1 of 5 17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning

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1 1 of 5 17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning Distance Education Library Services: An Opportunity for Personalized Customer Services Mollie M. Dinwiddie Professor of Library Services Linda L. Lillard Assistant Professor of Library Science and Information Services Introduction Every day a growing number of universities are restructuring courses to offer via distance education. Though universities have been in the business of providing distance education since the late 1800 s via correspondence courses involving text-based course materials and instructor-student communication by postal mail, technology is rapidly changing the methods by which these courses can be offered (University of Texas). Courses offerings are made available to distance learners by such methods as video conferencing, instructional television or other methods (Palloff & Pratt, 1999). Between and , most of the growth was in courses that use asynchronous computer-based technology (primarily the Internet) rather than two-way or one-way video. What all distance courses have in common, however, is the fact that the student may not have physical access to campus and consequently does not have access to certain amenities such as library services. Librarians are facing the problem of finding creative ways to meet guidelines set forth by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) that support the premise that the distance learning community is entitled to services that are equivalent to those provided to their campusbased constituents. Realizing that traditional methods of providing research assistance to students must be altered to fit the online course environment, librarians are utilizing various methods of meeting what they perceive as the needs of these online students such as and technology enhanced reference (University of Minnesota, 1998), a toll-free line (Blair, 2000), a distance learning library services web page (Buckstead, 2000), document delivery (Calvert, 2000), improved remote access to electronic resources (University of Minnesota, 1998); online tutorials (University of Minnesota, 1998); and electronic reserve (Calvert, 2000). Background of the Study At, librarians are attempting to help students meet information needs in an online course environment by not only providing them with access to full-text databases, document delivery, and state-wide library cards, but by actively engaging a librarian to assist with course instruction. This practice is consistent with the idea of more personalized service and becomes the kind of proactive role that is promoted for librarians by contemporary library schools (Grover & Hale, 1988) for librarians moving into the 21 st century information environment with all of its new and exciting roles (Medhurst, 1995). Caspers (1999) states that librarians must be proactive in their efforts to make the library visible and accessible to distance learners because they can t simply look at the campus map and go there as the traditional students are able to do. She asserts that it is crucial for the distance education librarian to actively become part of the distance education community, especially as related to programs emanating from the home campus (p ). What kind of library services and research assistance do distance learners really want from a librarian? Kuhlthau s (1993) 1983 study of high school students revealed that they did not believe that librarians

2 2 of 5 17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning contributed to their accomplishment of information seeking tasks. In fact, only 3 of 25 students responded that they almost always or often needed the librarian s assistance during their research. In a verification study conducted in 1990 that included 385 people making up three different types of users, Kuhlthau, Turock, George, and Belvin still found limited use of the librarian s expertise during the research process. The users in Kuhlthau s studies, however, were not distance learners. Do distance students feel differently about the librarian? Is librarian mediation throughout their entire research process something that distance learners will embrace enthusiastically? Believing that in order to have a successful library program for off-campus students, librarians must understand who their students are and what they want, librarians at the University of Iowa conducted an off-campus user survey (Dow, 2000, p. 119). What they considered to be the most useful information obtained from the survey was the ranking students gave to a list of twelve different library services. At the top of the list were web and/or reference services, electronic services such as remote access to full-text databases and online catalogs, and document delivery services while at the bottom of the list were user education services. The results of this survey could lead us to believe that these distance students think, as did Kuhlthau s users, that the librarian is of limited use to them in the research process. Another question then becomes evident. Do students actually know what kinds of assistance they can ask of a librarian? Kuhlthau (1993) believed that students lacked constructs that would prompt them to request mediation from a librarian in even the more traditional tasks of topic selection and information collection. They regarded the library as based on self-service access with little provision for professional/client interaction (p. 129). A librarian in the role of co-instructor in an online course is a new approach to providing library services for distance learners. Not only does this approach make mediation into the research process a possibility; it also allows for mediation into the entire student learning experience. In the face-to-face learning environment, one would never expect to find a librarian in the classroom with the content instructor during every class meeting. Will the students take advantage of this new role for the librarian in such close proximity and request more mediation into their research process? In order to develop a library service model for distance students, a qualitative examination of the experience of students taking an online course with a librarian in the key role of a co-instructor was conducted. In the initial experiment there were two nursing classes, one undergraduate and one graduate level course. Upon completion of two semesters with these courses, the data collected in a survey of the students and through the messages to the librarian instructor provided evidence that students found the services of a librarian in an online course to be useful. However, there was some reluctance to ask the librarian questions, despite the plethora of messages from the librarian offering assistance. There appeared to be an increased volume of communication with the librarian by students in general not only those enrolled in the online course. Results of the Study In a follow-up experiment during the fall and spring semesters of , additional courses were brought on board with the librarian entered as a co-instructor. During the spring semester 2001, there were 9 courses that included five criminal justice criminal justice courses and four nursing courses. Three of the courses, one criminal justice and two nursing, were graduate courses. At least one message was sent via to each student enrolled in the 9 different courses advising them of the Library Resources information and the assistance of the librarians that was readily available. Out of approximately 170 students in all classes, 46 students responded to a request for input regarding the services of a librarian in an online course. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive about the idea, but of even greater interest were the additional comments posted on the topic. There were comments regarding the demand upon the librarian s time and a suggestion that she be paid extra for the assistance in the online course! It was gratifying to find comments that indicated an appreciation for the search skills of the librarian!

