The UO Library is the university's largest academic student employer, hiring more than 350 student assistants each year. Library student assistants work in all departments and divisions of the library system, including Reference, Special Collections, Conservation, Government Documents, Circulation, and all of the branch libraries. They are given extensive training to prepare them for significant job responsibilities. By the time they graduate, these students have developed marketable skills in areas such as public service, computers and information technology, video production, and record management.
Private gifts enable the library to offer special employment opportunities to students.
PLAN advisors receive special training and work closely with reference librarians to prepare them to help fellow students use the library and its resources more effectively. A private gift has also created the library's first endowed student internship. This internship provides a meaningful educational and employment opportunity to an upper-level undergraduate or graduate student, raising the library's current employment offerings to a new level. Each year the library determines in which department the internship will reside. This degree of flexibility allows the library to offer the most current and exciting opportunities to motivated and talented student applicants.