Promoting Personal Connections: Innovative Library Outreach Within Your LMS is a poster in the 2020 PNLA Virtual Poster Session. We encourage you to engage in discussion by leaving a comment on the page. The author of the poster will respond to comments the week of August 4-7, 2020.
Presenter: Lorelei Sterling & D’Arcy Hutchings
Track: Academic & School Libraries
Abstract: How can you maximize your library’s presence at your institution in this time of increased online instruction and limited physical access to the library? Connect with your students where they are already: in your learning management system (LMS). This poster session will show you two high impact ways to create community and personal connection with your students. Learn the benefits of developing a library information tab in your LMS and a customized library landing page in every course — using what you already have.
These pages personalize the student experience by linking to 24/7 self-guided help and links to relevant resources, but most importantly provide direct access to librarians. Now more than ever, students need to know that we care about their success and that we are there for them.
This poster is ideal for universities, colleges, and K-12 schools of all sizes that use an LMS and have a library web presence.
Poster:
Supporting Materials:
About the Presenters:
Lorelei Sterling is the Head of Access Services (interim) at the UAA/APU Consortium Library at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She holds an MLS from San Jose State University and an MA in history from Washington State University. Contact Lorelei at lsterling@alaska.edu
D’Arcy Hutchings is the Instructional Design Librarian at the UAA/APU Consortium Library at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She holds an MLIS from University of Alabama and a Master’s of Education from University of Alaska Fairbanks. Contact D’Arcy at dlhutchings@alaska.edu
Very cool solution to a definite need. Are you able to track how often it is being used? What sort of interactions is the tab generating with the library?
SpringShare has statistics that track every click of the library link in the Blackboard courses which makes it really easy to tell which are getting the most traffic. I haven’t asked our LMS administrator for stats on the Library tab yet as this just went live in the spring semester, but I will ask her if there is a way to track it.
As a public librarian, it is so handy when university pages have a library information tab. With a tab, helping a patron on the service desk is streamlined–it is easier to teach a patron where it it, and it is easier for them to find on their own.
This is our observation as well! The particular library tab we address here is only visible behind a log in and withing Blackboard (our LMS). Our university also provides a single link to the library webpage as a whole, prominently placed on the university home page (yellow navigation bar near the top). This has been there for many, many years… as long as I can recall. Embedding the library information into these two places within the LMS has gone even further than the helpful university homepage link — at least for our students. They are in the LMS nearly daily, whereas some are on the university homepage only a few times a semester. In addition, as you can see, these pieces in Blackboard go further than providing a link to the library site. We designed them to guide students to library services and resources that they are most likely to need as well as market some of what they have access to. Thank you for your comment!