SCS home > Student Labs > Lab Angels > Duties  Updated 9/21/2006

Tasks and Responsibilities

As a lab angel working your shift your primary responsibility is to assist other people working in the lab; this should always be your top priority. However, if no one is in need of assistance is it OK to just study or work on your own papers or projects? Not really. You're in the lab to work and there are a number of things you should be doing to help out.

Answer the Phone and check voicemail

The phones in the labs ring on our helpdesk line (x1568 or 765.983.1568 to outside callers). Please answer it when it rings and try to help out the person calling. If you can't answer their question, you can transfer the call to either Ryan (x1382) or Zach (x1262). If neither of them pick up, take a message or transfer the call to x1888 so that they can leave a voice mail on the helpdesk. Check messages on the helpdesk line (red light on phone in Corner Lab should be lit) if there are any by calling 1888 and entering the password (which for security reasons must remain in the oral tradition).

Tidy up the Lab

• Remove any trash, disks, books, papers, etc. and pitch, recycle, shelve, toss in the lost stuff box as appropriate
• Make sure staplers and other resources are where they belong
• Check and replenish supplies (toner, paper, staples, etc.)
• Reboot any unused computers
• On a random computer in each lab:
  
  • Open Firefox and browse to an off-campus website
  • Insert a USB key and open a document
  • Clean screen and vacuum keyboard if needed
  • Check for presence and cable routing of headphones
  • Make sure mouse cable is free and clear and can be moved to either side of keyboard
• If yours is the last shift of the day (check the schedule to find out), turn off any unused computers and the lab lights when you leave (the monitors can stay switched on - they will go into 'low power' mode when the computers are off)

If in the course of the above you encounter any discrepancies, problems, or issues you can't resolve, send an email to the helpdesk describing the problem or issue.

Work on your professional development

Obviously the more you know about how things work in the lab, the better able you will be to help others. This is a good excuse to work on your papers and projects, but try to push yourself a bit to learn new things while you are at it. Format your papers professionally with heading styles, footnotes, section headers, dynamic indexes or tables (as in a table of contents that updates itself as pagination changes), etc. Use the scanner. Create a web site.  

Better yet, write up some instructions telling others how to do some of the these things and post them to the Lab Angel list for peer review.