Building presence in the online CMS . . .

Academic librarians need to consider certain issues when trying to build presence in an online course management system (CMS).  They must decide the overall intent or goal of integrating library services and resources into the CMS, such as whether to cover a majority of courses by delivering general, broad services or target specific courses by delivering more personalized services.  In the latter case especially, the library must assess staff size and ability to take on this more time consuming alternative.  If staff and their time are in short supply, librarians must consider which courses would benefit the most from an integrated library presence, e.g., those with a major research component.

Librarians must then strive to collaborate with instructors on ways to best serve students’ library and information literacy needs in relation to their coursework.  This collaboration is a key component that cannot be overstated.  Initially it’s important to discuss what expectations the instructor has regarding what he/she would like students to learn in terms of research skills, etc.  Just as important is clarification by the librarian about what services the library is able to offer the class.  The role of the librarian in the course itself also needs to be established.  For example, will the librarian be regarded more as a T.A. with limited instructor privileges or perhaps as a guest instructor with privileges equal to the class instructor?  These kinds of issues are best resolved at the beginning of the course.  Then communication should continue throughout the semester if the partnership between the instructor and librarian is to be a successful one, thereby carrying over to the ultimate success of the students.

As previously mentioned, librarians need to assess what services they can offer through the CMS that would be most valuable to students for their particular class, such as electronic reserves, supplementary course content, or bibliographic instruction.  In my Libr 220 experience as a student embedded librarian for three UCM classes, I found that one undergraduate Psych class only needed instruction on finding article permalinks while a graduate nursing class needed substantial guidance with the many components of a major research paper.  In all cases, trying to build presence in an online course management system requires proactive commitment on the part of librarians and their libraries.  In the end, it is well worth their effort.