• a better understanding of students= needs
• to expand Information Literacy in your library
• to give your students real work experience

RECRUITING & HIRING UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS

1. Meet with your instruction team to gain consensus on the UTA position. Develop clear goals, and make the reporting structure for the UTA clear. Write a goal based job description with learning outcomes and assessment measures (sample on reverse)
2. Discuss how you will select your UTA. Remember: if you treat the job seriously, so will the students. This isn=t a typical student work study position. Require resumes and a formal interview process.
3. Several weeks before semester starts, reproduce job ads on eye-catching paper and send to appropriate campus departments, with a request that they post or share as they see fit.
4. Call your campus Financial Aid Office with any questions, and to find out if there are any legal requirements or campus standards you should follow in hiring procedures.
5. Free up time in your schedule for job interviews (you'll probably need at least ten fifteen-minute blocks; try to put at least a five minute 'cushion' in between appointments to make notes on candidates.)
6. Line up other instruction librarians or student workers to assist in the interview process. Team interviews work well.
7. Schedule time for a final meeting with your interview team to make cuts and final decisions.

1. Have enough copies of interview questions for all interviewers and extra copies of the job description for candidates. Also have copies of supporting materials on your instruction program (internal press releases, goals and objectives, mission statements, articles) for candidates.
2. Make sure to ask the same questions of all candidates. The interview questions should be structured so that if you stay on task, and don't digress, you can be done in 15 - 20 minutes.
3. Thank candidates, and give them a firm time that you will be making the decision. Make sure you have their preferred method of contact (phone, e-mail)
4. At meeting with interview team, make final cuts. The decision might be clear, but appreciate all input. Make sure to ask if any students present know candidates socially and would prefer not to comment on a particular candidate (can be awkward).
5. Consider course schedule of potential UTAs when hiring.

Supporting Documentation from the EDUCAUSE '99 Poster Session "What's in it for Me? A student's look at technology-enhanced teaching in the college library" Part One: Technology in College Libraries: Students Working Within the Curriculum at the University of Maine at Farmington

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Katherine Furlong, Reference/Instruction Librarian, Gettysburg College (formerly with UMF) (kfurlong@gettysburg.edu)
Jill A. Reny, UTA, UMF (lil_jill@hotmail.com)

10/22/99