Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate using student employees with expertise in niche areas to provide library services outside the traditional scope of full-time library employees. It examines a case study where an academic library employed undergraduate students to assist users in makerspace-related work and, more recently, graduate students to assist users in data analysis. This paper will determine whether such students can provide satisfactory service to users. Design/methodology/approach This paper includes a background of the services, including hiring, training and assessment. The methodology for assessment includes analyzing user-created booking data, student employee consultation data and user feedback surveys to determine user and student employee satisfaction with the services. Findings The findings report high usage numbers and overall high user and student employee satisfaction with the two services, suggesting that student employees can be used effectively in such a way. Originality/value Although libraries often use student employees for lower-level library tasks, these results suggest libraries with limited resources and full-time staff should consider using student employees to provide specialized consultations, especially pertaining to software and other technologies.

New hire orientation often consists of a checklist of tasks but does little to integrate a new employee to the organization. Previous research indicates that organizational socialization is key to successful onboarding, but few models exist for libraries to support this aspect of a new hire’s experience. This article shares an onboarding program adopted by one academic library and discusses the results of an assessment of the new program for newly hired librarians. Findings indicate that a structured onboarding program can improve organizational socialization during a librarian’s first months on the job.

INTRODUCTION As academic libraries expand their scholarly communication support, they also need to find ways to help educate graduate students about this area as well as market themselves. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM The University of Nevada, Reno Libraries created a one-day symposium, called Manuscript Accepted!, aimed at graduate students and early career faculty that would use faculty and library expertise to lead panels and workshops. This article discusses planning for the event, including collaborating with other on-campus groups, working with publishers for financial support, and planning a program that would meet a variety of needs. Assessment of the first two symposiums, held in 2019 and 2020, shows that attendees valued the event while also highlighting the need for more targeted support for specific areas, such as the humanities. NEXT STEPS The Libraries plans to continue Manuscript Accepted! as a one-day symposium, although it will also look to ways to expand attendance. Finally, the Libraries is investigating ways to create smaller events that could be tied into the Manuscript Acceptance! brand but that help meet other needs of our attendees.