Meet Them Where They Are: Adapting Teaching Technologies for Training and Retaining Student Library Staff
Presentation
1:45 PM - 2:30 PMWed
GLC-236
Assessment Student Workers
Presenters
Kelsey Fuller-Shafer
Access Services Supervisor
Fairfield University, DiMenna-Nyselius Library
In most academic libraries, the Access Services Department employs the majority of library student employees, which means the responsibility of teaching and training students is a deeply embedded responsibility of Access Services professionals. Some of the ways in which we can “meet them where they are” include utilizing updated teaching tools and technology that our students are already familiar with to set them up for success as library assistants, and make them feel comfortable and supported as university employees. In my presentation, I will demonstrate how I used my background in teaching to redesign our training materials for our team of about 30 student workers, modeled after prevalent teaching tools (like Blackboard, Canvas, and Moodle), but using software and programs that are already frequently employed in academic libraries, or are available free of charge and thus not a financial impediment. Digitizing and making training materials available online and in mobile-friendly formats, and implementing (non-mandatory) mass-communication for students to stay connected with each other, has helped standardize training, which in turn helps us maintain consistent service expectations and patron experiences across multiple shifts and supervisors. Additionally, we have found that pairing our job aids with other programs like LibApps and soliciting feedback from student employees about user experience helps us not only be better supervisors and mentors, but also better informed Access Services professionals for our patrons.