PARSONS MUSIC LIBRARY POLICIES AND PROCEDURES: S

Shelf reading means making sure that items are on the shelf in the correct order. This is a VERY IMPORTANT TASK! If things are out of place it makes it harder for patrons and staff to find materials. Everyone is expected to complete 15 minutes of shelf reading per shift. There is a form in the schedule notebook that you will use to record your name, time and date, and the last call number that you read. In addition to visually scanning the shelves, we use a computer program that will be explained to you.

Periodic “vacations” from shelf reading may be declared by Melanie or Linda, at their discretion.

As a student employee, please make a habit of completing all items on this checklist for each shift that you work:

1. Arrive on time for your shift. Unless it's an emergency, it is not acceptable to arrive after your scheduled start time without first notifying Linda or Melanie.

2. Upon arriving, sign in on the weekly printed schedule

3. Log your hours on your time sheet in BannerWeb

4. Check Blackboard for announcements and sub requests from other students.

5. View shelving cart and shelve items. There should not be any items left on the cart at the end of your shift.

6. View shelf reading log. Start your shelf reading at the point where the previous person left off.

7. While at the desk, make sure to log all patron questions in LibAnswers.

8. Attend to any special projects that have been assigned to you.

Special Borrowers are library patrons who are not current UR students, staff, or faculty. With the exception of UR retirees and alumni, they do not get access to library databases (and alumni only get access to a few). Managers can add new Special Borrowers to Alma, using these instructions.

There are several categories of Special Borrowers:

General Public

People aged 18 or older who reside in greater Richmond, but who do not fit in any of the categories below, pay $25 per year for UR library borrowing privileges. The Special Borrower card entitles them to borrow up to 15 items from the UR libraries, with two renewals, but they are not permitted to borrow DVDs or videos.

UR Alumni/Alumnae

Graduates of UR get free, lifetime library borrowing privileges, although their registrations will periodically need to be updated in order to verify their contact information. UR Alumni/Alumnae may borrow up to ten items from the UR libraries, with two renewals.  To access JSTOR, alumni/ae need to log into their alumni account at uronline.net.

Richmond Area College Students and College Faculty

Undergraduates at schools belonging to the Richmond Academic Library Consortium (Brightpoint CC, Randolph-Macon, Reynolds CC, Richard Bland College, Union Presbyterian Seminary, VCU, Virginia State University, and Virginia Union University) may borrow up to ten items, with two renewals. They should present a signed slip from their home library. Graduate students and faculty from RALC schools may borrow ten items, but they don't need a signed slip. DVDs and videos cannot be borrowed without the permission of the Music Librarian. RALC borrowers are not issued a Special Borrower card, and they must present a valid ID from their home institution.

Richmond Area High School Students

High school students who have exhausted the resources at their school or public library may borrow up to five items, with no renewals. They must present a signed permission slip from a librarian, and they cannot borrow DVDs or videos. High school students are not issued a Special Borrower card. When entering them into Alma, set the expiration date for ONE MONTH (not one year) from the current date.

K-12 educators and public librarians

Local K-12 educators and public librarians with a valid employee ID are eligible for a free Special Borrower card.  They have the same borrowing privileges as the general public, but they do not pay the annual fee. 

Richmond Symphony members

Active members of the Richmond Symphony are eligible for a free Special Borrower card.  They have the same borrowing privileges as the general public but are not required to pay the annual fee.  Symphony musicians who are also UR faculty do not need a Special Borrower card because their UR ID gives them faculty library privileges, which are more extensive.

Faculty/Staff Spouses and Children

Spouses and children of current faculty and staff may borrow up to ten items, with one renewal. DVDs and videos cannot be borrowed. Spouses and children over age 12 must present their own UR ID, available from the OneCard office (in the Post Office building next to the Dining Hall). They should not use their faculty/staff relative's card.

Retired UR Faculty/Staff

Upon retirement, Faculty and staff retain their UR ID and library borrowing privileges.  They may borrow an unlimited number of items for 28 days, with two renewals.

