On the Edge: How to Provide Course- and Program-Integrated Library Support Without Being Embedded

Distance librarians working with an online doctoral program at Johns Hopkins University are asked by both students and faculty to provide a large amount of library support – without being embedded into the curriculum or the individual courses. Program administrators and faculty were resistant to allow librarians into the course management system (CMS), denying them access to discussion boards, assignment updates, and course content, but still expected a high level of student support. Over a three-year period, librarians respond by creating a “halo” of library services to support students at point of need that existed outside of the CMS, but was still highly integrated into the program. Librarians explore the importance of scaffolding and linking disparate services to complement each other, building a halo of support. Student need is at the center of the plan, focusing on collaborative teaching and reflection as well as student centered learning.     

Extreme Makeover: Library Orientation for Postgraduate Dental Residents

Bibby Library at the University of Rochester provides a library orientation to new post-graduate dental students. The original class utilized a lecture format and included content that was no longer relevant. Students were bored and did not retain the information. This article describes the design and implementation of a new orientation class. The class includes a series of exercises designed to familiarize students with pertinent resources. Student response to the class and implications for the library are discussed.     

Finding the Balance in Online Library Instruction: Sustainable and Personal

ABSTRACT

The UCF Libraries are continually developing new forms of library instruction to meet the needs of a growing student body with the same number of librarians. These efforts attempt to find the balance between impersonal online tutorials and time-intensive embedded librarianship. The pros and cons of each model employed at our growing university are discussed, along with strategies to identify and implement sustainable library instruction in an academic library.     

Applying Cognitive Load Theory Principles to Library Instructional Guidance

ABSTRACT

If the goal of library instructional guidance is to provide students with the knowledge needed to acquire new skills in order to accomplish their learning objectives, then it is prudent to consider factors that impact learning. Cognitive load theory addresses several of these factors and is applicable to a wide-range of instructional devices used by librarians, particularly during research guide design, multimedia development, and database administration. This article will provide academic librarians with an overview of cognitive load theory and strategies for minimizing distractions while maximizing the student's learning potential.     

Using Formative & Summative Assessment to Evaluate Library Instruction in an Online First Year Writing Course

Ensuring quality library instruction in an online-exclusive First Year Writing (FYW) course is important and challenging. Assessing what the students learned and how is equally important. The authors collaborate and co-teach the information literacy portion of an online-exclusive second semester FYW course at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. To teach information literacy skills, the authors developed tutorial videos, worksheets, and a Librarian AMA (Ask Me Anything) discussion forum for the students. The authors completed formative and summative assessments to measure the efficacy of the activities. This article explores their assessment, findings, and recommendations.     

From Distance Education to Online Learning: Practical Approaches to Information Literacy Instruction and Collaborative Learning in Online Environments

The increasingly ubiquitous nature of online learning has necessarily changed pedagogical approaches in the 21st century. This article will present an overview of the evolution of distance learning with a particular emphasis on current models and emerging methods of instruction for online learners. The authors detail how various learning management systems and tools as well as online learning objects can be used as mechanisms for creating a platform for student investment and ownership in the learning process. Additional discussion will focus on how these methods and approaches can enhance teaching, training, and peer collaboration within the library workplace.     

Play It,Learn It,Make It Last: Developing an Online Game to Create Self-Sufficient Library Information Users

ABSTRACT

Library orientation at an academic health sciences library consisted of a five-minute overview within new student orientation. Past experience indicated this brief presentation was insufficient for students to learn about library resources. In 2014, an effort was made to supplement orientation by developing an online game aimed at enabling students to become self-sufficient through hands-on learning. A gaming model was chosen with expectations that competition and rewards would motivate students. Although the pilots suffered from low participation rates, the experience merits further research into the potential of a broader model of online library instruction in the health sciences environment.     

The Virtual Library Liaison: A Case Study at an Online University

ABSTRACT

Capella University, an online university, started its library liaison program in 2007. The goals of the program were to increase the use of library resources and services and promote integration of information literacy competencies into coursework. A review of the literature of liaison programs shows a focus on liaison activities in traditional colleges and universities. While some activities are adaptable to the online environment, this setting provides unique opportunities for enhancing the impact of the liaison relationship. This article will describe key initiatives in three areas: the online course room, reference transactions, and collaboration with both academic and nonacademic departments. Strategies, activities, and tools used to implement the initiatives will be discussed.     

Global Business and Transportation: Online Research for Graduate Studies in International Transportation Management

This article describes the research methodology and design of electronic resources in support of the graduate program in International Transportation Management at SUNY Maritime College. A team of faculty librarians have designed the online research guides to meet the requirements of the graduate students at the final stages of completing their Master of Science in international transportation management. The SUNY Maritime College graduate students are required to conduct a final research assignment in global business and transportation, global statistics; foreign labor markets; foreign trade policies; and cultural, economic, and political contexts of supply chain management.     

