Senior Library Assistant The College of New Jersey
Due to budget cuts, we need to rely more on student employees than ever before and we have been strategically creating a training program for our new student employees in ILL at The College of New Jersey.
We have created a LibGuide which we are using as a mechanism to train the students and also as a resource for them as they learn to work independently. Included are both practical and conceptual guidance for their particular roles in ILL processing: scanning and packaging.
We intend to provide a theoretical framework for our training philosophy based on library literature and best practices as well as share our LibGuide. We will also discuss the competencies and skills the student employees will ultimately master, while noting the importance of keeping appropriate boundaries on the workload and skill level expected between student and paraprofessional staff.
The poster will include screenshots from our LibGuide and examples of multimedia training developed specifically for library student employees, such as flowcharts and diagrams . The presentation graphically represents key concepts found in our extensive literature review and incorporated into the framework for the training lifecycle - concept building, demonstrating, documentation, continued coaching, and evaluation. Some key conceptual theories employed are cognitive load theory, part-task training, increasing difficulty, and task cards.