Position Responsibilities
Electronic Library Assistants are primarily responsible for providing training support to library patrons using the computer workstations connected to the library's 2nd floor LAN, but are also expected to help maintain a pleasant work atmosphere in the Reference Services area. Responsibilities are grouped below into four main categories: |
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| Assistance to Patrons: | ||
| Answer directional questions for patrons. This might include anything from locating bathrooms, water fountains, and public telephones, to finding the Periodicals Collection or the University Archives. | ||
| Provide assistance with using Windows. This might include help with navigating the Windows interface using the mouse and managing files using Windows Explorer. | ||
| Provide basic training in use of Microsoft Office applications. This includes helping patrons with using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Photo Editor. | ||
| Provide assistance with using Web browsers. The library provides two Web browsers for use by patrons: Microsoft Internet Explorer and MozillaFirefox. ELAs are expected to be comfortable using either and to be able to provide library users with assistance with either. | ||
| Provide training in navigating the library's Web site. Commonly requested items include online book renewal, online journal articles and books, and off-campus access procedures. ELAs should know where to direct patrons in the library's Web site to find the information they need. | ||
| Provide training in using the library's online catalog. At present, the library uses the WebLUIS system for catalog access. This system is shared throughout the state by the other state universities. ELAs should be comfortable using WebLUIS to find books, media, and other materials in the UNF or any state university library. | ||
| Assist library users with searching the Internet. This might include training in how to use Google to find information on the Web or how to search for images on the Web for use in a PowerPoint presentation or Word document. ELAs should be comfortable with Google and should know how to perform an advanced search, an image search, a news search, and a discussion group search using Google's interface. | ||
| Assist patrons with Internet-accessible email systems. This might include UNF's own Osprey mail or Yahoo Mail or Hotmail. | ||
| Assist patrons with printing documents from library databases, from the Internet, or from Microsoft Office applications. | ||
| Assist patrons with making photocopies and transparencies. | ||
| Assist patrons with saving information to diskette or zip disk, or with emailing information to themselves. | ||
| While reference librarians normally do all the training of patrons in using research databases, ELAs should be able to direct patrons to the right areas of the library's Web site to find electronic journal article databases by subject. Once a patron has begun working in the database and needs further help, ELAs should refer more complex questions to the reference librarians. | ||
| Reference Services Area/LAN Maintenance and Cleanup: | ||
| Perform routine equipment checks to ensure computers are working properly. | ||
| Make routine rounds of the entire LAN to check for unresponsive (frozen) machines and to check for patrons needing assistance. Rounds should be made 3 to 4 times per hour. | ||
| During rounds, ELAs should look for programs left running, locked-up or malfunctioning programs, Web browsers left open, email or chat sessions not logged-off, etc., and should routinely shut down any unattended programs/sessions and reboot workstations to clear out any personal information that a user might have inadvertently left. | ||
| Push in chairs and relocate chairs that are blocking walkways. Remove scrap paper left at computer workstations or at printers and place in recycle bins. | ||
| Pick up library books left at workstations, on tables in the seating area, or in the photocopy room and leave them on the reshelving cart located near the Reference Collection. | ||
| Check copiers and printers for error messages and notify Ricoh when appropriate. Use the electronic pager form to contact Ricoh. | ||
| Check computer workstations for abandoned personal belongings, including floppy disks, zip disks, Osprey cards, notebooks, etc., and turn in recovered materials to the "Lost and Found" at the 2nd Floor Circulation Services counter. | ||
| Routinely check standing height workstations for problems (2 workstations at the Circulation Services counter, 1 workstation adjacent to the Circulation Services door, 2 workstations adjacent to the Reference Services desk). | ||
| Take note of unresponsive equipment, try to reset equipment, and report problems that cannot be resolved by reset to the library's College Technician. | ||
| Load paper in printers in the absence of Ricoh personnel. Clear paper jams in printers as needed if Xerox personnel are not available. | ||
| Routine cleaning of equipment. ELAs should be on the look-out for mice, monitors, and keyboards that need cleaning and should clean the equipment on a regular basis. | ||
| Assistance to Reference Staff: | ||
| Answer the Reference Services desk telephone if the librarians are busy helping patrons and unable to respond to the phone within three rings. ELAs can answer basic information questions but should refer more in-depth questions to reference librarians by taking the patron's name and number and having the librarians on duty contact the patron. | ||
| Keep an eye on queues forming at the Reference Services desk and offer assistance to patrons as appropriate. This might include directing patrons to an article database to begin researching a topic while waiting for a Reference librarian to become available for more in-depth help or training. ELAs are encouraged to answer informational and directional questions with which they feel comfortable. The important thing is to help manage lines that might form at the Reference Services desk during busy periods. | ||
| When directed, ELAs might need to monitor overflow crowds in the library's 4th floor classroom. If the 2nd floor LAN becomes completed saturated and there is a queue of people waiting for computers, reference librarians might open the library's classroom as an overflow lab. In such cases, security of the lab becomes the responsibility of the ELA on duty, who will relocate to the lab to monitor patron use and provide assistance as necessary. | ||
| Statistics: | ||
| As ELAs answer questions, make rounds of the LAN, and take care of problems with equipment, they should routinely record their work flow on statistic sheets provided at their workstation. Statistics are used to help identify staffing needs and to help report activities of staff at the service desks. A sample statistics sheet is available in the Paperwork section of this Web site. | ||