城市图书馆的功能定位与运作机制探析——以宁波城市图书馆为例

文章从城市图书馆及相关概念入手,综述与回顾了国内外具有代表性的城市图书馆的功能定位及运作机制,分析其优劣得失,并结合宁波城市图书馆的定位与发展目标,提出适合我国城市图书馆发展的功能定位与运行机制。     

Two Thousand Students,One Librarian: Balancing Depth and Breadth of Library Instruction for Online Graduate Students

Many librarians struggle with how to balance scalable instructional offerings with more personalized instruction for online students—scale tends to come at the cost of personalization and vice versa. This paper will discuss three methods for connecting with online students that range from one-to-one personalization to widely scalable instruction: individual consultations, scaffolded instructional webinars, and asynchronous video tutorials. The student engagement with each type of instruction will be discussed, with ideas for future directions provided.     

Embedded Library Services: From Cooperation to Collaboration to Enhance Student Learning in Asynchronous Online Course

The online environment presents a unique challenge to higher education. Shifting from the face- to-face format to online not only involves rethinking course design, but requires careful consideration of when and how to teach students, how to find and evaluate information needed to successfully complete coursework. One solution is faculty teaming with subject librarians to design and build in teachable moments. This case study discusses one such successful partnership from designing the course to choosing and embedding library resources and finally to the learning outcome of the online course.     

Writing as an Information Literacy Tool: Bringing Writing in the Disciplines to an Online Library Class

ABSTRACT

The Writing in the Discipline (WID) concepts lend themselves to execution in an online realm, where written communication is the primary means of contact between students and instructors. The author instituted WID in an online section of a 1-credit research class and found the WID framework also made it easier for students to demonstrate information literacy. WID provides space within a course for students to become accustomed to the discourse of a discipline, writing to understand before being asked to formally communicate. This article explains the concepts behind WID and outlines how it was executed within an urban community college online class.     

Assessment from a Distance: A Case Study Implementing Focus Groups at an Online Library

Assessing library resources and services at a distance holds unique challenges in gathering data needed to make informed decisions. This article describes the complete process of piloting virtual focus groups—from planning and implementation through the analysis of results for a completely online student population. The virtual focus group method proved effective in getting qualitative feedback to spur library improvements, and it is transferable to many different library settings.     

Get to Know Your Librarian: How a Simple Orientation Program Helped Alleviate Library Anxiety

Library orientations do their part to familiarize students with information literacy, and how the library fits within university life. But what if an orientation could give a student a strong introduction to their academic librarians? Research in academic libraries has noted that library anxiety remains a continual problem among current students. Valparaiso University librarians created the Get to Know Your Librarian program, which sought to make librarians accessible. Using humor and casualness, incoming students were “introduced” to librarians through a series of fun facts. This simple program was successful in helping alleviate incoming students’ library anxiety before their first semester.     

The Global Library: Providing Resources and Services to International Sites

As institutions of higher learning focus on positioning strategically in the global and online education market, it is critical for academic libraries to realize their roles in supporting the institutional missions, one of which is to assist scholars, faculty, and students, regardless of location. This responsibility is fulfilled not only through the talents and dedication of librarians and library staff, but also with technology. The Brooklyn Campus Library of Long Island University (LIU) seized the opportunity and took a proactive approach to providing library resources and services to the university's Global College (GC) community. After carefully evaluating the needs of faculty and students across the globe, the authors recount how the library supports the teaching and learning activities of this unique user group. A library portal enables users at various international sites to use the library's abundant resources and customized services with ease, as well as to ensure that the library serves the Global College's mission of scholarly achievement. This article describes the LIU Brooklyn Campus Library's efforts to promote and implement customized resources and services to users on different continents.     

The Implementation of an Independent and Self-Paced Online Library Orientation for Freshman Students and the Use of Sakai as a Quiz Management System (QMS)

The Brooklyn College Library's Reference Unit developed the Library's Online Orientation Program (LOOP) to provide freshman students with an entirely online, independent, flexible, and self-paced introduction to the library's resources and services. The implementation of the LOOP gave the reference librarians much-needed time to focus their teaching on classes that require research. The LOOP includes an assessment component that was created and is managed using Sakai. Sakai was found to be effective in creating and managing the assessment, with minimal ongoing maintenance required. Reference librarians with serious time constraints can look to this model as an alternative to in-person library orientation sessions. Since very little has been written about the use of Sakai as a means of creating and managing online assessment, its benefits and drawbacks are outlined.     

数字图书馆对公务员远程教育培训的支撑研究

从数字图书馆远程教育角度出发,以大连干部在线学习中心为例,结合其远程教育资源的使用情况,探讨数字图书馆对公务员远程培训的教育功能,分析公务员远程教育培训对数字图书馆的需求。针对公务员远程培训存在的问题,提出完善数字图书馆对公务员远程教育培训支撑作用的建议。     

Tools and Principles for Effective Online Library Instruction: Andragogy and Undergraduates

The library literature evaluating the efficacy of online tutorial methods and delivery tools is a valuable resource for librarians looking for information to inform their choices for developing asynchronous online instruction. This literature, however, examines a wide variety of delivery tools, methods, and student populations. As a result, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about any one tutorial tool or method. This article compares selected research and concludes that the consensus in the literature suggests that applying adult learning principles to library tutorials has a larger impact on effective online instruction than the individual tool.