The personal librarian program began in the fall of 2018 as a pilot project; reaching out to new students who had self-declared as indigenous. Six personalized e-mail messages were sent by participating librarians to students over the course of their first two semesters of study with information about the library and other campus services as well as an invitation to connect with the student’s “personal librarian.”

With the shift to full remote study and the prospect of a large incoming cohort of students beginning their university experience as remote learning students, the library considered how we might help address the challenge of students making the transition into university level study without the usual on-campus supports and service points. The personal librarian program was identified as one way to contribute to University-wide efforts to support students through this unique first year experience.

Scaling up a program from reaching about 250 students to reaching nearly 3,500 students presented some challenges. However, library staff were eager to help and most of the Library User Services Assistants were added to the program to distribute the students among a larger number of staff.

The end result was that all new students for both the fall 2020 and winter 2021 semesters received personal messages from an individual in the library with information to assist them in their university studies. While they may not have been able to come to the library in person, they did have the chance to make a connection with a specific library staff member to whom they could turn for support.