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Teachers play a vital role in the structure of their classrooms. Part of this structure is having a clear understanding of the importance of not only supporting their students, but also the teacher assistants/support staff with whom they collaborate. Providing teacher assistants/support staff with guidance, information on student needs and classroom structures, team-building strategies, training, and supervision sets the stage for a positive climate for collaboration, teamwork, and learning. Consequently, teachers should be proactive and diligent to ensure high-quality training and supervision for teacher assistants/support staff, as this will have a direct impact on the services and learning opportunities being provided to the students.

This article aims to detail the incorporation of student assistants into a newly implemented chat service. It details the approaches used for training students and developing the chat repertoire.

This article reviews the existing literature on the topics of student assistants participating in library reference services and peer-to-peer engagement. It then details the first step of the transition process used for moving primary chat monitoring responsibility to library student assistants and away from staff and librarians as it existed previously.

Incorporating student assistants into the chat rotation was beneficial to the libraries and to the students participating in the chat service. While librarians and staff enjoyed help in covering the hours, student assistants learned research skills on the job that would potentially assist them in completing their course assignments.

Utilizing student assistants in library chat services is becoming increasingly popular with budget cuts and the scheduling demands that continue to grow for librarians and library staff. This article provides context for incorporating students and shows the value that the students receive via their participation in a chat service.

Discusses the application of win‐win mindsets and strategy in the employment of reference graduate assistants in academic libraries. The strategy covers different stages of the employment including recruitment, training and support, and transition. It focuses on the concept of treating graduate assistants as colleagues and involving them in the whole process. Also compares the differences between the employment of reference graduate assistants who are library school students and those who are non‐library school students, and the differences between graduate assistants in libraries and contingency workers in the business world.

This chapter explores how a perpetual beta mentality allows public services spaces and staffing to be more flexible, responsive, and dynamic to meet the needs of a university community. In one library’s experience, this led to a redeveloped Student Assistant Program which made better use of student employee time and prompted the authors to begin exploring the impact of library employment on the future work life of student employees. Through various data collection metrics, pilot project testing, and staged implementation, public services have expanded and become more adaptable. This approach included collecting usage pattern statistics, focus groups, and surveys. A perpetual beta mindset and career-oriented work for student employees makes for more responsive public services. The sample size for each focus group was small, but spanned a broad range of student stakeholders. Because perpetual beta allows for constant change, it can be hard to compare data between iterations. Libraries should make employment more meaningful to student assistants and their future careers. This chapter further explores the current research of library employment for student assistants and begins to track their perceptions of said impact after graduation.

This paper aims to develop a better understanding of student worker perceptions of academic libraries in an effort to improve student worker training, position structure and, ultimately, their perceptions of the library. The value of student reference assistants extends well beyond the completion of assigned library tasks. Specifically, student reference assistants can be important community voices and advocates for academic libraries, spreading, by word-of-mouth, the kinds of library services available to students and their relevance to the academic community. Consequently, it is essential to gain an understanding of how student workers perceive the academic library as a result of their employment.

This paper uses an informal, anonymous online survey of student reference assistants to gather information on student worker perceptions of the library. Questions focus on student workers’ understanding of library services and resources as well as on the library’s mission and purpose. An analysis of student responses is provided in light of four “ideal” perceptions which the librarians hold for all students.

Overall, student worker responses to the survey generally aligned with the ideal perceptions. However, misalignments suggest the need for training that focuses on the development of a broader understanding of the library’s role in the academic community.

The paper can help academic librarians gain insight on how student workers understand the role of the library within the larger academic community and how positive student worker perceptions can be leveraged for outreach purposes.

This paper examines an important aspect of student worker perception that has generally been overlooked in the literature.

This paper traces the context of, and outlines the reasoning for, the use of student shelvers in an Irish higher education academic library (Waterford Institute of Technology).