3 3 of 5 17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning In order to determine how the student viewed the possibility for a personalized or customized service from a librarian in the online course, four statements dealing with service of the librarian were posed within a questionnaire of 15 total statements. Using a Likert scale of responses that included Strongly Agree, Agree somewhat, Disagree Somewhat, Strongly Disagree, and No Opinion, the percentages of responses were tabulated. Statement 6: Questions I directed to the librarian working with this course were answered in a timely manner, resulted in the least positive response. Out of 114 total responses, 8% either Disagreed Somewhat or Strongly Disagreed or approximately 9 students. While this is a small number, it was a disturbing figure because the librarian believed she had replied to almost all queries within about 48 hours. Apparently, a concern that developed during the earlier experiment proved to be true. With the increased number of courses that involved the same librarian, there was a corresponding decrease in the amount of time that could be devoted to each course. It is possible that the increased demands overall resulted in a lower satisfaction level regarding timeliness of response. Statement 10 assessed the students' willingness to ask for help: I felt comfortable asking for assistance from the librarian working with this course. In that question, 46% Strongly Agreed and 23% Agreed Somewhat. The No Opinion responses were 27%. Those responding No Opinion may NOT have believed they needed the assistance of the librarian at all. Nevertheless, 69% answered with a positive response regarding their comfort level in asking for help. Statement 13 requested the students to respond to the following: My expectations regarding the assistance provided by the librarian were met. Strongly Agreeing were 44%, Agreeing Somewhat were 24% and the No Opinion responses totaled 24%. None Strongly Disagreed and 8% Disagreed Somewhat. In a future study an effort will be made to determine what are the expectations that the students have regarding the librarian's involvement in the course. Statement 14 posed this: Because of her involvement with this course, I will ask for assistance form the CourseInfo librarian for future research needs while I am continuing my degree program at Central. Responses indicated 53% Strongly Agreed, 29% Agreed Somewhat, 16% offered No Opinion, leaving only 2% to Disagree Somewhat or Strongly Disagree. One might have anticipated that the 8% who believed the librarian did not respond in a timely manner would also have tended not to ask for assistance in future courses. Nonetheless, the indication is that students did have an appreciation for the potential help that a librarian might render and were likely to take advantage of that opportunity for customized or personalized service in the future. Conclusions and Recommendations Using the comments to open-ended questions, the results of the Likert scale survey, and the discussion board interaction with the students, several conclusions can be drawn. The opportunity for customized or individualized service to library clients in an online course is believed by students in online courses to be a desirable option. A significant portion of students in the online courses in the experiment indicated a positive view of the value of having a librarian available in the online course with comments they made to a discussion board. In the discussion board opportunity 46 out of 114 student commented and 100% of those comments were positive ones about the need for this service. The biggest drawback to providing high quality service in this model is that the librarian might be overwhelmed with requests for aid and falter on the timely delivery of assistance. A recommendation for alleviating the timeliness issue in the model is to develop pseudo courses in the online course software in which all students in a field of study are systematically enrolled at a selected point in their matriculation. This would be a generic "course" with tutorial information posted, links to appropriate web sites, and

