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The embedded librarian: Bringing library services to distance learners
... One other important reason was the integration of new technology such as course management systems (CMS) and social software (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) in course curricula (Becker, 2010;Kinnie, 2006;Love and Norwood, 2008;Matos et al., 2010;Shank and Steven, 2011;Tumbleson and Burke, 2010b). The adoption of technology that users have already accepted and used (Becker, 2010;Montgomery, 2010) means that librarians must develop new roles to address the ever changing needs of online users who are remotely accessing information (Bell and Shank, 2004;Covone and Lamm, 2010;Francis, 2012;Harloe and Williams, 2009;Herring et al., 2009;Kesselman and Watstein, 2009;Montgomery, 2010;Si et al., 2012). ...
... Six studies reported on the ways librarians should be embedded in courses. Kinnie (2006) described specific ways in which librarians were embedded in courses offered in CMS and supported the information needs of distance learners. He emphasized the need for librarians to collaborate with faculty and teachers, to work closely with students and to provide materials at the point of need. ...
... Embedded programs enabled librarians to offer more instructional courses (Jacobs, 2010), to enhance the integration of information literacy in academic curriculum (Herring et al., 2009;Tumbleson and Burke, 2010a), to increase the consultation hours (Jacobs, 2010), to provide more guidance to students (Tumbleson and Burke, 2010a) and to notify students regarding technological developments and new resources (Tumbleson and Burke, 2010a). These efforts enabled librarians to gain and establish credibility among students and teachers (Foutch et al., 2007;Hall, 2008), to promote library's role (Kinnie, 2006), to collaborate with other libraries and librarians (Tumbleson and Burke, 2010a) and to remove all obstacles that refrained students from contacting librarians (e.g. availability, face-to-face, daily communication, workshops and in-class presence) (Foutch et al., 2007). ...
Purpose: This paper aims to provide a systematic review of the specific roles information professionals have adopted in the last fourteen years. It aims to identify the roles reported in the literature concerning developments in the Library and Information Science (LIS) profession.
Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted the method of systematic review. Searches were conducted in February and March 2014 on different LIS databases. From a total of 600 papers, 114 were selected based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. A thorough full-text analysis of the papers revealed six roles that librarians have adopted: as teachers, technology specialists, embedded librarians, information consultants, knowledge managers and subject librarians.
Findings: New and evolving roles were identified, mainly in the context of academic libraries. Librarians’ educational responsibilities and their active involvement in the learning and research process were highlighted in all role categories identified. Collaboration among faculty and librarians was reported as a way of ensuring successful instruction. Librarians' personal views of their new and emerging roles were more frequently reported; further research is needed to shed light on academics, students and other users’ perceptions of librarians’ engagement in the learning process.
Research limitations/implications: The study considered only peer reviewed papers published between 2000 and 2014 in English. , it focused on information professionals’ roles and not on librarians' skills and their changing professional responsibilities.
Originality/valueThis review paper considers the development of the LIS profession in a changing environment and offers an understanding of the future direction of the LIS profession.
... Generation Next adults will only access information on their mobile devices, and they will have information literacy skills far beyond any previous generation while living in local communities that are becoming more focused on global issues (p.5) Da profissão do bibliotecário, das suas competências e designações, muito se tem escrito na última década, desde "bibliotecários" no sentido global e abrangente da palavra, até aos bibliotecários mais especializados como os clinical librarians (bibliotecários da saúde), subject librarians (bibliotecários especializados num tema ou assunto) ou liason librarians (tradicionais ou 2.0), que conectam os seus utilizadores à informação especializada da sua biblioteca qualquer que seja o formato ou a tecnologia em presença (Whatley, 2009), informationists, ou seja, bibliotecários clínicos, centrados na área da medicina baseada na evidência e utilizando o apoio das tecnologias de informação nas suas técnicas de pesquisa ( Grefsheim et al., 2010), os embedded librarians ou "bibliotecários integrados" que providenciam informação e formam os utilizadores remotamente, através de plataformas digitais, multimédia e eLearning (Kinnie, 2006), ou ainda os blended librarians que nas bibliotecas híbridas universitárias combinam as competências tradicionais com as competências tecnológicas, multimedia e educacionais, que lhes permitem fazer o acompanhamento do processo de ensino/aprendizagem nas suas instituições (Bell & Shank, 2004). Por conseguinte, não é como já se afirmou aqui a designação que importa, mas as competências e aptidões que possui, para perante necessidades específicas, corresponder plenamente à missão da sua instituição. ...
ABSTRACT:
The new teaching and learning model introduced by Bologna process and the implementation of technologies in academic libraries, changed the way how knowledge is produced and disseminated and have created within academic libraries, new needs of space reengeneering, new services and new librarian skills that increased the offer of dynamic and innovating services with high level quality, based on new technologies and user centered. This study is focused in the library trends and based in the analysis of the triology: users / libraries / technologies and applied as methodology, the data triangulation method, based on the literature review, user survey / questionnaires to portuguese and european libraries and observation of libraries in study visits and analysis of their homepages and strategic plans. The results, brings to the light a new model for the academic library in 21st century embedded in a network of libraries, showing us that collaboration between institutions and the integration of services (shared services) are essential for the future development of these academic structures responsible for producing and sharing knowledge
RESUMO:
O novo modelo de ensino-aprendizagem introduzido por Bolonha e a implementação de tecnologias nas bibliotecas académicas, trouxeram mudanças profundas ao modo como o conhecimento é produzido e disseminado e conduziram à necessidade de uma reengenharia de espaços, serviços e competências, conferindo às bibliotecas um maior dinamismo e inovação nos serviços que oferecem, cada vez mais centrados nas necessidades reais dos seus utilizadores. Este estudo, analisa as tendências conjeturais centradas na triologia utilizadores/ bibliotecas/ tecnologias, recorrendo à triangulação de dados, baseada na revisão de literatura, na realização de inquéritos aos utilizadores e bibliotecas portuguesas e europeias e na observação de bibliotecas através de visitas de estudo, análise das homepages e planos estratégicos. Os resultados obtidos, permitiram delinear um modelo de biblioteca académica inserida numa rede de bibliotecas, demonstrando-se que a colaboração entre instituições e a integração comum de serviços são essenciais para o desenvolvimento futuro destas estruturas académicas, produtoras e geradoras de conhecimento.
