More Than Just Shelvers:
Student Workers In The
Library
Nadia Mahernia, Learning Spaces Co-ordinator
Susan Murray, Head of Library Service
Content
 University Ethos
 Library Roles
 Special Collections
 Student Ambassadors
 Peer Academic Writing Mentors
 Interns
 Future Plans
 Benefits/Issues
 Things to think about
University ethos
 Liverpool Hope has made a commitment to
provide as much on campus employment for
students
 Hope Works through our Employability Hub
co-ordinates recruitment
 Students register their interest and are
matched to roles
 Covers a whole range of roles e.g., catering,
student ambassadors, resident tutors,
graduate advocates, etc
Library Roles
Traditionally employed students
as shelvers
More recently more roles have
been added:
 Student Ambassadors
 Internships (for recent
graduates)
 Special Collections
Workers
 Peer Academic Writing
Mentors
All are paid roles and some are
year round roles
Special Collections
Student Workers
Working with the Special
Collections Librarian
undertake a range of tasks:
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Processing new
materials
Stock moves
Checking stock for
duplicates
Cleaning books using
our museum vac
Library Student Ambassadors
Job role at The Sheppard-Worlock Library
 Providing custodian support (monitor users and visitors entering the
building)
 Support student use of the library and learning spaces facilities and
equipment (distribution of keys for lockers, issue laptops, pin numbers,
photocopiers)
 Referrals
Job role at the Creative Campus
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To staff the student study space and cover the library lunch hour
History of the student
ambassadors
2002
employed 2
staff
members as
security
92%
2003 staff
security
team
expanded
to 6
of our students
in 2012 were either in
employment or full-time study
within six months of their
graduation.
2009
employed
student
library
ambassadors
2010 Student
Study Space
opened
2011
HCA
entrance
opened
Why do students apply for this role?
Fund their Education
Improve their CVs and Career Prospects
Improves skill set (budgeting/managing time)
Experience
Gain application and interview experience
Flexibility
Meet other students
Impact of student workers
Managing Student Workers
 Accessible
 Flexible
 Cover
 Time consuming
Student Workers in the work place
 Quick to adapt
 Flexible workforce
 Students assisting other students
 Building relationships with library
assistants
A study led by Gary R. Pike, an Associate Professor
at Indiana University-Bloomington, explains in an
article on insidehighered.com titled “The Impact of
Student Employment”:
“students who work less than 20 hours
a week on campus reported a net
positive gain in grades, while those
who worked off campus felt a
significant negative effect”
"creating meaningful work experiences for
students on campus is a key element in an
overall strategy designed to foster student
achievement and success“
Lederman, D. (2009) The Impact of Student Employment [online]. Insidehighered. Available from:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/06/08/work#sthash.YrUmgxCf.wcDZSFiw.dpbs. [Accessed 23 June 2014].
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Peer Academic Writing Mentors
Introduced new service at the end of November
Out of 82 students 72
7 masters/postgraduate students employed
Independent role
Workshops and one-to-ones
Weekly meetings (time to offload and share good
practice)
Support from academics
Managing Mentors
 In-depth training and constant
development
 Monitoring and support system in
place
 Professionalism
 Not as flexible or quick to adapt
“Mentor very approachable, extremely
helpful and patient. I felt comfortable and
him to be non-judgemental. I think the service
is excellent, having one-to-one support. I have
gained confidence and I feel less anxious about the
essays ahead. Absolutely brilliant”
students rating the service
extremely helpful, 9 students
rating it helpful and 1 student
was undecided.
Why do students apply for this role?
 Knowledgeable in specific area or
experienced
 Enjoyment and satisfaction from the
role
 Develops skills
 Meet new students
 Improves CV
 Paid role
Interns
 University initiative offering up to 60 three
month paid internships each year (central fund)
 Aimed at recent graduates
 Run January – March
 Central induction and training programme e.g.,
job applications, personality tests, etc.
 Departments are invited to bid for internship
 Panel chooses successful bids
 Library has always had an intern allocated
Intern Library Roles
 Because time limited tend to be project based
 We use them to do the things we’d like to do but
don’t always have time to do
 Allow someone concentrated time to research
and undertake the task
 Always deliver something at the end of the
internship
Successful Intern Bids 2012
2012 Review of referencing styles and
bibliographic software
 Report with information on styles used in subjects
and student feedback
 A review of bibliographic softwares available and
the pros and cons of each
 Partly as a result of this the Liverpool Hope
Harvard style developed for 1 subject is now used
in 2 Faculties
Successful Intern Bids 2013
 Create a set of more visual
guides using Prezi
 Surveys to find out what
students need guides on &
usability testing on format
 Working with library staff to
create Prezis and the web
pages
 Training for librarians on
using Prezi
Successful Intern Bids
2014 Special Collections
Intern
 Nugent Care Archive
 Extended by 3 months
(library funded)
 Dissertations cataloguing
 De-duplicating a donation to
be added to stock
 Intern was successful in
obtaining 12 month Special
Collections internship at
Liverpool and is planning to
undertake masters in archive
work
Future plans
 Potential Intern Projects 2015
- Special Collections: Talbot Library
- Education Kits Review
 Ambassadors:
- This year hired a larger number of part time posts
- Introduced an new online booking system for the ambassadors to
oversee
- Introduced Headcounts
- Questionnaires
- Collecting more feedback (large questionnaire)
- Usage of ipads and collecting data
 Mentors
- Expand the service
- Create more online resources
Benefits
 Free staff to do other tasks
 Extend library opening hours & enable a
second entrance to be used
 Set of ‘guinea pigs’ e.g. usability feedback
on our web pages
 Source of more honest student feedback
Issues
 Staff time to manage such a large number
of student workers
– Timetables, timesheets, recruitment
 Availability
– Examination periods, vacations etc.
 Staff turn over
Things to think about …
 Contracts
 Disciplinary
- Staff code or do they have their own?
 Training needs and support
 Monitoring
- Writing mentors to be observed by Faculty
Librarians
 What tasks can they do while on a service
point or if no appointments booked
- Tasks assigned, can they do their own work?