Job Posting Title Reference Specialist/Department Assistant - part-time/28 hrs per week

Brigham Young University • Provo, UT

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The Reference Specialist and Department Assistant supports all basic operations and daily functions of the Science & Engineering Department. This position ensures that the best possible service is provided for library patrons at the Science & Engineering Help Desk. The position plays a key role in departmental communication and coordination, and provides office support to department employees in daily routines and special projects.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree OR equivalent combination of education and relatable experience.
• Ability to gain subject knowledge in the STEM disciplines at sufficient levels to assist the curricular and research needs of the university.
• Ability to provide reference assistance to patrons needing research help in the STEM disciplines (and sometimes other subjects) in a variety of media.
• Ability to teach research methods and library use to patrons and employees.
• Flexibility in adapting to changing organizational priorities and technological environments.
• Ability to communicate effectively and to work well with faculty, students, and the general public.
• Ability to model excellent customer service for frontline student employees.
• Supervisory experience in order to hire, evaluate, train, and supervise student employees working in several different roles.
• Strong organizational, leadership, and problem-solving skills.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline OR a STEM background.
• 2 years of library experience.
• Masters of Library Science (or MLIS) OR Master’s degree in a STEM discipline.
• Working knowledge of library reference service.
• Understanding of theories, trends, and practices of reference work, as well as of general library functions and practices.
• Ability to apply emerging technologies creatively into reference services.

Responsibilities

• Oversees reference services provided by student reference assistants, including in-person, electronic, and over the phone.
• Provides “next level” or more demanding reference service to university faculty, students, and other patrons, which cannot be provided by student employees.
• Interviews, hires, schedules, supervises, evaluates, and determines merit pay increases for reference students.
• Assesses the quality of reference service provided by student reference assistants and develops programs to improve patron interactions.
• Develops training materials, lesson plans, and weekly training meetings to manage student employee knowledge in subject content across the breadth of department responsibilities.
• Manages the wages budget for student employees who work at the help desk.
• Manages the Science & Engineering reference collection by: evaluating usage statistics, deselecting and/or reallocating cascading titles, supervising the re-shelving of reference works, monitoring the physical condition of the collection, initiating conservation or preservation treatments as needed and as required by library standards.
• Teaches library instruction and information literacy to first-year writing courses.
• Substitutes for library faculty when needed in teaching library instruction and information literacy to advanced writing classes or course-integrated classes.
• Assists library faculty in building research guides.
• Works with department faculty to keep students, teaching faculty, and library colleagues informed of new acquisitions in all collections.
• Represents the Science & Engineering Department on the Reference Coordinating Committee (RCC).
• Acts as department liaison by facilitating communication within the department and between this department and others in the library.
• Works with the Department Chair to organize department meetings and events.
• Takes minutes at department meetings.
• Collects data as assigned.
• Drafts reports and documents as assigned.
• Maintains the department website and services pages.
• Assists in promoting department collections, services, and events.
• Assists department faculty in hiring research assistants.
• Serves as Workday Time Manager for all department student employees.
• Coordinates department projects and assists department personnel with reports, statistics, and various projects, such as collection assessment.
• Delegates projects to student reference assistants, when appropriate.
• Oversees daily operations, such as routing books and maintaining supplies.
• Manages department supplies budget.
• Holds the department credit card and campus card, monitors credit card and campus card purchases, and reconciles these purchases in Workday.
• Monitors charges made to patrons and trains staff on the proper use of university charging systems.
• Represents the Science & Engineering Department on the Department Assistants Committee (DAC).
• Maintains personal competency on the various subject databases and student/faculty resources.
• Attends training meetings for databases and software.
• Studies professional literature related to reference services and maintains a general knowledge about reference sources and research tools for the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
• Attends conferences and workshops, as appropriate.

Benefits

• 401k. BYU automatically contributes 8% at no cost to you. Additionally, if you contribute 5%, BYU adds an additional 4% (Rehires may qualify for different retirement plans)
• Employee assistance program, available to the employee and all members of their household
• May be eligible for tuition benefits after two years
• Access to the library
• Free on-campus parking
• Free UTA passes for employees, spouses, and qualified dependents
• Discounts at the BYU Store and for many events at BYU

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Mid Level