When you only have a week: Rapid-response, grassroots public services for access, wellness,and student success

摘要

Starting something new in the library-whether it be a program, collection, resource, or workshop-can be challenging. How the library as a whole responds to new ideas has not always been compassionate, flexible, or understanding. As we reflected on the team's processes, we marveled at the speed of accomplishments. When done remotely, previous boundaries and hierarchical workflows that slowed creativity and collaboration were nonexistent. The attitude was, if you can do it, do it, and if you need help, please ask. This supported teamwork across units and expanded opportunities for the involvement of student employees. For students, the experience provided a way to expand their positions beyond support for staff and librarians. According to one: For most students, the realm of opportunities for work experience available to us are always framed as student experiences. From on-campus jobs to research positions to fancy internships, there is always some expectation that our successes and failures are qualified by our status as "just students." This isn't the case for learner-centered design. Collaborating with professional staff and feeling like a valuable, co-equal contributor gives new meaning to the work. I felt much more confident sharing my ideas, and I think having that level playing field made me more open to constructive feedback because I felt like I was being approached as a respected colleague, not a naive student.-Michael Lima-Sabati-ni, Powell Library inquiry specialist When you only have a week, perceptions about what can be done can shift, encouraging an agile approach and collaboration, even during isolation. With compassion and flexibility, team members had an opportunity to highlight their skills in a rapidly moving environment. Student employees, especially, were critical to the success of these projects. The UCLA Library is proud that we were to complete these initiatives, retaining our values of being learner-centered, accessible, and diverse-representing student needs throughout the country, and world. We hope these initiatives will inspire future grassroots collaboration within and outside the library, leveraging our existing organization and resources. Regardless of the mode in which students learn and instructors teach, it is possible to come together and reshape existing structures for the greater good of our learning community.