6 Feet of Manuals: Adapting Library Student Assistant Hiring/Training During COVID-19

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic presented challenges to many academic library access services units in both the continued delivery of in-person services but also in the continued hiring and training of library student assistants. Given the fundamental access services responsibilities library student assistants often complete, such as circulating books, shelving and shelf reading by call number, and communicating with library patrons, their hiring and training can be logistically complicated. The need to maintain the safety of both library patrons and library staff/student assistants during the pandemic has only added to that complication. This roundtable discussion invites librarians who routinely hire and train library student assistants to join a discussion of what opportunities, challenges, and successes came from adapting their hiring and training of library student assistants to new safety and services changes brought on by the pandemic and what alterations might be permanent post-pandemic. This roundtable will be facilitated by academic access services librarians Peter Johnson (Access Services and Resource Librarian, William Jewell College, Liberty, MO) and Robert Powers (Access and Learning Services Librarian, Rockhurst University, Kansas City, MO).