Standards for Scholarly Support - Scholar Support Desks

The Scholar Support Desk is the primary access point for scholars at FSU Libraries. Excellent scholarly support is foundational to ensuring all scholars experience dependable, equitable access to our entire suite of services and resources, across all three libraries - Strozier, Dirac, and Engineering. The following standards guide every interaction, training, and philosophy at our Scholar Support Desks.

Exhibit Emotional Intelligence

• Emotional intelligence is the understanding and empathy of someone else’s emotions and applying that to your interaction. Demonstrating this is a key component of exemplary scholarly support.
• Approach every interaction at the desk with the awareness that each scholar is a unique individual, with their own lived experiences, political realities, and daily stressors. 
• Put yourself in the scholars’ shoes. Relate to them as individuals.
• This empowers us to better support scholars and anticipate needs and produce tailored responses, unique to the individuals we are assisting.

Walk Up Assistance

• Every interaction with a scholar should be guided with empathy, care, and a desire to help.
• All scholars should leave with an answer, options, or contact information of the person who can help. Assure the scholars they are welcome to return to the desk for more help. If you do not know the answer, refer to the FAQs or ask a supervisor. 
• When working the desk, you are the face of FSU Libraries. Be friendly, approachable, and attentive. Greet every scholar who visits the desk and make eye contact. Try not to have your back turned to any approaching scholars. Always wear your staff badge.
• Never assume pronouns. They / Them is always safest.
• Be proactive in offering scholars assistance, instead of waiting for them to ask for help. Be aware of scholars who may not be in your line but appear lost.
• Give appropriate time and attention to each scholar. Make sure to listen to their full question or fully explain their needs before offering suggestions or answering. Even if it’s the 100th person to ask you about printing today, it’s important to let them finish asking before answering.
• Rephrase the question or ask for confirmation to ensure you understand their specific needs.
  • When helping a scholar with a multi-step question, like finding resources through our catalog, be sure to include them in the process by demonstrating or explaining each step you use to help them.
  • The terminology we use every day may not be accessible to scholars. Try to avoid excessive jargon and be prepared to break down what you are explaining. This is especially true on the phone.

On the Phone

• When answering the phone, always greet the scholar and make sure to give the location which you are at:
  • “Hello, Strozier Library, how may I help you?” Or “Hello, thank you for calling Dirac Science Library, how may I help you?” Or “Hello, Engineering Library, how may I help you?”
• On phone calls, tone and language can be more misconstrued without body language. Give yourself and the caller some patience and compassion when responding.
• Be prepared to walk them through different pages on the website. Be prepared to refer them to a supervisor, co-worker, or another department of FSU Libraries.
• Ask before putting someone on hold or transferring a call. Before transferring a call, be sure to give them the connecting number out loud in case the call drops.
  • "Thank you for calling Strozier Library; would you mind being placed on a brief hold?"
  • Help the scholars in line before returning to the call
  • Don't forget about people on hold!

Self Care IS Scholar Support

• While being attentive to the scholar’s emotional state and information needs are important aspects of the job, it is also crucial to be aware of your own emotional well-being when working the desk.
• Sometimes we have hard days and the stresses of our personal lives carry over into the workplace. And other times we struggle for no particular reason at all.
• Staff will never be asked to compartmentalize their emotional well-being in order to appear cheerful on the desk.
• If you are having a difficult day, please do not feel obligated to perform forced positivity. If you feel comfortable, inform your Supervisor and take breaks as needed.
• If after a particularly intense interaction with a scholar you find yourself feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, please feel free to inform a supervisor and step away from the desk!
• Although our aim is to help scholars, it’s also important to set boundaries, advocate for ourselves, and expect to be treated with kindness and respect by all those visiting the library.