Libraries Supporting Online Learning: Practical Strategies and Best Practices

by Christina D. Mune

Overview

Using practical examples from librarians in the field, this book lays out current issues in online learning and teaches librarians how to adapt a variety of library services—including instruction, reference, and collection development—to online education.

Recent studies highlighting the challenges faced by online learners show that skills librarians are uniquely qualified to teach, such as information and digital literacy and source evaluation, can improve academic performance in online courses and enhance the online learning experience.

Just as embedded librarianship was developed to answer the needs of online courses when they emerged in the early 2000s, online learning librarian Christina Mune now teaches "online librarianship" as a set of realistic strategies for serving a variety of online education models. Each chapter of Libraries Supporting Online Learning addresses a different strategy for supporting online students and/or faculty, with all strategies derived from real-world practices.

Librarians will find information on best practices for creating digital literacy tutorials and dynamic content, providing patrons with open access and open educational resources, helping patrons to avoid copyright issues, promoting peer-to-peer learning and resource sharing, posting to social media, and developing scalable reference services. The tools and practical examples in this book will be useful for all educators interested in increasing the efficacy of online learning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440861758
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/07/2020
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Christina D. Mune, MLIS, was online learning librarian for San José State University, in San José, CA, before serving as director of information technology services and most recently as associate dean of innovation and resource management.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Part 1 Facilitating Access

Chapter 1 What Is Online Librarianship? 3

Chapter 2 Understand How You Help: Evaluating Services to Online Learners 15

Chapter 3 Help Them Find What They Need: Making Resources Discoverable, Sharable, and Affordable 33

Part 2 Creating Community

Chapter 4 Help Them Help Each Other: Facilitating Peer Interactions and Creating Online Learning Communities 61

Chapter 5 Help Them Connect with You: Deploying Effective Online Communication Tools 83

Part 3 Building Engagement

Chapter 6 Help Them Help Themselves: Information and Digital Literacy for the Online Learner 109

Chapter 7 Keep a Digital Toolbox: A Bibliography of Useful (and Mostly Free) Tools for Supporting Online Learning 135

Glossary 153

Index 157

What People are Saying About This

Sandra Hirsh

"This book couldn’t come at a better time. Libraries have been challenged to rapidly transform their services to better meet the needs of online learning in the COVID-19 era. This contribution provides the practical information, resources, and tools that libraries need to provide access, develop community, and foster engagement for their online learners and users. Even after the pandemic, libraries will need to continue supporting a range of learners—from those who come to the library in person to those who are online learners. This book provides the essential information to ensure libraries are able to successfully support these online learners."

John Wenzler

"A timely, thoughtful, and useful book. I only wish that I could have read it 3 months ago. Mune explains what online learners need and offers practical advice for building online community and engagement through library programming. Librarians who already have some experience with online learning will benefit from Mune’s thorough and systematic approach. And librarians who find themselves suddenly tossed into the stormy seas of online educational support should grab this lifesaver and hold on tight."

Editorial Reviews

Timely, valuable, and essential reading for all librarians and educators.” —Library Jourbanal Online, Starred Review

“This book is explicitly recommended for individuals working in the field of LIS.” —Choice

“This is a well-organized and thoughtfully comprehensive treatment of the subject and a great place to find practical guidance and inspiration for many different roles within libraries of all types.” —Technical Services Quarterly

From the Publisher

★ 02/01/2021

Though the emergence of COVID-19 required an abrupt transition to nearly total online learning, making library services and resources available virtually has been a goal of the profession for decades. Mune (associate dean of innovation and resource management, San José State Univ.) divides this work into three sections: facilitating access to library resources, creating a community of learners by helping them connect to one another, and building engagement through digital literacy. The author cites theory, but the work is also filled with practical, innovative suggestions to foster an environment where librarians can support students and educators. Examples include having students collectively annotate a YouTube video while the instructor or librarian inserts reflective questions in real time. Mune also discusses asynchronous activities such as creating a badge program where students conducting research can earn virtual microcredentials that can be traded in for real-life rewards, or holding scavenger hunts where students post videos or images as they work through the clues. Particularly useful is the final chapter that describes free and low-cost digital tools to support online learning. VERDICT Timely, valuable, and essential reading for all librarians and educators.—Margaret Sylvia, St. Mary's Univ. Lib., San Antonio

Library Journal