Student Employee Guide: Competencies

We expect you to interact with patrons professionally, positively, proactively, patiently, and with empathy. Our library standards for customer service are high and we expect you to uphold our standards. It matters very much how you treat every person you come into contact with!

Elements of exceptional customer service include:

• Active listening
• Approachability and friendliness
• Starting with yes
• Finding solutions
• Working as a team

For more information about providing exceptional customer service, take the tutorial included in your required training.

Library Organization

The library is a large organization with many different departments and functions, all of which contribute to our ability to successfully offer services and resources to patrons on campus and beyond. 

Library departments and functions include: 

Library Administration

This department is responsible for the administrative tasks of the library, including budgeting and financial planning, fundraising, Human Resources and payroll operations, strategic planning and visioning, and working with university administration. Personnel in this department include the Dean, the Associate Dean, the Fiscal Officer, the Technical Support Specialist, and the Assistant to the Dean. 

Data and Digital Services (DDS)

This department is responsible for building and maintaining the library's digital collections, maintaining and updating the library website, and offering several specialized services for researchers, such as data management expertise, geospatial expertise, and open access/education expertise. The Data and Digital Services Department is also home to the Center for Digital Inquiry and Learning, which advances digital scholarship opportunities at the university.

Special Collections and Archives

This department is responsible for preserving, acquiring, and providing access to unique and special collections. Special Collections has a reading room which patrons can use to browse many of their physical items, while many others have been digitized and are available online in partnership with DDS. Collection strengths include jazz, forestry, mining, and university archives. 

Technical Services 

This department is responsible for acquisition of library materials (print and electronic), cataloging library materials, and maintaining access to library databases. Technical Services is also responsible for our library catalog, both in its employee view (Alma) and its patron view (Primo). 

User and Research Services (URS)

This department is responsible for circulating library materials (including course reserves), coordinating resource sharing between other libraries, offering research assistance to patrons and teaching introductory library skills, and providing access to emerging technologies. There are multiple units in the URS Department, including Circulation, the Gary Strong Curriculum Center, First-Year Experience, Interlibrary Loan, the MILL, Reference, and the Studio.

Library employees are distributed across these departments, but work collaboratively with each other to fulfill the needs of library patrons and meet the library's (and university's) mission.

Work Email

You are responsible for checking your work email address and responding to messages in a timely manner. We use this email to communicate with you about important work updates and opportunities. Proficiency with email communication is a valuable professional skill you will need after leaving UI. 

Phone Communication

If your job duties include answering a library phone, you are expected to provide positive customer service and follow professional phone etiquette. Professional phone etiquette includes:

• answering the phone promptly and politely
• greeting the caller with the name of the library, your area, and asking how you can help them
• communicate clearly and take notes in case the caller requires a return phone call 
• knowing how and when to transfer a call
• concluding the call professionally and politely

Transferring a Phone Call

There may be times when you need to refer a caller to someone else in the library. In these cases, you will need to transfer the phone call.