By Madeline Lanning, Opinion Editor
As a Blough-Weis Library Student Manager, my role has simply entailed sitting behind the front desk and checking out books for students and faculty.
Over the past several weeks, though, there has been talk about training managers on using the libraries LibCal site. This site allows students to directly ask librarians questions when they log onto the library homepage. However, this is my first semester as a manager, prior to thisI worked as a service desk assistant, so this idea seemed a bit outlandish to me.
Firstly, student managers are only set to be logged onto LibCal when working on weekends or the 9 p.m.-11 p.m. shift during the week. With that being said, there isn’t much room for error when helping a student who may be late on an assignment and looking for a book to do their research. Nor will student managers be gaining much experience in using the site.
Most times during the later shifts at the library, there are very few students using the facility, so this may pose a backup on the system if there are people asking for help all at once. Seeing as there is only one student manager working at all times, some chats may slip through the cracks.
The other issue is that many managers are new to their positions and barely know where to locate certain items. Our goal isn’t to lead people astray when searching for something, so this poses concerns.
During my short training session on LibCal, the technical aspects seemed quite simple to understand. Students log onto the home page of the library, ask for assistance and there we are waiting for them. Though, if one chooses to do this during our weekend or nightly hours, the librarians are not there if we need to send a student to a specific subject manager.
Without direction from librarians, students would have to wait an entire weekend to get what they are looking for. Now the upside is that LibCal saves the transcripts of the messages shared between student and staff, so we can easily forward them to the appropriate person. Again though, they may not see this until days after a request was sent in.
On another note, LibCal does give students the option to make room reservations. With the limitations of COVID-19, only the second floor study rooms are allowed to be reserved. Students fill in their names and choose a time slot, and if there is any confusion on who is supposed to be where, managers have the ability to see that information. This aspect of the site is extremely helpful, especially because it is organized and allows us to know that the COVID-19 protocols will be followed, seeing as there is a limit to the number of persons per room.
Overall, I think the system will be fine to work with this semester, especially because most students are remote. This allows those students to talk directly to someone without leaving their “bubble.” Hopefully when we are further down the line, the small technicalities will work themselves out and allow for smooth sailing amongst student workers and faculty.
