Arizona State University is the largest public university in the United States with an enrollment of 70,440 in 2010. ASU's online offerings are also expanding rapidly with a target of 30,000 students by 2020. In one program, growth and transformation from hybrid to 100% online demanded scalability to handle large enrollments. Thus an instructional…

Many of our reference interactions are face-to-face at a desk or in our offices. Unfortunately, not all of our students are on campus. Whether a non-traditional student or a traditional undergraduate, more of our patrons are attending online classes or attending satellite campuses with no librarians on site. It's difficult to reach these students,…

Providing library instruction in distance learning environments presents a unique set of challenges for instructional librarians. Innovations in computer-mediated communication and advances in cognitive science research provide the opportunity for designing library instruction that meets a variety of student information seeking needs. Using a…

Being a great teacher is part and parcel of being a great librarian. In this book, veteran instruction services librarian McAdoo lays out the fundamentals of the discipline in easily accessible language. Succinctly covering the topic from top to bottom, he: (1) Offers an overview of the historical context of library instruction, drawing on recent…

School librarians have always been teachers, even before the term "teacher-librarian" was coined. They teach every time they help students select books, locate and evaluate resources for research projects, or troubleshoot a computer problem. When they assist students, they explain and model the steps they are taking. Teaching for school librarians…

There is a "clash of civilizations" going on in the information field--a clash characterized by a brash upstart, Google, and its attendant creations, Google Scholar and Google Books, and the old guard represented by the library world. Librarians who deprecate Google Scholar or simply ignore the Google phenomenon do so at their own risk. Google…

A diverse group, account-based services include a wide variety of sites commonly used by patrons, including online shopping sites, social networks, photo- and video-sharing sites, banking and financial sites, government services, and cloud-based storage. Whether or not a piece of information is obtainable online must be considered when creating…

To better understand faculty attitudes and practices regarding usage of library-specific tools and roles in a university learning management system, log data for a period of three semesters was analyzed. Academic departments with highest rates of usage were identified, and faculty users and nonusers within those departments were surveyed regarding…

Thirteen years after being adopted, the Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL's) "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education" are due for a retrofit. The current "Standards" do not account for the post-Google information landscape in which a blizzard of emerging technologies and unprecedented…

This paper presents a descriptive model of the subject matter taught in courses on expert search in ALA-accredited programs, answering the question: What is taught in formal professional education on search expertise? The model emerged from a grounded content analysis of 44 course descriptions and 16 syllabi, and was validated via a review of…

Community and technical colleges have a long-established tradition of instructing students in library use with the goal of increasing information literacy and life-long learning (Branch & Gilchrist, 1996). This article will briefly summarize that history and discuss the impact the information age has had in altering the ways in which that…

This paper examines the embedded librarian program and its impact on the information literacy skills of community college students at Queensborough Community College (QCC). It is a collaboration between an embedded librarian and an English instructor at QCC. The study participants are QCC students enrolled in seven sections of English 101 and…

Did you ever wish for an easy-to-maintain tool to create course-level or assignment-level instruction for online or distance students? LibGuides can provide the solution! LibGuides provide a versatile and easy-to-maintain platform for delivering step-by-step, scaffolded tutorials that enhance learning outcomes through chunking, reduced strain on…

Community, while inherent in assumptions about online education, rarely materializes as an integral component of the experience. Misconceptions and misguided motivations can derail participation and engagement in the online setting. Creating a successful online community is dependent on knowing what works in the face-to-face environment and…

Statistical reporting of library instruction (LI) activities has historically focused on measures relevant to face-to-face (F2F) settings. However, newer forms of LI conducted in the online realm may be difficult to count in traditional ways, leading to inaccurate reporting to both internal and external stakeholders. A thorough literature review…