4 4 of 5 17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning other "help" information to guide the student in a self-assisted learning experience. The direct involvement of a librarian in a specific course would be limited to a small number of selected high research oriented courses in the discipline. Ideally, the librarian would be minimally involved on a daily basis with the "pseudo" online course, but the opportunity for assistance would be there for those who experience difficulty in their use of the tutorial information for self-instruction. The librarian would have a significantly more active role in assistance to students in selecting resources, narrowing a topic, effective searching, and evaluation of search results in those online courses that have a significant research component. The online instruction environment is ripe with opportunity for librarians to demonstrate their crucially needed research instruction skills. Some students grasp the need for assistance from an information specialist. With this kind of direct involvement with students who will know the librarian personally, albeit remotely, the passive model for offering research assistance will evolve into an active model. The librarian becomes an integral part of the student's learning rather than a peripheral. David Majka (2001) recently commented that there is a common misperception about the value of electronic information resources to the degree that library clients are tending toward a belief that they have no need for librarian assistance. Librarians have contributed to this belief as we actively encourage students to use online and other electronic resources instead of traditional ones. This trend may be exacerbated among distance learners. The model which includes the direct, proactive involvement of a librarian within distance learning courses, offers an opportunity to market the value of the librarian as "primary intermediaries for information retrieval" (Majka, 2001, p. 61), a critically needed activity according to Majka. The subtitle for his article, Solid Research and Good Scholarship vs. Surfdumb and Inforamus identifies the problem. The customized service of a librarian in online courses is one method that may help to counter this issue. References Blair, A. (2000). And a free 800 line! Managing technical and information support for distance education. In P. S. Thomas (Ed.), The Ninth Off-Campus Library Services Proceedings (pp. 19- Buckstead, J.R. (2000). Developing an effective off-campus library services web page: Don t worry, be happy! In P. S. Thomas (Ed.), The Ninth Off-Campus Library Services Proceedings (pp ). Mount Pleasant, Michigan: Central Michigan University. Calvert, H.M. (2000). Document delivery options for distance education students an electronic reserve service at Ball State University Libraries. In P. S. Thomas (Ed.), The Ninth Off-Campus Library Services Proceedings (pp. 19- Caspers, J.S. (1999). Outreach to distance learners: When the distance education instructor sends students to the library, where do they go? The Reference Librarian 67/68, pp Caspers, J., Fritts, J. & Gover, H. (2000). Beyond the rhetoric: A study of the impact of the ACRL guidelines for distance learning library services on selected distance learning programs in higher education. In P. S. Thomas (Ed.), The Ninth Off-Campus Library Services Proceedings (pp. 19- Dow, S.H. (2000). Knowing your users and what they want: Surveying off-campus students about library services. In P. S. Thomas (Ed.), The Ninth Off-Campus Library Services Proceedings (pp. 19-

5 5 of 5 17TH Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning Grover, R. & Hale, M.L. (1988, January). The role of the librarian in faculty research. College & Research Libraries, 49 (1), Kuhlthau, C.C. (1993). Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Majka, D. (2001). The conqueror bookworm: Research and scholarship vs. surfdumb and inforamus. American Libraries, 32(6), Medhurst, J. (1995, September). Do or die: The librarian in the 21 st century. Managing Information, 2 (9), Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (1999). Building learning communities in cyberspace. Effective strategies for the online classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. University of Minnesota (1998, November). Library uses innovative technology to enhance resources and services for distance learners: Making being there as good as being here. Information Technology Newsletter, 3 (8). [Online] Available: itn/innovative.html University of Texas. Distance education: A primer. [Online]. Available: Biographical Sketches Mollie Dinwiddie is Professor of Library Services and Director of Technical Services at Central Missouri State University. She serves as library liaison to the Departments of Nursing and Criminal Justice and is an adjunct professor in the Department of Library Science and Information Services. Her M.L.S. is from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University and she holds an Ed. Spec. in Learning Resources from Central Missouri State University. Address: James C. Kirkpatrick Library Warrensburg, MO mollie@libserv.cmsu.edu URL: Phone: (660) Fax: (660) Linda L. Lillard is Assistant Professor of Library Science and Information Services and serves as chair of the department. She has a research interest in distance learning and in information seeking of online entrepreneurs. She holds an M.A. from San Diego State University, an M.L.S. from Emporia State University, and is A.B.D. in Library and Information Management at Emporia. Address: James C. Kirkpatrick Library Warrensburg, MO lillard@libserv.cmsu.edu URL: Phone: (660) Fax: (660)