The paper is a case study report on use of student assistants to carry out the shelving function at Waterford Institute of Technology Library Service. It describes the rationale behind the employment of student assistants, the evolution of their incorporation into the library and the management of this now vital element of the library service, and also includes a short survey on the use of student shelvers at other academic libraries in Ireland.

Student shelvers are an important resource in the WIT Library Service, freeing up staff time to concentrate on other projects. In order to make an effective contribution to the library service, the management of this resource is quite time‐consuming.

The review of available literature revealed little about the situation in Ireland. The survey of other Irish academic libraries was on a small scale. There is scope for further research on both an Irish and an international scale.

This account of one academic library's experience of using student shelvers to supplement regular library staff is of potential interest and help to other libraries embarking on or considering a similar initiative.

This paper is of potential value to other libraries considering embarking on a similar initiative, or indeed to libraries who already have such schemes in operation and who are interested in making comparisons with other institutions.

Scheduling conflicts and budget deficits forced the termination of a classroom‐format training program for student assistants serving at a university library general reference desk. In its place has arisen a year‐round alternative approach to training that combines individualized instruction, hands‐on learning, scavenger hunts, and regular review of reference desk policies, practices, and procedures. This reincarnated undergraduate student assistant training program now allows for ongoing practice and increased feedback. Additional benefits of this new training program include greater student‐student and student‐staff interactions, the flexibility to quickly address perceived problems, and the ability to rapidly focus on new reference tools and reference policies.

Teacher assistants and support staff play a critical role in the educational outcomes of Indigenous students. Small steps are being made in ‘Closing the Gap’ in Australia between Indigenous and non-Indigenous educational outcomes (Australian Government, 2013), and the trends are similar throughout other Indigenous populations. However, there is still much that needs to be done. This chapter will describe the role of teacher assistants and other support staff, and share pedagogy and practices that have been successful in engaging Indigenous students within an inclusive and responsive curriculum. The chapter will conclude with a summary of key concepts and recommendations for further research.

Milwaukee has very high rates of risky sexual behavior and low rates of academic achievement among adolescents. Milwaukee school representatives partnered with researchers to create and implement an innovative project‐based learning (PBL) high school health curriculum to engage students in school. This health education program, Project Health (PH), aimed to engage Milwaukee Public Schools high school students, by PBL, into the urban health classroom. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the curriculum on student engagement and document the process of implementing this program, in order to identify strengths, weaknesses and areas of needed improvement.

Student engagement was measured with an 18‐item scale at three time points in intervention and control schools. Attendance data were collected by tracking the number of days students were absent from school the semester the curriculum was implemented. Analysis of covariance was used to test whether students in PH classes were more engaged and if they had fewer absences than students in the control classes. The process evaluation included interviews with teachers, focus groups with high school students, and focus groups with teaching assistants. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis to extract key themes and categories across all data.

Students in the intervention health class were significantly less absent from school than control students. However, they were not more engaged than their peers in control schools as measured by a student engagement scale. Various components of the PBL teaching approach used in the Project Health high school curriculum were viewed as positive by health educators, students, and teaching assistants. Results indicate that PBL used in health education may increase school attendance.

This study was original in that it documented how a novel health education program that incorporated PBL can positively impact urban students’ school attendance. It also highlighted the process of implementing this program from the vantage point of students, assistants, and health education.

The purpose of this article is to revisit Kimbel Library’s peer reference program three years later and provide further information on the challenges and benefits of growing a successful peer reference service model.

This article examines the ongoing development of a peer reference model in an academic library setting and assesses the impact, value and continuing evolution of this model.

Communication and collaboration among library public service departments is the key to managing rapid program growth and expansion of services.

This article offers suggestions based on the experiences of one library for others interested in establishing or reexamining a peer reference service model.

Employing undergraduate students at the reference desk is a relatively new practice that warrants further analysis, as it becomes more widespread. This article returns to examine a newly established peer reference program three years after its beginning.