A very brief article from the April 1, 2006 issue of Library Journal, The Embedded Librarian discusses how librarians at the University of Rhode Island made themselves more accessible to distance students (though everything they describe can be used by traditional students as well). Librarians are enrolled as teaching assistants in several WebCT courses, offer an online Library Skills Tutorial, offer reference via IM, and are planning a blog to “promote core institutional values.”
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5 Responses to “The Embedded Librarian – Library Journal article”
We’ve been doing this (the Embedded Librarian) at Middle Tennessee State University since Fall 2004. I was embedded in 22 courses this semester. I knew, though, that it was happening elsewhere.
Wow, 22 seems a lot! I think this is becoming pretty common; it seems that maybe it’s taken this long for the traditional print world to begin reporting on it. Blogs seem to have really shrunk the time it takes to hear about interesting stuff like this 🙂
I have taught with WebCT, it takes some effort to get the students to log in regularly and participate much the same way as a classroom situation. I would keep track of the number of comments and responses and give marks for that as well as for assignments.
Yeah, 22 *seems* like a lot, but it’s not like everyone asks a question every day. It’s busy at the beginning of the semester and then it tapers off for a while. It picks up again mid-semester, but right now the silence is deafening. Some courses don’t really have library or research-related assignments, the prof just thinks it’s a good idea for them to know I exist. I am a Distance Ed librarian, so this is my main job. I don’t teach in these courses (well, unless you count long instructive emails), I just answer questions or offer suggestions.
I wonder if there’s a CMS out there that allows one person to monitor threaded discussions across the board? There’s got to be a better way than having to log in to each separate classroom to see if there’s a question that needs a response – even if it was just a ping to let you know there was something that needed your attention. Like an RSS feed for comments. There’s *got* to be something like this, though probably not in Bb or WebCT. Anyone? I’d pay money for something like that!