Circulation Assistant, Halvorsen Library

About the job

Access Services keeps the front door of Halvorsen Library working. Three of our eleven student circulation assistants graduated in May and one left for a co-op, so we are hiring two people to start after fall break. The service desk is on Level 1, beside the café and across from the Technology Help Desk, which means you will also be the person asked where the printers are about forty times a shift.

This is a good first campus job. Nobody expects you to know the Library of Congress classification system on day one, and the quiet hours are real study time once the shelving cart is empty.

What you’ll do

• Check materials in and out, place holds, and pull items for the holds shelf, including interlibrary loan arrivals.
• Hand out study-room keys and release rooms when a reservation is fifteen minutes past without a show.
• Shelve returns on Levels 2–4 and shelf-read an assigned range each week (finding the one misfiled book is oddly satisfying).
• Answer directional questions and refer research questions to the librarian on call.
• On closing shifts, walk the building with the evening supervisor and clear the Level 4 silent reading room.

What we’re looking for

• Any enrolled Porter student in good standing; first-years are welcome.
• Reliability. If you will be late, call the desk, not your friend who works the next shift.
• Comfort saying “let me find out” and then actually finding out.
• Ability to push a loaded book cart and lift a 25-pound box of returns.

Training is paid: two three-hour sessions the week of October 26 covering the circulation system, patron privacy, and how to handle a lost Porter Card.

Schedule and pay

Shifts are three or four hours. Weekday openings run 7:30–11:30 a.m.; the evening slots end at closing. Each assistant works one weekend shift every other week. You submit your class schedule and pick shifts before each term, and during finals week you can drop to as few as four hours.

Campus jobs are capped at 20 hours a week combined while classes are in session and 40 over breaks (see hour limits); for F-1 students the 20 is firm. Pay is biweekly by direct deposit; log every shift in the payroll system so your supervisor can approve it before the cutoff.

How to apply

Apply in PorterConnect, the student employment portal in MyPorter, under job number SJ-26-1107. Upload a short résumé (a list of past jobs, volunteering, or school activities is fine) and your class schedule. Interviews are fifteen minutes at the service desk.

Apply by October 21, 2026. Questions about the job go to Gunnar Lieske, Access Services Supervisor, at lieskeg@uwporterfalls.edu or (715) 555–0151. Once hired, you complete an I-9 in person and a W-4 before your first shift; plan on a pay period or two before the first check arrives.