University of Florida We Can Go the Distance! Janice Dees ...
Transcript of University of Florida We Can Go the Distance! Janice Dees ...
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
352-273-2793
Janice Dees
352-273-0368