katy Webb, Yale University. Student employees’ work efforts constitute a valid, meaningful contribution to the academic library. When working in a collaborative environment, all people want to be recognized and valued for their contributions. By creating and fostering a culture of gratitude toward student employees, students feel a greater satisfaction with their jobs. This shift in outlook centers student employees as valued members of the team completing meaningful work. Full-time employees may be able to assign them more challenging tasks. Libraries retain student employees for longer periods of time, reducing the amount of time devoted to hiring and retraining. In this poster, methods for establishing a culture of gratitude will be shared from the presenter’s experience at two academic libraries. Examples of these methods include but are not limited to creating a bookplate honoring graduating students, providing study spaces only for student employees during exams, and using affirming language for student employees.Item 1. The Research and Scholarly Communication Peer Associate Program; 2. Graduate Student Assistants and the Library(2022-10-21) Schlesselman-Tarango, Gina; Lifka-Reselman, Genevieve; Pryor, Elizabeth; Vue, Fue; Venzke, Tricia; Boggs, Sarah Henry; Rouan, Katrina B.PRESENTATION 1 ABSTRACT: The Research & Scholarly Communication Peer Associate Program: Medical Students Take the Lead - Gina Schlesselman-Tarango, Des Moines University. Medical students are hungry for research experience that can help them stand out, but there is often limited opportunity to work alongside faculty. The Des Moines University Library’s RSC Peer Associate Program provides students a paid opportunity to participate in an intensive institute that not only connects and expands upon their coursework, but also provides them with library research and evidence-based medicine training they can list on their resumes. After completing the institute, associates work together to develop, promote, and assess an outreach or educational project meant to support their peers. This presentation will outline the application process, design and implementation of the institute curriculum, communication of the program to the campus community, challenges, and more. We hope to have one or more student presenters share their perspective(s) to give them an opportunity to contribute to the scholarly communication ecosystem firsthand.Item Work Skills Self-Assessment for Library Student Assistants(2022-10-21) Graham, TessWork skills self-assessment for library student assistants - Tess Graham, University of Mississippi. I will share the simple but comprehensive self-assessment tool that we use for student worker skills at midterm and the end of each semester. I will summarize student feedback and changes made by staff with student supervisory responsibilities.Item Trusting our Students(2022-10-21) Schell, Katrina M.; Macolino, Casey; Wheeler, AriPRESENTATION 2 ABSTRACT: Trusting Our Students: How Standard Setting Makes or Breaks a Team - Katrina M. Schell, Burke Library. An effective student employment program requires consistent standard setting. Employers set standards not just through employment contracts or performance reviews, but also with the day-to-day assignment of work and well-structured pathways for professional development. When student employees are given meaningful tasks with clearly-communicated importance, buy-in among the workforce will increase. Conversely, when tasks have poorly explained goals, it gives the impression that increased effort will not add value. Our presentation details how the meaningfulness of tasks can be demonstrated to students in two key ways: by involving students in the policy-making process and by giving students a range of growth opportunities that promote diverse skills. Growth opportunities on our team include student employees being given additional responsibilities or advancing into senior positions in Circulation, ILL, or courier roles. We also provide insight into the tangible consequences of breakdowns in communicating standards to our students, and what we’ve learned from them.Item Cura Personalis: Caring for the Whole Student Employee(2024-10-24) Vande Walle, AbbyCollege is stressful. And in addition to all the traditional pressures of higher education, student employees also have to navigate a job and the workplace, often for the very first time in their lives. The User Services Unit in the Hesburgh Libraries has embodied the ethics of care in our policies and culture by adopting the mindset of Cura Personalis (Latin for Care for the Whole Person). In this context, we think of it as care for the whole student employee: mind, body, and spirit. This poster will exhibit some of the ways in which our patron-facing Unit has embodied care in our practices with student workers, including study break events, mental health training, professional development sessions, social activities, and flex shifts. Our goal is to not only lessen the students’ overall stress, but demonstrate our support and care for their wellbeing both in and out of the library workplace.