Terri Pedersen Summey

Beyond the Library's Walls: Using Library 2.0 Tools to Reach Out to All Users

ABSTRACT The Library 2.0 movement emerged as a response to the technologies and concepts in the Web 2.0 movement and has been taking the library world by storm. Web 2.0 takes the stagnant Web 1.0 and makes it more user-driven, collaborative, participatory, and personalized. Library 2.0 takes the tools of Web 2.0 and moves them into a library setting with libraries that are user-centered, networking faculty, students, and librarians to create a vital and evolving organization designed to meet the needs of the current information culture. Library 2.0 is especially relevant to institutions providing services to off-campus students. Many students taking courses remotely have full-time jobs and busy lives beyond their coursework. Providing those students with a customizable, personalized, and collaborative library assists in their success as a student. Using Web 2.0 technologies and other social networking tools in the library setting brings the library to our users, making them more relevant in todays information society.

Getting Beyond Institutional Cultures: When Rivals Collaborate

Abstract As library service providers for distance learners, we are constantly searching for ways to improve communication, share our knowledge, and make distance learners aware of our resources. Virtual (real-time chat) reference is yet another tool to utilize in reaching these students. While virtual reference has been around for several years, and is offered by many libraries, the four institutions comprising this service have taken a variety of paths to reach the current stage-a collaboration among academic state university libraries of varying size. This paper discusses collaboration aspects such as differences in institutional cultures, negotiations, planning and implementation, developing policies and best practices, staff training, technology issues, and lessons learned that can be applied to any collaborative project.

But We Don't Have an Instructional Designer: Designing Online Library Instruction Using ISD Techniques

Librarians offer a variety of library instruction utilizing multiple formats. Many struggle with the task of transferring instruction to the online environment. Principles of instructional design can be leveraged to effect quality change in the delivery of instruction to make teaching more effective, efficient, and appealing to learners. Although having an instructional designer on the staff of the library can be extremely beneficial in designing library instruction, for many libraries this is not a reality. Libraries can offer quality instruction without hiring an instructional designer. Instructional design is, in and of itself, a systematic way to approach learning. While it is impossible to share the breadth and scope of instructional design in a single paper, it is the goal of this paper to provide some overview of the design process and to point the reader to references and resources that serve to improve the quality of instruction given by librarians.

Collaboration: The Key to Unlocking the Dilemma of Distance Reference Services

SUMMARY Distant education offerings are growing at a phenomenal rate for academic institutions, creating new groups of library users that are remote from the main campus with unique library and research needs. Recent studies examining the needs of this unique and growing population note that reference and research assistance are key services needed. Many institutions have appointed or hired distance education librarians to help provide services to distant learners. They are often, however, one-person operations that function more as coordinators rather than full-service providers. Since the coordinator cannot provide all of the reference services alone, the key to providing these services for distant education students is to create and sustain good working relationships both in the library and with external entities. Offerings to distance students include phone reference and accessibility to online resources, plus virtual reference and often 24/7 services. This article will examine issues and experiences in bringing together different groups to provide reference services to distant learning communities. It will also describe key relationships necessary for keeping distance reference services at an optimal level.

Got distance services? Marketing remote library services to distance learners

SUMMARY Distance learning students may not think of the “campus” library as the first place to fulfill their information needs and may not even be aware of the services available to them. One way to reach these students is to adopt and adapt marketing techniques from the business world. This article examines the findings of a survey conducted at Emporia State University concerning the awareness of distance learning services. It will also examine marketing techniques and illustrate how they can be applied to increase awareness of reference support services for distance learners.

Teaching the Teachers: Library Instruction through Professional Development Courses.

Abstract A team of three public services librarians at Emporia State University, KS, describes the process of teaching professional development courses to academic faculty, staff, and graduate assistants over the course of 2 years. Classes offered for university pass/fail credit were planned, advertised, and taught, with emphasis on various electronic databases. Tables illustrate the increase in total library instruction, due partially to the favorable reactions of university faculty who participated in these courses. The positive image of the library across the campus has been enhanced through the continued involvement of librarians as teachers and facilitators of learning.

It Takes a Village to Design a Course: Embedding a Librarian in Course Design

Often associated with online learning, instructional design is a process utilized in efficiently designing training and instruction to help ensure effectiveness. Typically, the instructional systems design (ISD) process uses a team-based approach, consisting of an instructor, a facilitator, a designer and a subject matter expert. Although library services and information literacy instruction are an essential component of a quality online learning experience, course designers do not always consider them during the design process. Embedded librarians can be valuable members of the instructional design team, helping to develop the course and including information literacy concepts from the onset. As experts in research and technology, librarians can guide the design process by aligning research projects and assignments with library services and resources, and other available media. In this paper, the authors will present information about embedding librarians in the instructional design process, the ISD process itself, and provide examples illustrating how librarians can collaborate in the design process.

Infoliteracy@adistance: Creating Opportunities to Reach (Instruct) Distance Students

This article offers a theoretical model of online, graduate student information seeking behavior. The qualitative methodology used to gather data for the development of the model included an electronic survey and semi-structured interviews conducted online using Adobe Connect Pro™. Participating in the study were 238 graduate students enrolled in at least one online course at a mid-western university. Data analysis included use of Zoomerang™reports to interpret survey data, and content analysis of interview transcriptions. The resulting evolution of the Bates’ (2002) theoretical model includes new two modes of information seeking: scrutinizing (directed, dynamic), and being alert (undirected, dynamic). The researchers conclude that the essence of online, graduate student information seeking is the gathering and processing of information by humans using computer technologies and the resulting impact on the human brain. This study shows the necessity of linking online, graduate student information-seeking research to psychological theory to examine reasons why online graduate students engage in various information behaviors.

Laptops to Go: A Student Assessment of a Library Laptop Lending Service

Approximately five years ago, the library at Emporia State University started a laptop lending service to provide laptops for use in the library. The program has been highly successful. In the last few years, some modifications were made to the program, and netbooks were added. In this article, the authors will explore laptop programs in a variety of library settings, present details on the ESU Libraries laptop lending service, and discuss the results of a student satisfaction survey. Finally the authors present what the library faculty and staff have learned and potential future modifications to the program.

Going Where They Are: Intentionally Embedding Librarians in Courses and Measuring the Impact on Student Learning

ABSTRACT The concept of embedded librarians is a way for academic librarians to be intentionally and strategically inserted in the learning and teaching process through a variety of initiatives. In a mid-size university, in order to better address the research and curricular needs of students and faculty members, librarians became more intentional about embedding themselves in academic departments and online courses. To assess the impact upon student learning, the librarians are working on a pilot project utilizing a variety of methods. This article describes the first phase of this assessment project, a survey of faculty teaching course in which faculty were embedded. Finally, information on next steps to assess the embedded librarian program using student surveys, focus groups, and interviews is presented.