Post on 15-Apr-2022
We Can Go the Distance!
Transitioning Student Assistants to Remote Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Janice Dees and Brittany KesterUniversity of Florida
Introductions
Janice Dees
Access Services
Manager
Student Assistant
Hiring, Training, and
Supervision
Stacks Maintenance
& Access Services
Policies
Brittany Kester
Education
Librarian
College of
Education Library
Liaison
Manages the
Children’s and
Young Adult
Collection
Objectives:
After this presentation, participants will be able to:
● Share ideas and projects for student assistant remote work
● Identify how to support student assistant transition to remote
work
● Prepare for potential complications for student assistant remote
work
● Consider ways to include student assistants in innovative projects
● Recognize the value of remote work from student assistants
Background● Education Library
○ Within College of Education
○ 2 Librarians, 3 Staff
● Student Assistants
○ 12-14 students
○ Federal Work Study
● Spring 2020 = COVID-19 Shutdown
○ How to support student employees?
○ Can we create work from home projects?
Creative Projects
Assigned to four Student Assistants.
Types:
● Social Media
● Instructional & Promotional Comics
● Murals (Children’s and Young Adult Collection & Computer Lab)
Goals behind these projects:
● Delegation of social media tasks away from Access Services Manager
● Developing professional skills of student assistants
● Library promotion & beautification
Creative Projects● Detailed work proposals were
created, agreed to by SAs, then
sent to HR along with required
paperwork
● SAs used Canva and Adobe
Creative Cloud programs
● SAs emailed a draft of their work
each Sunday
● Requests for edits sent Monday
● Final drafts delivered on
Wednesday
Social Media Posts
Library Technology Comics
Library Mural Designs - Children’s and Young Adult Collection
Library Mural Designs - Computer Lab
Metadata Project
● Need: Students reported
difficulty in searching the
library catalog for the books
needed for their classes
● Phase 1 Solution:
Improvement of metadata
for award winning and
honor books
Qualtrics Survey, included:● Title
● Author
● Publication year
● ALEPH Number
● Education Library owns a copy of
the title?
● All awards the title has won
● Award(s) listed in UF Libraries’
catalog metadata?
● Subject headings correspond to
the award(s) theme?
https://uf.catalog.fcla.edu/permalink.jsp?20UF035614972 http://www.clcd.com/#/singlebook/ngnoliOQKOgoiomm/Reynolds,%20Jason/Long%20way%20down
http://www.ala.org/rt/emiert/cskbookawards/coretta-scott-king-book-awards-all-recipients-1970-present
Communication with Student Assistants
● Detailed Remote Work
Proposals with links
● Training
● Weekly check ins
● Additional training for new
awards as needed
Preliminary Results
● 2,410 books added to the Qualtrics form
● 1,011 books are owned by the UF Education Library
● 185 books have no metadata in the catalog about receiving an
honor or award = 18%
● 302 books are missing information in the metadata subject
field that correspond to the reason the award or honor was
given = 30%
Successes
● Continued student employment for 14 student assistants
● Student Assistants works approximately 1000 hours of remote work
● Creative Projects
○ Professional Skill Building
○ Collection of usable tutorials and social media posts for future
semesters
● Metadata project
○ Completed over 2,400 qualtrics entries
○ Initial catalog and metadata improvements
○ Better understanding of our children’s and young adult collection
Challenges
● Mental Health Support
● Communication with students
○ Time management when remote
■ Final Exam Period
● Response: Additional Zoom Check Ins
Challenges
● HR Work from Home approvals and paperwork
○ Initial technical challenges to have paperwork signed by hand,
then process moved to electronic signatures via DocuSign
○ End date continually changed (April 15th then May 10th)
● Work Study Program Funding Issues
○ Extra monitoring
● Lack of communication from departments outside library system
Student Assistant Remote Work Takeaways
● Transition to remote
○ No complaints, smooth transition
○ Only required personal computer and wifi, which all students had
access to
● Work and responsibilities
○ Interesting opportunity to develop skills outside of normal job duties
○ Opportunity to tackle projects which otherwise would have needed
grant funding
○ Our student assistants were very thankful for continued employment,
especially when other job opportunities and support were lost to them
Staff-Faculty Collaboration!
● Experience with managing remote work
● Opportunity for to work together in project management and supervision
● Better understanding of each others duties and responsibilities
● Improved communication channels
● Professional Skill Building - Zoom, Databases, Qualtrics
● Supported each other
● Bring in other departments and more collaboration
● Continue as backup project during Fall semester
● Amazing things can be accomplished!!
Audience Share
Questions?
Presenter Contact Info
Brittany Kester
brittany.kester@ufl.edu
352-273-2793
Janice Dees
jdees@ufl.edu
352-273-0368