Reference for the Remote User Through Embedded Librarianship

Embedded librarians serve an important role in assisting remote users. Despite the varying degrees of embeddedness, all maintain the goal of ensuring the same high-quality reference and instruction services that users have come to expect from the traditional library setting. Embedded librarians select and use technology that most effectively meets the needs of this unique user group. This technology can include the library Web site, course management systems, research guides, lecture and screen capture software, remote reference (including telephone, chat, and email), web conferencing, online survey tools, citation management, and social media.     

Matching Up Learning Styles with Learning Objects: What's Effective?

ABSTRACT

Online instruction is quite prevalent on campuses and within libraries. Librarians are engaged in the creation of learning objects that can either be linked to or embedded within course-management systems. But are those instructional tools designed to best accommodate diverse learners or are they constructed to reflect the teaching and learning style of the designer? Results from a study (a survey of librarians, student usability studies, and interviews) document both considerations made in the creation of learning objects, and the effectiveness of learning objects from students’ perspectives. The findings may be useful for future modifications of these tools (e.g., tutorials, videos, podcasts, and PowerPoints).     

The Role of Cooperation in Creating a Library Online Tutorial

SUMMARY

Reference librarians at St. Charles Community College discovered the benefits of cooperation when they began the process of creating an online library tutorial. In the fall of 1999, librarians realized that their walk-in library sessions were becoming ineffective due to poor attendance by students. The tours didn't fit into on-campus students' busy schedules, and failed to serve distance students at all. Two reference librarians decided to work together to create a web-based tutorial introducing students to library online resources. It was an informal process that started with information gathering on what tutorials exist, how they were developed and what type of software was used. After the librarians decided on the format and appropriate software, they brought together their creative and technical strengths to design an appealing and functional tutorial. To create a “virtual tour” of the library's physical layout, the librarians also collaborated with the Instructional Support Center, a group of educational technology specialists who are part of SCC's community college consortium. The tutorial was completed in only a year, partly because working in a small library allows for constant contact between the librarians, but also due to the efficiency of using cooperation. This successful collaborative project eventually won the Missouri Community College Association's 2001 Technology Innovation Award.     

University Libraries and Academic Strategic Planning at the University of Cincinnati

As part of a broadly defined academic strategic planning initiative at the University of Cincinnati, the Libraries developed a five-year plan. This article describes the process including its successes and failures, documents the most positive outcomes resulting from the process, and raises several issues related to university-wide planning processes.     

Using Online Tutorials to Reduce Uncertainty in Information Seeking Behavior

ABSTRACT

Uncertainty is defined as affective symptoms of stress, anxiety, and frustration when faced with an information need. Traditional face-to-face instruction allows sender and receiver to fulfill information needs using multiple sources, which can be visual, auditory, tactile, or verbal. Distance learners may experience high levels of uncertainty when most or all of the communication and interaction takes place in an electronic environment that does not allow for these multiple information sources. Research on face-to-face communication and uncertainty suggests that people attempt to reduce uncertainty by acquiring more information and also by using structured or familiar information resources. This paper suggests that many of our behavioral motivations in face-to-face activities would also apply in the online environment. By creating online tutorials that combine structured hierarchical instructions with familiar modes of communication, we may be able to reduce symptoms of uncertainty in the library search process.     

A Review of “Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0”

This study compared two common types of online information literacy tutorials: a streaming media tutorial using animation and narration and a text-based tutorial with static images. Nine sections of an undergraduate biology lab class (234 students total) were instructed by a librarian on how to use the BIOSIS Previews database. Three sections watched a brief video tutorial, three sections used an interactive HTML tutorial, and three sections received live instruction only. The content of instruction was the same across all nine sections. Immediately after instruction, each class was encouraged to complete a brief survey and quiz. One hundred and fifty-four students completed the survey and quiz. In all three conditions, students reported feeling more confident searching the BIOSIS Previews database after instruction. However, the increase in confidence was less for the HTML group. The students who watched the video tutorial scored higher on all five quiz questions than the other two groups. Comparing the HTML and video groups, the difference in scores was statistically significant (p < .05) for questions 1, 2, and 5. Students may learn more from video tutorials than tutorials that use static Web pages. Also, interactivity in tutorials may not necessarily enhance learning.     

Creation,Management, and Assessment of Library Screencasts: The Regis Libraries Animated Tutorials Project

ABSTRACT

The Distance Learning Department of the Regis University Library is charged with providing library instruction for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in accelerated courses offered at six distance campus locations and online. The department has created a series of animated online tutorials (i.e., screencasts) accessible via the library Web site. These interactive tutorials cover basic library services and resources and represent an effort to provide asynchronous bibliographic instruction to remote library users. This paper describes the use of screencasting software to create library tutorials and related issues including software options, production tips and techniques, and project management. In addition, the author describes the use of Google Analytics to record usage statistics and perform assessments.     

LibGuides and Web-Based Library Guides in Comparison: Is There a Pedagogical Advantage?

This study investigates whether the platform used to deliver a tutorial matters in online information literacy instruction and assesses the overall quality of an information literacy tutorial assignment given to an undergraduate survey class. The study asks whether there is any pedagogical advantage between information literacy tutorials created in the LibGuides library guide creation software and tutorials created as Web pages. This research question is relevant to current studies of online information literacy tutorials, particularly given the increasingly dominant but under-researched position of LibGuides in the academic library world for delivering guides and tutorials. Two separate groups of students completed LibGuides and Web page versions of the same information literacy tutorial assignment in a university undergraduate communication course. Survey results of these 89 students indicated that both the LibGuides and Web page platforms deliver online instruction content effectively and achieve learning objectives almost equally well. Results also indicated content areas within the assignment that could be strengthened.