Arts Access Services Assistant (AASA)

About the role

The Arts Access Services Assistant (AASA) oversees all core circulation and public service operations for the Arts Library. Major duties include supervising and scheduling student staff who perform circulation desk and stacks activities; overseeing stacks maintenance, course reserves, and basic technical processing; managing billing inquiries; and serving as the building contact for user complaints, security issues, and facilities reporting.

Responsibilities

• Supervise and schedule student staff who perform circulation desk and stacks activities.
• Oversee stacks maintenance, course reserves, and basic technical processing.
• Manage billing inquiries.
• Serve as the building contact for user complaints, security issues, and facilities reporting.
• Facilitate access to the cage (special collections material), including paging, retrieving, monitoring in-library use, and enforcing handling policies.

Requirements

• Knowledge and experience of the various operations of the circulation operation in an academic library, including billing, reserves, stacks maintenance, technical services, and public services.
• Experience supervising others including training, scheduling, delegating work.
• Experience working in a networked environment with demonstrated proficiency and capabilities with Microsoft Office 365 and online work collaboration tools such as Slack, Confluence, JIRA, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to exercise good judgment and sound decision-making in routine and unexpected situations, including interpreting and applying library policies.
• Demonstrated computer skills including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.), email, client/server database systems, and various other software packages.
• Demonstrated experience with collections and stacks maintenance and projects in a library setting, including shelving, shifting, weeding, and shelf-reading.
• Experience with Library Service Platforms, such as Ex Libris’s Alma/Primo, including the ability to use circulation, interlibrary loan, and reserves modules and to train others.
• Experience gathering and maintaining operational statistics (e.g., circulation counts, gate counts, reserves processing volumes).
• Experience with or understanding of course reserves processing, including physical and digital materials.
• Experience using timekeeping systems (e.g., TRS) to review and approve student employee timesheets.
• Experience serving as a point of contact for building safety, security, or facilities issues.
• Strong oral communication skills sufficient to effectively represent Access Services in various situations such as councils and committees, and to students and faculty with regards to issues such as billing, reserves, and borrowing-related privileges and problem resolution.
• Strong writing skills & ability to effectively communicate with patrons, peers, subordinates, and supervisors in a variety of written forms (i.e. memos, student employee evaluations, manuals, reports, etc).
• Interpersonal skills to initiate & maintain cooperative working relationships w/co-workers, supervisors, managers, & safety & law enforcement personnel.
• Problem solving skills to diplomatically resolve disputes and discrepancies.
• Ability to follow directions from supervisor and to provide clear directions to student employees.
• Ability to work independently with attention to detail, and follow through on assignments with minimal direction.
• Ability to check own work for accuracy.
• Ability to perform successfully & function effectively in the face of numerous interruptions & distractions.
• Skill in prioritizing assignments to complete work in a timely manner while managing changes in workload & assignments, deadlines, competing requirements and priorities, and heavy workloads.
• Ability to make immediate decisions based on situational and policy/procedural considerations (i.e. need for flexibility, sensitivity to maintain good public relations, and the ability to analyze and give recommendations on the long-term impact of policy changes to various library user groups).
• Organizational and analytical skills to balance multiple and sometimes conflicting priorities, participate in complex projects, and perform efficiently and courteously amidst frequent distractions and interruptions.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain composure and poise while resolving conflicts and problems resulting from violations of organizational policy, complaints from customers or emergency situations.
• Supervisory skills to motivate and train student staff to perform tasks quickly, efficiently and correctly, to take appropriate action to improve performance, to effectively communicate expectations and delegate work based on overall workloads and student staff capabilities.
• Skill in scheduling student staff with varying ability in several locations requiring fluctuating staffing patterns.
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming environment for patrons and staff.

Qualifications

• Knowledge and experience of the various operations of the circulation operation in an academic library, including billing, reserves, stacks maintenance, technical services, and public services.
• Experience supervising others including training, scheduling, delegating work.
• Experience working in a networked environment with demonstrated proficiency and capabilities with Microsoft Office 365 and online work collaboration tools such as Slack, Confluence, JIRA, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to exercise good judgment and sound decision-making in routine and unexpected situations, including interpreting and applying library policies.
• Demonstrated computer skills including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.), email, client/server database systems, and various other software packages.
• Demonstrated experience with collections and stacks maintenance and projects in a library setting, including shelving, shifting, weeding, and shelf-reading.
• Experience with Library Service Platforms, such as Ex Libris’s Alma/Primo, including the ability to use circulation, interlibrary loan, and reserves modules and to train others.
• Experience gathering and maintaining operational statistics (e.g., circulation counts, gate counts, reserves processing volumes).
• Experience with or understanding of course reserves processing, including physical and digital materials.
• Experience using timekeeping systems (e.g., TRS) to review and approve student employee timesheets.
• Experience serving as a point of contact for building safety, security, or facilities issues.
• Strong oral communication skills sufficient to effectively represent Access Services in various situations such as councils and committees, and to students and faculty with regards to issues such as billing, reserves, and borrowing-related privileges and problem resolution.
• Strong writing skills & ability to effectively communicate with patrons, peers, subordinates, and supervisors in a variety of written forms (i.e. memos, student employee evaluations, manuals, reports, etc).
• Interpersonal skills to initiate & maintain cooperative working relationships w/co-workers, supervisors, managers, & safety & law enforcement personnel.
• Problem solving skills to diplomatically resolve disputes and discrepancies.
• Ability to follow directions from supervisor and to provide clear directions to student employees.
• Ability to work independently with attention to detail, and follow through on assignments with minimal direction.
• Ability to check own work for accuracy.
• Ability to perform successfully & function effectively in the face of numerous interruptions & distractions.
• Skill in prioritizing assignments to complete work in a timely manner while managing changes in workload & assignments, deadlines, competing requirements and priorities, and heavy workloads.
• Ability to make immediate decisions based on situational and policy/procedural considerations (i.e. need for flexibility, sensitivity to maintain good public relations, and the ability to analyze and give recommendations on the long-term impact of policy changes to various library user groups).
• Organizational and analytical skills to balance multiple and sometimes conflicting priorities, participate in complex projects, and perform efficiently and courteously amidst frequent distractions and interruptions.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain composure and poise while resolving conflicts and problems resulting from violations of organizational policy, complaints from customers or emergency situations.
• Supervisory skills to motivate and train student staff to perform tasks quickly, efficiently and correctly, to take appropriate action to improve performance, to effectively communicate expectations and delegate work based on overall workloads and student staff capabilities.
• Skill in scheduling student staff with varying ability in several locations requiring fluctuating staffing patterns.
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming environment for patrons and staff.