[AISLE-Share] HS Student Library Assistants?

[Email list for the Association of Illinois School Library Educators]

I still have a student assistant program.   This year I have four aides.  I have had school years when I’ve had none.  It is a course with a pass/fail grade and 1/4th credit that does not count for graduation.  Students come to the Dyer Family Resource Center instead of going to their assigned study hall.  They learn the organization of the library, how to shelve books, they process and maintain the magazine collection (or what’s left of it), pull books for displays, sign students in and out, maintain shelf order, help process new books, and more.  I also show them what I do in terms of maintaining the collection, ordering materials, cataloging, etc.  They have helped me weed the collection (I have final say), shifting if needed, etc.

Since they are giving up their study hall, I believe that homework comes first.  So if a task doesn’t get done or finished another aide will do it or it will get done the following day.  I have found that the more flexible I am with what I want them to do, the more willing they are to do some of the mundane tasks.  For example, last year, one of my aides spent most of a week working on homework.  When he had a day with no homework, he spent the entire period shelf-reading the fiction collection.  Another key thing you should have is patience.  I always tell them if they are unsure about something, always ask.  There’s no such thing as a dumb question.  I don’t care if they ask me 40 times what does REF mean on the call number.

Many have used this course as a way to get job experience to add to their resumes.  I don’t write many letters of recommendation for college, but I have been used many times as a reference for when they have applied for jobs.  I have one student right now who has been my student aide for three years (he told me last week that he wants to go into library science!).

Being a solo librarian, my student aides are such a big help to me.  They want to be here and they do a great job at the tasks I ask them to do.

Hope this helps.

Brian Andrusyk
School Librarian/Sub Coordinator/Bookstore Manager
IC Catholic Prep
www.andrusykslibrary.weebly.com<http://www.andrusykslibrary.weebly.com/>

Currently Reading:
The Reader by Traci Chee

From: aisle-bounces at list.railslibraries.info <aisle-bounces at list.railslibraries.info> On Behalf Of Email list for the Association of Illinois School Library Educators
Sent: Sunday, November 4, 2018 8:00 PM
To: aisle at list.railslibraries.info
Subject: [AISLE-Share] HS Student Library Assistants?

Hello:

I am curious if anyone still has student library assistants in their school library?

I was kicking around the idea of starting a program at our building and I wanted to get some insight into what others are doing.

If you have a program, could you please share the details? Paid or volunteer? Duties, issues, advantages, disadvantages, etc?

Thanks,,
Eric

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Eric Bodwell
ebodwell at gmail.com<mailto:ebodwell at gmail.com>
http://www.ericbodwell.com

"The librarian isn't a clerk who happens to work at a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user." -Seth Godin

“I am hard to disgust, but a pretentious poet can do it” - Marianne Moore

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