ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


October 1990 / 855

move the directions comfortably. Unlaminated 
directions inevitably get ripped, blackened or writ­
ten on, and unanchored instructions may disap­
pear. Instructions in notebooks are simply not as 
obvious.

Perhaps I haven’t moved the earth with any of 
these revelations. However, even in a complex 
information age, simple ideas can continue to be 
expressed . . . and found to work.

Employing library student assistants 
as student supervisors

By F. Jay Fuller

Assistant Building Manager
California State University Library, Chico

As college and research libraries enter the dec­
ade of the nineties, we are confronted with num er­
ous challenges. How do we manage the newest 
information technologies, which are becoming 
increasingly global in reach and ever more intricate 
in nature? How do we answer the complex ques­
tions concerning copyright and privacy laws, which 
are no longer raised as issues of black and white, but 
as controversies in charcoal and gray? And how are 
we going to increase, or even maintain, the re­
quired levels of library service our academic com­
munities demand, when we find that our operating 
budgets no longer stretch as far as they once did to 
m eet such demands?

How we will deal with our new technologies will 
depend on the impacts that occur as we use them, 
and certainly the large, theoretical issues, such as 
the public’s right to know versus the individual’s 
right to privacy, will take much debate, if not 
litigation. These questions will all take time; how­
ever, for many of us, our problems concerning 
essential library service are urgent, and time will 
only increase our difficulties if we don’t make the 
necessary adjustments.

At the Meriam Library on the campus of Califor­
nia State University, Chico, we have attem pted, 
quite successfully, to m eet this question of service 
through our unique Student Supervisor program, 
and we have found that instituting it was one of the 
best decisions we have ever made.

Starting in 1970, we shifted responsibility for the 
evening and night supervision of student assistants 
in our stacking operations from a regular staff 
employee to two experienced student assistants. 
These student assistants were given the title “stu­
dent supervisor,” and were given a slightly higher 
wage than that of their peers. Initially the duties 
perform ed by these individuals were limited in

scope, and am ounted to very little more than occa­
sionally checking to make sure that the other stu­
dent workers on their shifts were present, and that 
they were completing the tasks assigned to them  in 
a reasonable and timely manner.

The manager of student personnel monitored 
and scrutinized the progress of the program at this 
initial stage for an entire year. The results were 
quite positive. After two semesters, it was decided 
to expand the program to five individuals and to 
have them  work all shifts, day and night, to give 
them  more training in basic personnel manage­
ment, and to give them  slightly more latitude in 
supervising and training the student assistants in 
the stacking unit. After the second year, it was 
found that the level of service in the stacking unit 
had improved significantly, as had overall effi­
ciency and morale, without increasing funding or 
the total num ber of individuals employed. The 
following year, the third in the program’s history, 
the program was further expanded to include some 
of the other service units, and today student super­
visors are to be found in nearly every departm ent in 
the Meriam Library, public and technical.

The successful results of this program have been 
twofold. With the complexities inherent in some of 
our unit’s operations with regard to procedures and 
com puterized records, it would be extremely diffi­
cult to train rookie student assistants in every detail 
of that unit’s daily routines, in a reasonable period 
of time, and expect them  to function as supervisors 
of other student workers within that departm ent as 
well. Therefore, all the individuals chosen for this 
program have been experienced library workers. 
On average, student assistants selected have been 
in their respective departments for at least two 
semesters, have proven to be proficient in their 
unit’s operations, and have received outstanding



85 6  / C&RL News

evaluations before promotion to the student super­
visor rank.

In conjunction, the staff in the various depart­
ments, except for those with few student employ­
ees, have been willing to relinquish the daily task of 
direct supervision of all the student workers in their 
units. This has not always been easy. Staff, with 
understandable justification, believe that whatever 
happens in their departments, good or bad, is their 
responsibility. However, they have graciously ac­
cepted their roles as mentors and guides for the 
student supervisors in their areas, and have found 
that putting their trust in these student workers to 
handle the job of daily student assistant supervision 
to be well placed.

From the staff perspective, this program has 
improved service on a number of levels. First, 
although the library staff in the public and technical 
areas still select all the student workers for their 
departments from interviewees sent to them by the 
manager of student personnel, they are no longer 
burdened with the task of training each new stu­
dent assistant in the department’s fundamental 
operations. Student supervisors do the basic train­
ing of all the new student workers, leaving the 
regular staff free to concentrate on the vital work of 
their departments, especially during some of the 
more trying times of the year (for example, the 
beginning of semesters), without being constantly 
interrupted to reiterate basic instructions, policies 
or procedures to inexperienced employees.

Second, many of the normal questions or prob­
lems which occur during the day can be easily 
handled by the student supervisors themselves 
without involving a regular staff member. These 
individuals are well versed in the departm ent’s 
policies and procedures, and are more than ca­
pable of dealing with routine types of questions or 
difficulties which may arise. If patrons aren’t satis­
fied with the answer given by a student supervisor, 
they are certainly welcome to request to speak with 
a higher authority. But, if even fifty percent of the 
time the patron accepts the answer or solution 
given by the student supervisor (we find the actual 
percentage to be closer to ninety-five percent), 
regular staff members of the department have that 
much more time to dedicate to the larger, more 
complex, and demanding problems that arise dur­
ing the course of the day.

And, third, the student supervisor serves as a 
model for the professional conduct and personal 
decorum expected of all the departm ent’s student 
assistants. It is one thing to have these expectations 
presented in written form via a departm ental 
manual, but they take on a more meaningful and 
defined character when the senior student person­
nel of the department are observed living up to 
these expectations during the course of their work. 
The end result is that all student assistants in the

department are encouraged to strive for the level of 
service rendered by their peers, the student super­
visors, without requiring substantial staff reinforce­
ment of dress codes, common courtesy towards 
patrons, punctuality, etc.

