1.
Unleash your
library’s HIPster
Transforming student library
jobs into high impact practices
Jill Markgraf
Professor, Head of Research & Instruction
McIntyre Library
markgrjs@uwec.edu
715-836-5357

2.
High Impact Practices
“High-impact activities require
students to connect, reflect on,
and integrate what they are
learning from their classes with
other life experiences.”
– George Kuh, “Maybe Experience Really Can be
the Best Teacher,” Chronicle of Higher Education

3.
What students do in
High Impact Practices:
• Apply knowledge to other
situations
• Perform purposeful tasks
• Use critical thinking to make
decisions and solve problems
• Interact with people different
from themselves
• Get feedback/mentoring
• Apply knowledge in new
settings
• Perform purposeful tasks
• Use critical thinking to
make decisions and solve
problems
• Work well in teams—
especially with people
different from themselves
Employers want
graduates who can:

4.
Survey of Student
Employees
• 250 students from 2005-present
• 96 responses (38%)
• Baseline

5.
High impact practice
Student work experience
Reflect
C
o
n
n
e
c

6.
Librarians lead
from the middle
Extracurricular
Faculty
Staff
Curricular

7.
Develop intellectual and practical skills,
including, for example, inquiry and analysis,
critical and creative thinking, written and
oral communication, quantitative literacy,
information literacy, and teamwork and
problem solving.
Integrate learning across courses and
disciplines, and between campus and
community life.

8.
Maximizing the Student Work experience
Learning community
Read articles and discussed topics including:
• Connection between jobs and liberal education goals
• Enhancing quality of the work experiences
• Supervisor as educator/mentor

9.
Recommended Next steps:
Individual level
• Revise student employee PDs
• Clarify expectations and boundaries
• Revise evaluation process to include reflection
• Enhance training for students
Campus level
• Create student supervision training workshops

10.
Student Supervisor
Workshop Series
• Nuts & Bolts
• Maximizing the student
work experience
• Leadership skills for
supervisors of student
employees

11.
Workshop 1:
Nuts & Bolts
 Supervisor as educator
 Liberal education learning goals
 Helping students connect

12.
Workshop 2:
Maximizing the Student Work Experience
 Enriching positions
 Employer perspective panel
 Conducting guided reflection

13.
How is this job fitting in with your academics?
What are you learning here that’s helping you in school?
What are you learning in class that you can apply at work?
What are you learning that you’ll use in your chosen
profession?
University of Iowa http://vp.studentlife.uiowa.edu/initiatives/grow/

14.
Workshop 3:
Leadership Skills for Supervisors of
Student Employees
Leadership role as supervisor/educator/mentor
Leadership styles/Situational leadership
Giving Constructive Feedback

15.
Bringing it home:
Photo: uweauclaire instagram

16.
Bringing it home
Assist at the Reference Desk by
answering basic student reference
questions…

17.
Bringing it home
Assist students, faculty, staff and community
members by answering basic to progressively
complex reference questions, in person, by
phone, chat…

18.
Bringing it home
Contract:
Clarify expectations
Communicate values

19.
Bringing it home
Enhanced training
Team building

20.
Bringing it home
Performance reviews

21.
Bringing it home
Expanding the model

22.
Value of libraries
Student work
experience =
impact value

23.
No (41%)
Have you enrolled in or considered library school?
Yes (59%)
…before
working in
McIntyre
Library?
not
before
(58%)

24.
Yes (59%)
Liberal education
exposes student to
new ideas and
possibilities. The library student
work experience
does that.

25.
Yes (59%)
NOW’s the time
• Students incur more of the cost of their
education
• Fewer resources to maintain/increase
traditional HIPs
• Increased competition
• Increased demand to demonstrate ROI
to recognize student work experience as high-impact practice

26.
Thank you
We can lead the charge
Jill Markgraf
markgrjs@uwec.edu