DE Oracle @ UMUC

The Not-So-Distant Librarian

Robert Miller

Reference and Instruction Librarian

Information and Library Services

Published: July-August 2011

Category: » Information-and-library-services » Support-and-services

As traditional, on-site colleges increasingly incorporate distance learning into their curricula, academic librarians are eager for insight as to how information literacy skills can be taught online effectively, especially in an asynchronous environment. How can information literacy instruction be organized and delivered to asynchronous online classes across academic disciplines when the librarian is not physically present? How can librarians engage online students in active learning exercises that strengthen library research and critical thinking skills? How can faculty be involved in the process? Librarians who have taught exclusively in face-to-face formats need answers to these questions in order to foster information literacy skills in the virtual classroom.

To introduce their peers at other institutions to the concepts and techniques of distance library instruction, four UMUC librarians—Barb Mann, Assistant Director for Public Services; Megan Davis, Regional Services Librarian; Robert Miller, Reference and Instruction Librarian; and Joe Rawson, 24/7 Services Coordinator—conducted two Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) webcasts, "The Not-So-Distant Librarian: Online Library Instruction to Engage Students and Faculty." These webcasts were selected as part of a national competitive proposal submission process. The first webcast was held in September 2010 and proved so popular that the UMUC librarians were invited back to lead a second one in February 2011. The webcasts were part of ACRL's e-Learning series, which attracts an audience of academic librarians from throughout the United States and Canada.

The webcasts grew out of a half-day pre-conference workshop, made available under the auspices of ACRL, held during the American Library Association's Annual Conference in July 2009. This pre-conference was one of three selected by ACRL as part of a national competitive proposal process. Ms. Mann, Ms. Davis, and Mr. Rawson were the presenters, and Mr. Miller assisted with the content creation. 

These webcasts demonstrated how a relatively limited number of library staff can organize and implement a robust online information literacy program capable of reaching hundreds of classes. (In FY 2010, the UMUC library held over 550 library instruction sessions, including online and face-to-face classroom visits and stand-alone library modules embedded in virtual classrooms.) To achieve this kind of distributed library instruction, librarians create a template of instructional materials that can be tailored to meet the needs of individual classes across academic disciplines. The template is mapped to information literacy learning outcomes that, in turn, stem from the ACRL's Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000). The instructional material explicitly lists the overall learning outcomes for the library instruction session, which prepares students to:

1. Determine the nature and extent of the information needed to complete a research project.
2. Access needed information effectively and efficiently.
3. Evaluate information and its sources critically and use selected information to complete a research project.
4. Use information ethically and legally by citing it correctly.

Each module of the online library instruction template reinforces these overall learning outcomes by focusing on specific research skills, for example, how to:

By explicitly stating the learning outcomes, the instruction template makes transparent to students the purpose of the library session. The template goes far beyond the mechanics of using the online library; it does not teach a lockstep "click here, then here" method, but instead models the research process, encouraging students to think critically when choosing an appropriate database in which to search and, above all, to critically evaluate sources for their appropriateness in a college-level research project. While the instruction template is flexible in that it can be tailored to the needs of individual classes, the template also ensures that librarians are delivering uniform instruction across hundreds of classes, instruction geared to carefully planned learning outcomes.

Online library instruction material should engage all types of learning styles. Thus, the instruction template incorporates text and graphics for visual learners and multimedia for visual and auditory learners. At the heart of the instruction template is an active, hands-on learning exercise (especially appropriate for kinesthetic learners) that reinforces several of the key learning outcomes of the library instruction session and provides an assessment point on how well students perform at research tasks such as selecting a library database, creating an effective search using key terms from a research question, identifying further search terms, and choosing and citing a useful source that is appropriate for college-level research. Furthermore, students are asked to reflect on how their research process has evolved as a result of participating in library instruction. That portion of the library exercise gives students an opportunity to weigh the value of different approaches to conducting research, from using the most rudimentary Web search to employing advanced searching skills in library databases.

The active learning exercise is often an opportunity for students to begin research for a major writing project in the class and receive librarian feedback and advice on their research. Indeed, when a UMUC librarian visits an online class, he or she provides detailed feedback to every student completing the research exercise. Tailoring the instruction template to an individual class's needs, loading the material into an online class, monitoring the class to answer any questions from students, and providing detailed feedback to each student on his or her research exercise can be time consuming and labor intensive for librarians, thereby raising scalability concerns.

For online courses comprising dozens of sections, UMUC librarians have created stand-alone library instruction modules that closely mirror the standard template but do not require a librarian to visit and monitor the online classroom. In the stand-alone modules, students review instructional material and can then take a quiz that is part of the UMUC library's interactive information literacy tutorial, Secrets of My Research Success (the tutorial was chosen for inclusion in the ACRL's Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online Database, (2009)). Students' quiz scores are automatically e-mailed to the class instructor. These stand-alone modules have proven popular in undergraduate and graduate courses alike and help extend the reach of distributed online library instruction.

Library instruction can be assessed by linking students to a short, anonymous survey, using software like SurveyMonkey or Zoomerang. UMUC librarians survey students who have completed an online instruction session, asking them to rate various aspects of the library instruction using Likert Scale, and address three specific library metrics questions. Students can write open-ended comments. This method of assessment enables the library to track the effectiveness of its online instruction program and make adjustments to the program as necessary.

Ideally, classroom faculty should play an active role in a library instruction session. To help achieve faculty buy-in and participation, UMUC librarians take a variety of approaches, first promoting the library instruction program through different venues: during library-led Center for Teaching and Learning workshops, at face-to-face meetings with faculty and academic department directors, and in the library newsletter. When a faculty member completes the library's online request form for library instruction (https://www.umuc.edu/library/instruction.shtml), a librarian is assigned to visit that class. The librarian then sends the faculty member an e-mail containing guidelines for helping the class get the most out of the instruction session. The guidelines include tips for fostering student engagement and demonstrating the importance that the faculty member places on the librarian's visit. For example, the faculty member should post an announcement introducing the librarian by name, tell students that completion of the library research exercise is required, and participate in the library session him- or herself. The professor's subject knowledge is a great addition to the information-literacy instruction that the librarian provides, and the professor's presence in the library session shows students the central value of research skills (as opposed to students viewing the library and information literacy as merely ancillary).

The UMUC librarians conducted the ACRL webcast much as they do a typical library instruction session— by engaging their audience with active learning opportunities. Webcast participants were encouraged to draft their own online instruction template and return for a follow-up online meeting to discuss their plans for implementing distance library instruction at their institutions. Through the webcasts, UMUC librarians acted as true knowledge leaders, helping traditional, on-site librarians enter the world of distance education to teach and promote information literacy online.

References

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2000). Information literacy competency standards for higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/standards.pdf

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2009). PRIMO: Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/about/sections/is/projpubs/primo/index.cfm