International Student Library Employees as Affective-Service Providers

Abstract

Reviewing my work experience at the University of Iowa Libraries, this essay aims to reflect on the significance of hiring international students as college librarians from the perspective of an "ethics of care" in the following three sections. The first section focuses on the urgent need for student employees of international backgrounds to fulfill librarian roles. An increasing number of international students', especially those of East Asian backgrounds, distinct needs for library services have been consistently overlooked in the recent past. However, strict budgeting in higher education prevents college libraries from hiring librarians with bi- or multi-lingual proficiency, which could be improved by instead hiring international student employees. The second section turns to my experience as an international student library employee. Enrolled as an MLIS student at the University of Iowa, I worked in the reference services in the university library between 2019 and 2020. When providing reference services to students originally coming from China, I used both the Chinese language and their familiar examples to help those international students in searching for resources. In addition, I also offered direction for those students who needed help with other library services provided entirely in English. The last section discusses the ethnic implications of international student employees in libraries from an "ethics of care" perspective. As shown in the second section, I also provided emotional support for international student patrons. This support fulfills the "affective" component of "ethics of care," which I argue should be integrated into the routine of reference services.