I'm still thinking about committees and about how we can involve students in library operations. Now that I've got students functioning as Wal-Mart greeters and roving helpers, how about putting them on some of our committees?

Now, a part of me wouldn't want to inflict certain committee meetings on anyone who doesn't have the professional obligtation to attend. But I go back to what I said a while ago, that assessment activities in my library are sporadic, after-the-fact activities and not routinely used as guidelines for change. If you recognize your institution in this characterization, please read on.

Committees often function as agents for planning and change. Meetings are routine. We need feedback from users, as early in the process of change as possible. Ergo, students on committees.

Which committees? Suit yourself. I would think that committees working to improve the Web site and catalog would be a natural fit. Committees bringing up new services, or planning significant changes in a service, are another good option. As I think about this, I can imagine student feedback being useful in areas that I didn't innitially consider, such as staff development or user education.

How would we get students to attend our meetings? Let's pay them. Many academic libraries have student workers. Well, here's another job they can apply for. The librarians can conduct interviews and select promising candidates. A library might end out with a couple of students making the rounds of meetings, acting as sounding boards as committees do their work. The students wouldn't necessarily have to attend every meeting, but could be available on an as-needed basis if this works better for all involved. This could be a great learning experience on both sides of the fence.

Please don't ask me to address the issue of scheduling!

This idea is not dissimilar to having student representatives on campus governance councils. We have this at the University at Albany. One of our Senate councils advises the libraries and the campus technology group, and includes an undergraduate and graduate student representative. This council, though, is once-removed from the practical toil of library operations. I can see an even greater benefit to having student representatives on library committees.

A Student (or Student/Faculty) Advisory Board is another option. Every campus has go-getter students who want to fill their resumés with meaningful activities. There might be libraries out there that have these types of groups, and I just don't know about them. I'd be interested in hearing about these experiences.