INTERLEND 2007

Access All Areas
Equality and Access in Document Delivery

2nd - 4th July 2007
King's College London

Presentations

Tuesday 3rd July

Chris Urquhart (University of Wales, Aberystwyth)
Introduction to Distance Learning for Library Management Students

Introduction

Presentation (Microsoft PowerPoint file, 82KB)

Interlending and document supply functions in many library and information services are merging with e-content delivery. Academic information services are being streamlined in the interests of greater efficiency, and functional boundaries are no longer what they were. Downsizing or business process engineering, depending on your point of view, perhaps. It's very easy to get distracted from the main aim of the service - to serve clients' needs for information. And it isn't just the library that is affected by the changes - the roles and responsibilities of academics are changing as well. The student profile is changing, and the notion that distance learning students are different and distinct because they are working and studying no longer holds true when so many students are working part-time while they study.

All these changes mean that it may be useful to use a different framework for thinking about student learning - a learning framework that accommodates social learning, the type of learning that we acquire almost unconsciously at work, and the type of learning that we acquire from colleagues, or our tutors on an informal basis. If we get the framework right, then we can start to see how library and information service fit into the big picture of student learning. One of the main findings of the JUSTEIS project (on the use of electronic information services by students and staff in higher and further education institutions) was the need for library and academic staff to work together to ensure that students could make effective use of services on offer. However, we need to see this as a staged process, so that library staff can provide the right type of service and support at the appropriate time.

I have worked on development of portals for the National Library of Health that used 'community of practice' principles to support the continuing professional development of health professionals. In the presentation I've explained some of the principles of communities of practice, and the factors that alter the effectiveness of virtual communities of practice. The virtual learning environment can be a community of practice - but often isn't! I like the communities of practice principle as it ensures that there is a proper place for library staff within the learning environment for students, and I'm also thinking about public library support for lifelong learning. The two important insights for communities of practice are that there is a legitimate place for people on the sidelines (it's OK to lurk) and that you can be a member of more than one community of practice. So, you could be an expert on the FIL list, but an 'apprentice' on the discussion group for a module or year-group.

The framework needs further development, but I personally think it's more useful professionally than seeing the library service relegated to a 'support' role which does nobody any favours, least of all the students, particularly the 'distant' students that we are all now serving.