Library Student Assistants

Part of a student assistant's time in the library includes focusing on developing goals and taking steps to achieve them. For each of these goals, a student assistant has the opportunity to practice what is learned.

In addition to library goals, a student assistant may also focus on defining educational and personal goals. The SMART goal system may help develop any additional goals.

This is referred to as the Developing Goals goal. It will be useful in the future, since many employers may require employees to create yearly professional goals and take steps to complete them. For those who are self-employed, developing/completing yearly goals are an excellent way to be aware of their achievements over the year.

As a starting point, below are three pre-made goals for student assistants to work towards. The three goals are part of the final project.

In addition, at the bottom of the page, there are also mini-goals for student assistants. These mini-goals are tasks the student assistant should be able to do by the end of their first full term at the library. The mini-goals are not part of the final project, but are tasks that all student assistants should strive to learn.

Develop/Improve service and job skills

Outcomes: 

• Increased awareness of having politeness, attentiveness, and presence
• Learn differences in types of communication/service when speaking in-person, over the phone, and through electronics (politeness via text)
• Enhanced verbal and electronic etiquette
• Improved message-taking
• Aware of workplace’s daily needs
• Awareness of own abilities/limits (knowing when to problem-solve on your own and when to ask for help)

Refine Library and Research skills

Outcomes (Library):

• Able to log into library catalog/databases
• Organization of materials

Outcomes (Research):

• Able to use library catalog/databases
• Practice search adjustments (breaking search into keywords instead of full sentence, list of keywords, etc.)
• Knowledge of Boolean operators, search terms, etc.
• Navigate the layout of an item record
• Place holds, requests materials, etc.
• Search for literary criticism + know the basic criteria for criticism
• Critical thinking vs. criticizing thinking

Apply Research Skills to a concrete project

Outcomes:

• Communication with supervisor and coworkers
• Better self-examination/critical thinking (“Why do I want to research this?”, “How does this tie in to my life?”, etc.)
• Able to create reference lists/provide references to material
• Time management

Goal Template

You may copy and paste the following template into your final project. Then, update the results portion with your personal results.