You Can Take It with You? Student Library Employees, ePortfolios, and “Edentity” Construction

Authors

Gabriella Reznowski, Washington State University
Brian McManus, Washington State University

Date of this Version

Winter 2009

Document Type

Article

Citation

Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (Winter 2009) 10(3). Also available at http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v10n03/reznowski_g01.html.

Comments

Copyright 2009, the authors. Used by permission.

Abstract

Abstract

ePortfolios have become an important tool for assessing and tracking employee development. In 2008, the Washington State University Libraries became involved in the institution’s ePortfolio initiative. Library supervisors hoped that as a dynamic online tool, the ePortfolio concept would provide an effective method for assessing the library’s body of student employees. Collaborating with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTLT), the Center for Advising & Career Development (CACD), and Student Computing Services (SCS), the WSU Libraries explored the possibility of using ePortfolios to drive employee assessment. The Access Services unit, with the assistance of the Library Instruction, Library Systems, and the Humanities and Social Sciences units, piloted ePortfolios as an assessment tool that would engage student workers. As an electronic inventory of one’s professional and academic growth, ePortfolios present library supervisors with the opportunity to monitor and evaluate an employee’s progress over time.