Investing in Student Employees: Training in Butler University’s Information Commons Program

Student employees have been called the unsung heroes of most modern academic libraries. As the roles of librarians have shifted, the role of the student employee has too changed. They have been asked to take on more duties such as staffing the primary service point, handling circulation and reference, shelving, digitization. Some librarians feel concerned that students are now responsible for tasks that used to fall under their purview. As the line between “librarian work” and “student employee work” has been blurred, expectations for student employee performance have gotten progressively higher. Supervisors responsible for the management and training of student employees feel increased pressure to ensure that student employees are capable of these. When expectations are not met, members of the library staff worry that levels of service are decreasing. Over time, this pressure builds and “supervisors run the risk of not only the inefficient use of valuable resources, but also a bad employment situation for the student, the supervisor, and the library” (Kathman & Kathman, 2000, p. 176). This is not cost-effective or beneficial for any of the involved parties. Libraries want to provide what Scrogham and McGuire call “an opportunity for involvement that is both meaningful and educational while assisting them in becoming successful members of an increasingly global society” (as cited in McGinniss, 2014). How can an environment be created where student employees meet high expectations and successfully accomplish all that is ask of them? Butler University has been successful with a unique approach to student employment known as the Information Commons (IC) program

Space Invaders: Programmatic and Individual IL Efforts Within a Core Curriculum

Butler University librarians are “invading” their University’s core curriculum with information literacy integrated on multiple fronts, both at the administrative programmatic level and via a ‘grass-roots,’ one-class-at-a time approach. Butler University upholds an extensive core curriculum required of all of its students consisting of a first-year seminar, a sophomore global historical studies course, and six content areas. Librarians have been engaged with the University’s first year seminar for a number of years and have been looking at how to expand our reach into other areas of the core. While not abandoning an intentional programmatic approach, we are finding a “space invaders” method of attack (from multiple fronts) is helping us make inroads incorporating information literacy into Butler’s core curriculum. We will share both “top down” formal and “bottom-up” one-class-at-a time approaches to building information literacy into a core curriculum. Challenges and successes will be probed, including how to balance scalability and workload for librarians, and how to maintain programmatic vision in a loose confederation of initiatives

Partnering with Student Employees for First Year Instruction Success

Butler University Libraries have successfully integrated peer teaching into first year courses by pairing trained student employees with librarians to provide information literacy instruction and research consultations. The presentation will include testimony from student employees who have been involved in instruction. These students will discuss how their experiences contributed to their professional growth and deepened their relationships with the librarians. This presentation will also cover the many benefits of this program, and conclude with practical advice to prepare student employees as they support library instruction efforts

Information Commons: Employment as Experiential Learning

The Information Commons (IC) program has been a source of pride at Butler University, a private liberal arts institution in Indianapolis, for over seven years. It is a unique student employee partnership between the Libraries and the Center for Academic Technology that exemplifies a blended learning project. In alignment with Butler’s educational mission, the IC program strives to foster experiential learning opportunities revolving around twenty-first century skills, self-development, and professional growth. In addition to interacting with patrons and managing two service points, IC employees are called upon to assist staff with projects and lead instructional sessions. Preparing them for these multiple responsibilities, a lofty goal in itself, can feel all the loftier while operating within the staffing and financial constraints that characterize small liberal arts colleges. We have thus had to be creative in our approach to student training, replacing face-to-face elements with LMS-based online modules where possible, leveraging student leaders to lessen our administrative burdens; and, more recently, embracing a competency-based approach to training. Although our competency-based approach is in its infancy, it’s been readily embraced by students so far. Each section of our training begins with a checklist of learning objectives for students to cross-reference against their existing knowledge. Students can self-attest to mastery of select objectives, supplement knowledge gaps with resources, and demonstrate competency through completion of assigned activities. Training topics include customer service, information and digital literacies, creating and managing digital assets, and campus-supported technology such as Panopto and Moodle, and more. Peer teaching occurs as students entrusted with leadership roles verify competency and mentor peers through the process. Reflection portfolios serve as another way for peers to assess learning and for individuals to track self-development. Our panel presentation will share resources and practical advice for implementing similar employment-based experiential learning. Additionally, although our experience involves teaching students in an employment setting, we will show how our approach could easily be adopted and translated into blended learning contexts or other educational settings

Brushing It Off? Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior to Dental Visit Behavior

During the last decade, utilization of dental care services has decreased among working age adults. Given the importance of dental visits in the maintenance oral health, and the link between oral and overall health, this trend is disturbing. In order to better understand the reasons behind this downward trend, the current study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior to identify the most influential factors in one’s decision to visit the dentist, modified to include three additional components: affect, habit, and oral health knowledge. Two surveys were conducted to measure the following components as they relate to the dental visit: attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, affect, habit, oral health knowledge, and intention to visit the dentist. Findings indicate that attitude toward visiting the dentist and strength of habit for visiting the dentist are the critical components in predicting one’s intention to visit the dentist. Practical implications are discussed, specifically, in the context of messaging about the importance of regular dental care in maintaining optimal oral health