... Markgraf (2005) alluded to this practice of the "lurking librarian" (p. 6). Kinnie (2006) has also noted how posting can be extremely helpful. ...
Librarians know that collaboration with faculty is crucial when developing effective information literacy initiatives. Our case study, based on the ADDIE model of instructional design, set out to determine if a collaborative approach between faculty and librarians could effectively support students in a distance education course. Set in a small university, our study details how two librarians, embedded within a distance education course, teamed up with the course's faculty member to deliver research and citation help to students at their point of need. This collaboration extended from the planning stages to implementation and evaluation, to the identification of future research goals.
... This model also facilitates ready and direct feedback from the users on the services and their needs. Moreover, it also makes the library more visible to the users and has the potential of enriching and increasing library usage (Chilton, 2009;Freiburger and Kramer, 2009;Kinnie, 2006). Shumaker and Talley (2009: 5) identify some of the key features of the embedded library model as: (1) location of the service among the 'customers'; (2) funding for the embedded library service ideally comes from both the institutional library provisions (budget) and the supported unit; ...
Literature on library service models is scarce and exists mainly in non-traditional
formats such as blog entries and webpages. Nonetheless, the subject evokes heated debate
among librarians with many supporting the model they are using, sometimes without
understanding that there are other options which perhaps could be better for their
circumstances. Through critical documentary analysis, this study explores the library service
models that exist as well as how they compare with each other. The findings have ...
Academic librarians interested in collaborating with faculty in online courses often express questions about their role, level of involvement, and activities. This article provides a list of best practices to guide those developing embedded librarian services. The practices are drawn from a review of the literature, a case study of one embedded librarian's experiences, and a mixed methods study of embedded librarianship at six institutions. The resulting best practices will help embedded librarians collaborate effectively with faculty to create a positive learning experience for distance students.
Purpose
This paper seeks to determine common and unique activities, promotional methods, time management strategies, and best practices of academic librarians embedded in online courses at six institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a mixed methods study using both interviews and quantitative data to study the activities and experiences of embedded librarians at six institutions.
Findings
The librarians and faculty involved in the embedded services reported unexpected benefits to the service. However, experiences with managing the time required for embedding along with regular reference duties varied, and scaling up the service from a few courses to a regular library service caused staffing issues for a few institutions.
Research limitations/implications
This study was exploratory by nature and thus its scope was limited. Because only six institutions were studied, it is difficult to determine the true state of embedded librarianship in the USA. Future research should build on the foundation to determine outcomes for which embedded service is best suited and perform cost‐benefit analyses.
Practical implications
Because embedded services can become popular quickly, individual librarians should work with library administrators to determine whether staffing a full‐scale service will be possible and plan accordingly. If a full‐scale service is not feasible, the service scope may need to be limited (for instance, to core courses or to specific academic departments).
Originality/value
Past research on embedded librarianship has been limited to single institutions or to purposes and outcomes of the service. This paper provides a comparative study of embedded librarians at six institutions, and concentrates on the librarian's experience at each.
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.
At a university with no centrally administered distance education (DE) program, the library is faced with the challenge of not only identifying but also supporting a rapidly increasing number of disparate DE initiatives. In this environment, a one-size-fits-all approach to inviting and encouraging faculty collaboration in the integration of library research into the DE curriculum was not sufficient. This presentation will discuss various methods used at one university to increase the level of collaboration between the library and distance education (DE) faculty.
A survey of eight business faculty preparing online classes for a proposed distance education degree in international marketing was conducted by business librarians at Michigan State University. The results of the survey indicated that there were differences in faculty and librarian expectations as to the library support needed for the courses.
As faculty make greater use of Web-based instruction, pedagogical strategy sometimes evolves from the transmission of content to the creation of interactive courses that immerse students in the cognitive style of the discipline. One technique associated with this is the "classroom flip." Library instructional support for such courses may need to evolve from tool-based user guides toward saved searches and similar techniques that facilitate primary literature engagement. In this study, one project illustrating such bibliographic instruction (BI) adaptation is described and its collaborative development is discussed. Problems with differentiating assessment of integrated BI are noted, and a shift from summative to formative evaluation is considered as a potential solution.
Course management software (CMS) or courseware products, such as Prometheus, FirstClass, Blackboard, and WebCT, do not include the Library as an essential, curricular component in their design. Consequently, the task falls to librarians to creatively partner with faculty to input library resources into courseware to support students effectively in their research endeavors. Distance learning students, who are off campus, will benefit as they are physically removed from the Library. Distance learners (DLs) can be intimidated by library Web sites and find it difficult and time consuming to navigate. Since the entire course content is in the course management product, the primary source for class information, it makes good sense to include library resources and services in the appropriate areas, such as the syllabus, assignments, projects, etc. Including research resources within courseware enables students to get started on their own in navigating the Library and can provide direct contact information to appropriate library staff for further and deeper resource assistance.
At the crossroads: Library and classroom
- M Dinwiddie
- L L Lillard
Dinwiddie, M., & Lillard, L. L. (2002). At the crossroads: Library and classroom. Journal of Library Administration, 37(1/2), 251-267