The many ways this program has improved li­
brary service from the perspective of the student 
assistants is somewhat more subtle, but just as 
important. A student supervisor position is coveted 
by nearly every student employee. It brings with it 
a higher wage, some prestige, and tangible evi­
dence that the regular staff have found that student 
employee’s work performance to be superior in 
quality. The position provides for and allows the 
individual more freedom of action and greater 
responsibility, and gives the student worker a 
chance to learn and cultivate administrative and 
leadership skills. These aspects of the student 
supervisor program serve as incentives for all stu­
dent employees to do well on the job, because it is 
their job performance that will be the primary 
factor in determining who will be promoted, and 
who will not.

Additionally, the program has provided student 
assistants a substantial reason for staying with the 
library as employees. The longer they work in one 
of the library’s departments, the greater their 
chances become that they will be promoted to a 
student supervisor position. This single factor has 
nearly eradicated, at our library, a major problem 
concerning student assistant employment for other 
libraries, the problem of a high student employee 
turnover rate. Students stay with our library be­
cause they perceive the student supervisor pro­
gram as a real indication that we care about our 
student workforce, and respect their abilities and 
talents as contributors to the operation of the li­
brary as a whole.

Also, the individuals who are chosen for this 
program have demonstrated that they take great 
pride in the service they render. There is almost a 
spirit of proprietorship generated in these student 
employees, and it manifests itself in their attitude, 
morale, and work ethic. For them, the library is not 
just a place of employment; it is their library. They 
are responsible, in some measure, for the way it 
functions on a daily basis, and have a limited voice 
in how it will function in the future.

In this vein, we believe that it is important to 
listen closely to our student supervisors when they 
suggest changes in service policies and/or proce­
dures. It is to our great advantage that these mature 
individuals are not simply employees working at 
our public service counters and in our technical 
service areas, but that they are also students who 
use the library every day as patrons. They know the 
present system from the inside, and they can pro­
vide us with valuable insights as to what will be 
needed tomorrow or next year to insure that the



October 1990 /  857

information they require, as students seeking aca­
demic degrees, can be placed in their hands effec­
tively and efficiently.

There is one final aspect of our student supervi­
sor program that has been of immeasurable benefit 
to our library in terms of service. The tasks per­
formed by the student supervisors are so varied that 
these individuals are capable of moving easily from 
their positions as student workers to become regu­
lar staff employees within their departments. Ap­
proximately thirty percent of the regular, full-time 
staff currently employed by the Meriam Library 
started their library careers as student assistants 
and were involved in our student supervisor pro­
gram. These individuals have, in many cases, been 
able to step from their student work into a staff job 
and almost immediately function at full capacity. 
Thus, the need for an extended training period has 
been eliminated for these employees, because they 
are knowledgeable about the departm ent’s policies 
and procedures on their very first day. This has

perm itted the periodic transitions in regular staff­
ing, which occur because of transfers or retire­
ment, to be smooth and relatively immune to tem ­
porary service slow-downs that typically occur as a 
new employee becomes familiar with the basics of 
a unit’s operation.

In all, we have found that our student supervisor 
program has helped our library to provide a level of 
public and technical service that otherwise would 
probably have been unattainable. In addition, we 
have tapped a valuable, internal library resource 
for guidance towards improvements in our future 
service, and have given a num ber of bright, ener­
getic, and enthusiastic young adults a chance to lay 
foundations for the leadership skills they will need 
throughout their careers. We believe it to be a good 
program that has served well all those involved with 
it, staff and students, and one that we look forward 
to continuing and expanding upon well into the 
next century.

Humor and creativity: Questions and answers

By Norman D. Stevens

Director
The Molesworth Institute

As librarians, answering questions—correctly or 
incorrectly—is our stock-in-trade; it is not surpris­
ing, therefore, to find that various aspects of the 
question and answer game lend themselves to crea­
tive approaches that generate humor. In some 
cases it is the questions that users ask at the infor­
mation or reference desk that generate, usually 
unintentionally, the humor. In other cases special 
hum or issues of library newsletters that contain 
mock advice to the library lorn are a special delight. 
In still other cases academic libraries have created 
imaginative forums in which to answer written 
comments, complaints, questions, or suggestions. 
Each brings its own unique view of the world of 
library humor.

At the reference desk

Nancy S. Osborne, of the SUNY College at 
Oswego Library, observes that, “students asking 
pre-exam questions fall in a num ber of categories: 
the desperate, the confident, the confused, the 
organized. The questions fall into categories too: 
thoughtful, cognitive; hasty, rapid; penetrating and 
searching; inane and perhaps irrelevant. . . .  [In

responding] I maintain that the existence and will­
ing utilization of an active, healthy, and operative 
sense of humor, can make all the difference.”

Perhaps that is what Lynne S. Epstein, then of 
the University of Kansas Medical C enter Library, 
had in mind when she answered the phone one 
day—in the midst of a discussion with her supervi­
sor about eating—by saying, “Reference. This is 
Lynne. May I feed you?” The patron responded, 
“You certainly may. W hat are you serving?” 
Lynne’s supervisor provided the final note of indig­
nity by point out that, given Lynne’s history of 
cooking failures, she might better have said, “Ref­
erence. Will you feed me?”

Equally baffling must have been the greeting 
given by an assistant at the Winnipeg Public Li­
brary, where Randy Reichardt worked, who an­
swered the phone one day not with the usual, 
“Good afternoon. Information and Reference,” 
but with the unusual, and perhaps more accurate, 
“Good afternoon. Reformation and Inference.”

A startling miscue, although not in the context of 
a true information exchange with a patron, was 
generated by a colleague (to remain nameless) 
who, when leaving for the reference stacks with a