Friends of Boatwright Library

Members of the Friends of Boatwright Library are eligible to borrow up to ten items (including DVDs), with two renewals, when they present their Friends membership card. They may not borrow videotapes.

"Special collections" refers to library materials that are kept out of general circulation due to their uniqueness, age, physical condition, monetary value, or other factors.  The Music Library's special collections are kept in two places: the tall metal cabinet behind the circulation desk, and some shelves in the CD storage room.  These materials can be found in OneSearch, and they may be consulted onsite, but only with the Music Librarian's permission. If someone asks to see a special collections item when Linda is unavailable, please take their contact information so that she may make arrangements with them at another time.

The Music Library cannot accept SpiderCards to pay library fees.  If a patron wishes to pay in this manner, please refer them to Boatwright Library.

Whenever you get a question from a library user (excluding the regular activity of checking out or returning materials), please log it in our statistics program, called LibAnswers ("Ask Boatwright").  We track the questions that we receive, and the answers that we give, for training purposes (to learn from each other, and to make sure that we give out correct information) and to demonstrate to the University that we are providing a valuable service.

You should have been given a LibAnswers account during your initial training.  To log into LibAnswers, look for the icon on a circulation computer, or go to https://askboatwright.richmond.edu.  If you're using the Chrome browser, you may get a yellow error screen.  Just click through it and then do the following:

1. Log in with your UR email address and the password that you selected.

2. Enter your reference transaction in the appropriate fields.  Leave the "answer" field blank if your question is so basic (where is the bathroom? what time do you close?) that other library employees won't learn anything from it.

3. Do not enter the patron's name or other identifying information. Just say "a student asked..." or "a professor asked..."

4. If you'd like to review questions/answers entered by other library staff, click on "Ref Analytics" at the top and select "View/Edit Transaction."  You can also do this if you need to edit a question that you entered (please do not edit other people's entries).

5. If you want to see Music Library questions only, select "Music Library" from the Locations drop-down box and then click the blue "filter" button.

The library's Student Employee Performance Evaluation gives student employees feedback on their progress in the following areas:

• Dependability
• Attitude
• Adaptability
• Initiative
• Judgement
• Productivity
• Work Quality
• Job Knowledge
• Leadership (Student Managers only)

Students are rated from 1 (inadequate) to 4 (exceptional) in each category. The purpose of the Student Employee Performance Evaluation is to facilitate communication between a student employee and their supervisor. It is designed to provide constructive feedback to the student employee on work performance, and thus maximize the employment experience for both student employee and supervisor.

Student employees have the opportunity to add written comments to their evaluations. While the evaluation form is placed in the student's UR employment file, it does not become part of their academic record.

The staff of Parsons Music Library strongly supports study abroad and encourages all students to avail themselves of this opportunity. However, every student employee who goes abroad needs to be replaced in the work schedule, and this often means hiring a new student who will continue to work here in subsequent semesters. For this reason, we can't hold jobs open for students while they are studying abroad, and we can't guarantee that we will be able to rehire these students when they return to campus. Students who are considering study abroad need to be aware of the following policies:

• It is the study-abroad student's responsibility to contact Melanie   or Linda before returning to campus if they want to be rehired by the Music Library.
• Except under extraordinary circumstances, students who are rehired after returning from abroad will have the same job title that they had before they left.
• If you are considering study abroad, please notify Melanie or Linda as soon as possible.

