Re: looking for student job suggestions Corrice, Julia A. 28 Jul 2008 15:54 UTC
________________________________ From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum on behalf of Skwor, Jeanette Sent: Fri 7/25/2008 1:24 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [SERIALST] looking for student job suggestions Hmmm, I've not ever gotten a complaint from a student about doing this. I do have them also actually bring up an article or two, so maybe they're bringing up something interesting and reading it :-) OTOH, another regular task is to search my problem issue list titles on other library websites, to see if they're out there before I claim them, so maybe looking at e-access is fun in comparison . . . I do, though, tend to break long tasks up into hour-or-so segments. I think, no matter what it is, concentration tends to flag after much longer than that. The other thing I do is talk to my students - a lot. I ask each of them what their favorite and least favorite tasks are, and keep that in mind when assigning jobs. In this case, I would definitely try to give the student who likes the job the lion's share of it. I might also ask them for suggestions as to how to make it more interesting, or other thoughts they have. Students - especially library student workers (although I may be just a tad prejudiced) - often come up with intelligent and innovative insights that save my poor overworked brain cells for things like those publication schedules publishers put out, fictional or non. Jeanette L. Skwor Cofrin Library, Serials Dept. UW-Green Bay 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311 -----Original Message----- From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@list.uvm.edu] On Behalf Of Ken Siegert Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 11:37 AM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [SERIALST] looking for student job suggestions Hello! I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share how they handle online access verification as a student job. For the last several years, the number of our online access titles has grown significantly (currently at 2500+). Typically, I have my student workers look-up each title (listed on a spreadsheet) and verify that 1) the URL works, 2) our holdings statement matches our access and 3) they indicate on the spreadsheet if anything needs to be updated/changed. Obviously, this student job is not exciting, and it takes a student who enjoys monotonous work. I try not to have a student work on this for more than an hour at a time. I have only had one student worker actually say that she enjoyed the job. Here are some questions that I have -- Do you hire one or two student workers to exclusively work on this task? Or do you "share the wealth" with all of your student workers? Would anyone have a job description that they'd be willing to share? I have attempted to write a job description for this task, but it typically doesn't get much interest. Thanks for your help, Ken ---------- Ken Siegert Acquisitions Assistant Electronic Resources & Periodicals / U.S. Documents Shadek-Fackenthal Library Franklin & Marshall College P.O. Box 3003 Lancaster, PA 17604-3003 Phone - (717) 291-4219 Fax - (717) 291-4160