Library Resources for Faculty: Librarians Online

Embedded librarians are integrated information experts that offer more direct research assistance to groups of faculty and students than the typical one-shot instruction session, often over the course of an entire semester.

While librarians can embed in face-to-face classes, they are increasingly in demand within virtual environments in order to support online classes, hybrid classes, and face-to-face classes that include an online support component.

What can they do?

Library Guide

We will always create a library guide for your course. We will compile a resource list specific for the course that includes links to books, journals, and/or databases from the library, and make that list available on the library guide or in D2L.We can also include search helps and citation information.

Videos and Static Content

Librarians can create or locate a brief video or screenshot tutorial specific to the course and assignment

Interactive Online Module

Librarians are developing a series of online interactive modules for specific information literacy skills (like search strategies, source evaluation, plagiarism, citation help, etc). They can be plugged into D2L as a graded or a non-graded assignment. These are still being developed, but if you're interested we can definitely keep you in the loop.

Live Instruction (Information Literacy Session) 

Librarians can schedule and give a live research instruction session online that supports a target assignment or skill. This is a virtual library instruction session using Zoom.

Office Hours 

Librarians can schedule and announce regular or virtual office hours (according to the librarian's availability) during which students can ask the librarian questions regarding their research needs. We can schedule that for the library's online chat, via Zoom, or in person!

Discussion Boards & Chat

Librarians can set up and monitor a discussion board or chat box in your D2L course where students can ask library-related questions.

Graded Assignments

Librarians are happy to collaborate with you to develop graded assignments for your courses. They can be set up in D2L as a quiz, or some other type of assessment graded either by you or by the librarian.

That depends on what kind of presence you want to have.

Micro Presence (aka: "The D2L")

Librarians usually work one-on-one with a faculty member with whom they already have a professional relationship. This is often seen as a more maintenance-intense approach because librarians shape their involvement to fit the needs of the class. Time commitments for this experience can range from a medium time commitment (ie, multiple asynchronous discussion activities) to a high time commitment (ie, multiple synchronous virtual presentations with weekly virtual office hours, graded assignments etc.).

Macro Presence

Librarians generate tutorials and activities that can be used across many course groups, like discussion boards, chats, librarian office hours, etc, enabling a "drop in" component for online courses that requires a lower time commitment than the micro level. More students are served by the embedded library services this way, and the level of personal interaction between the librarian and the student is reduced.

(Paraphrased from a white paper by Laura Wright and Ginger Williams, 2011.)