Students may reserve our study rooms (W201A, W201G, W201P) at https://libcal.richmond.edu/.  Managers can check the calendar of confirmed reservations in case there is a question or dispute about who reserved a room.  These are the steps to follow:

1. Go to https://libcal.richmond.edu/

2. Scroll to the bottom and click "Log in to LibApps" (if you're already logged into Ask Boatwright, you can probably just click the "Dashboard" link)

3. Click "Spaces" in the orange ribbon at the top of the screen

4. Change "Spaces in Location" to Parsons Music Library (the default is Boatwright)

5. Click the "Confirmed Bookings" tab to see a calendar with the current month's bookings (you can hover over individual bookings to get more detail)

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THIS IS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION THAT IS NOT TO BE SHARED OUTSIDE OF WORK OR ALTERED IN ANY WAY

You are expected to report to work as scheduled, and to work your full shift, but we understand that unavoidable conflicts will occasionally arise. It is permissible to miss work for exams, class sessions, meetings with faculty, academic events, graduate school visits, job interviews, performances, illness, family emergencies, religious observances, travel, and other circumstances approved by Linda or Melanie, but you are responsible for finding a substitute to work in your place. For sudden illnesses or emergencies, please contact Linda immediately BY TELEPHONE OR TEXT MESSAGE (804 683-3677). Work should not be missed for social events, extracurricular activities, or because you just don’t feel like coming in.

How to find a sub for yourself

As soon as you discover that you're unable to work a scheduled shift, you should post that information on the Music Library Blackboard site (click on SUB BOARD > SUBS > CREATE THREAD). The subject line of the post should include your job title and the date and time period that you need coverage, for example, "ASSISTANT needed Fri, 3/27, 4-6 pm."  If you need help for multiple shifts, please create a separate post for each shift, so that people can respond to them individually.

If the shift in question is less than 48 hours (two days) away and no one has volunteered to cover it, you need to start contacting people individually. The CONTACTS button in Blackboard gives phone numbers and email addresses for all Music Library student employees. If you have exhausted all sources and still can't find a sub, CONTACT BOTH MELANIE AND LINDA AT LEAST 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE. Under no circumstances should you ask someone to work for you who is not on the current roster of Music Library student employees.

Linda checks the sub postings on Blackboard every day. If you make arrangements for a sub outside of Blackboard, it is your responsibility to inform Linda of the schedule change.

How to sub for someone else

Everyone should check the Blackboard sub postings daily. Ordinarily, Managers sub for Managers, and Assistants for Assistants, due to the differentials in pay and responsibilities of the two positions, but depending on the shift in question, these rules can be relaxed with staff permission (during evening/weekend shifts, only Managers can sub for other Managers, because someone needs to be in charge). If you are able to take a shift that has been posted, just reply to that person’s message.

Once you volunteer to sub for a shift, and the substitution is acknowledged by Linda or Melanie (either in Blackboard or through a private communication with you), YOU OWN IT. If you find that you're unable to work a sub shift that you've volunteered for, it is up to you to find someone to cover for you. If you miss a shift that you've volunteered to cover, it will be treated as though you missed one of your own regularly scheduled shifts.

The sub system works best when everyone volunteers for extra shifts as they are able. Don’t expect one or two people to shoulder the entire burden, especially if you often need to ask others to work for you. And PLEASE don't assume that Linda will be available to cover an evening or weekend shift for you. Librarians have lives, too!

Consequences of missing a shift

You are ultimately responsible for all of your shifts, including any extra ones that you agree to cover, and except in the case of sudden illness or emergency, the burden of finding a sub when you can't work falls on you. Failure to show up on time for a scheduled daytime shift (Mon-Fri 9-5), without prior notification or extenuating circumstances, will result in a verbal warning (1st offense), a written warning (2nd offense), or termination (3rd offense). Missing a shift after 5:00 or on a weekend, without prior notification or extenuating circumstances, may result in immediate termination. Students whose employment at the Music Library has been terminated for cause are ineligible for employment at Boatwright Library.

Our books, scores, CDs, and video materials are acquired in accordance with the library's collection development policy. This policy considers a number of factors, including cost, potential for long-term use, relationship to our existing collection, and relevance to the curriculum.

With these guidelines in mind, Linda is happy to consider requests for new purchases from students, faculty, and staff. Suggestions can be dropped in the box on the circulation desk, communicated to her through e-mail, or discussed in person.