Student LRC Assistants first week

What a week! Our programme of student LRC assistants has started. I'd prepared by sending them training notes including the tasks they'll be doing and exercises about how the shelves are arranged, and I made sure the rest of my team knew who is coming when and what they'll be doing.

On the whole I've been really really happy with the students that've been in this week. I was expecting seven: one was a no show, one was late so I'll see if she's late again next week. All the rest of the students came with a great attitude, happy for the opportunity and wanting to do extra hours which I might take them up on!

Writing the training notes and training the students in person was interesting. Usually working in libraries your colleagues know the terminology (strict shelf checking, shelf mark, spine label etc) even though there are local differences between libraries or sectors. In this situation I've got to consider that they are 16-19, possibly have never had a job before never mind a library job and there are ESOL factors to take into account. Interestingly, I had anticipated that the easiest task to give them would be doing a book move (very straightforward, we're just moving all our stock round because we've got a free bay) but this is the task that without fail the students have not understood! I thought it was me explaining it badly, but on Thursday my manager trained the volunteer as I was elsewhere and she said the same thing.

I've been careful to emphasise with the students that they need to be aware of health and safety (manual lifting, being aware of people using the space while they are doing tasks) and that if at any point they don't feel safe or comfortable doing a task or in the space to speak to me straight away.

So far the project has been time consuming, but I'm sure it'll pay off once the student assistants are confident with their tasks and can just come in and get on with it. On the plus side it looks like the student volunteers will be able to strict shelf tidy our entire collection each week which is fantastic, as we are so busy that we rarely get the chance to do any of it.

Next week we've got Ofsted in for 24 hours including our open evening, so that should be another exciting week! The whole college is busy putting up displays and getting the students (and staff!) on their best behaviour.