If You Don’t Build It, They Won’t Come:Customized Library Resources for Online Learning

Angie Gerrard, MLIS & Dirk Morrison, Ed.D.

TLT Conference

University of Saskatchewan

April 30-May 2, 2006

Introduction

Current undergrad and IT trends

Role of the Library

Introduction

“Students arrive at the library Web site with expectations

raised by these numerous personalized and customized

systems. When they do not find resources that appear to be

tailored specifically for their information needs, they move on

to other information resources.”

Reeb & Gibbons (2004), pp.126

U of S Context: Evolution of Course Pages

Information Literacy & Library Instruction

HTML Course Page: Psyc 213.3

HTML Course Page: Hist 152.3

HTML Course Page – Use of Tabs

U of S Context: Evolution of Course Pages

PAWS (Personalized Access to Web Services)

Library’s Integrated Plan

Resource Management System

RMS

Admin view User view

Admin View

Adding Resources

Assigning Resource Type

Subject Pages

Editing Subject Pages

Editing Subject Pages…

Course Pages

Editing Course Pages

Editing Course Pages…

Access to Subject & Courses Pages via PAWS

Access to Subject & Course Pages via WebCT

Access to Subject & Course Pages via Library

Subjects Page

Psychology Subject Page

Course Pages

Course Page for ECNT 810

Course Page for ECNT 810

Course Page for ECNT 810

Course Page for ECNT 810

Course Page for ECNT 810

Course Page for ECNT 810

Benefits

Students

Faculty

Librarians

Benefits: Students

Ease of access

Filtered, relevant resources (customized)

Decreased confusion

Better resources=better research=better grades

Benefits: Faculty

Collaboration with liaison librarian

Learn about new products & services

Improved quality of resources

Refined assignments

Benefits: Librarians

Increased visibility of resources & services

Seen as relevant information source

Opportunity to forge relationships & collaboration

Increased familiarity with curriculum

Rich database developed

Issues to Consider

Database constraints

Lack of formal assessment

Workload

Conclusions

U of S Library is a partner in online learning

Fosters collaboration and innovation cycles

Future: Students as researchers Students as course contributors Students as evaluators

References

Gibbons, S. (2003). Building upon the MyLibrary concept to better meet the information needs of college students. D-Lib Magazine, 9(3), March.

Jones, S. (2002). The internet goes to college: How students are living in the future with today’s technology. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved March 8, 2002 from http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_College_Report.pdf

Lippincott, S. and Kyrillidou, M. (2004). How ARL university communities access information: Highlights from LibQUAL+. ARL Bimonthly Report 236, October.

Reeb, B. and Gibbons, S. (2004). Student, librarians, and subject guides: Improving a poor rate of return. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 4(1), pp. 123-130.

Spool, J. (2003). Getting confidence from Lincoln. User Interface Engineering (n.d.). Retrieved October, 2003 from http://world.std.com/uieweb/Articles/getting_confidence.htm

The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition. Executive Summary. http:/www.oclc.org/reports/escan/downloads/escansummary_en.pdf