Going the Distance: Library Instruction for Remote Learners

Citation

du Preez, M. (2007), "Going the Distance: Library Instruction for Remote Learners", The Electronic Library, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 629-630. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2007.25.5.629.3

More and more students are currently completing their tertiary or further education through distance education institutions. This notion greatly impacts on library services with librarians having to find innovative ways to support these remote students through online library instruction. Editor Susan J. Clayton approached more than 20 distance instruction librarians from across the USA to share their remedies and practical experience with other librarians finding themselves in similar situations. Going the Distance: Library Instruction for Remote Learners is the result.

This volume explores and maps four main areas of distance library instruction: design, deliver, collaborate and assess distance instruction.

Part 1 “Designing distance instruction” features a variety of topics varying from models and methods that could be used to design library instruction to teaching an online library instruction course. This part also introduces copyright concepts, the history of copyright, legal aspects concerning copyright, the effect of technology on copyright, as well as the economic and global contexts of copyright. This part concludes by taking a careful look at the different types of plagiarism, the reasons for plagiarism and the connection to distance learners.

The following six chapters (Part 2) examine the struggles and successes of various teaching experiments. These chapters delve into the creation of subject‐specific online tools, the formulation of online tutorials using the Blackboard Course Management Systems and the creation of surveys to determine the format preferred by distance education students.

“Collaborating for Distance Education” (Part 3) comprises of two chapters on finding faculty and information technology (IT) staff who are interested in collaborating with librarians. Chapter 14 recommends ways for librarians to become involved as participants in online courses while Chapter 15 presents a number of ways to market library instruction to off‐campus students and faculty.

Part 4, “Assessing Distance Education” offers alternatives to traditional face‐to‐face library instruction courses for training in online environments. This part also reviews different resources that are available on the assessment of distance learning library instruction. The volume concludes with a history of distance library instruction and instruction assessment, suggesting that distance librarians must develop, improve and realise the importance of assessment in library instruction.

Going the Distance provides advice and examples to help librarians bridge the gap of distance. Clayton's team of authors offers practical advice on taking libraries to their distant users – whether this service involves an introduction to library research or supporting faculty in advanced courses. The volume includes bibliographic references at the end of each chapter and an extensive index.