Wednesday, June 9, 1pm EDT
Ruth Slagle (Jackson State Community College) and Mary Aquila (Athens State University)
For early career librarians new to embedded librarianship the challenges of going completely virtual in a very short period of time were daunting. Previously, collaborating with faculty and providing research and library instruction to students took place in both traditional and online settings. Depending on the institution, much of these services were done face-to-face and with a personalized approach. Due to the pandemic many of these services had to be transitioned to an online format very quickly.
It is often very difficult for any librarian, let alone those new to the field and working during a pandemic, to build relationships with faculty and to create successful, online instructional resources. For a new librarian, some of the most notable challenges were communicating with faculty exclusively through e-mail and trying to work with them to create better experiences for students. Also challenging was providing a variety of online instructional resources such as LibGuides, course videos, and research consultations via video software with very little experience and time. Some areas of support were colleagues who had already been working as librarians and had experience with various aspects of embedded librarianship as well as the professional literature regarding best practices.
In this presentation, librarians will discuss the following questions: How do librarians build relationships with faculty? How do librarians get faculty buy-in for library instruction and embedded services? What outreach works best to reach the maximum number of students? Are there best practices for delivering instruction and using technology in various LMS? The presenters will also discuss how this is an exciting time for librarians as online formats offer both exciting opportunities to interact with students and faculty and unknown challenges.
Library Instruction Together 