- Please introduce us through Class Announcements and encourage your students to ask us questions.
- Students are far more likely to utilize the embedded librarian if the instructor seems to place value on the service.
- Encourage discussion board questions and let students know what an important contribution their questions are to the entire class’s learning experience.
- Please provide the librarian with as many class assignment details as possible. She will try to anticipate problems and have materials available. She will post these materials a little ahead of the assignment due dates helping remind your students of upcoming assignments.
Any class that has a research component can take advantage of working with an embedded librarian. The librarian can create LibGuides with links that are tailored to each course. The instructor can contact the embedded librarian by clicking on the Embedded Librarian link in his/her course.
Embedded librarians are integrated information experts that offer more direct research assistance to groups of faculty and students than the typical one-shot instruction session, often over the course of an entire semester.
While librarians can embed in face-to-face classes, they are increasingly in demand within virtual environments in order to support online classes, hybrid classes, and face-to-face classes that include an online support component.
Embedded librarians work closely with teaching faculty in their courses, providing a library resource to students throughout the entire course. Librarians work with instructors to collaborate and assist students with assignments that utilize library resources and answer students’ questions regarding library materials. This program seeks to create an integrated and sustained collaboration between the librarians and teaching faculty instead of a parallel interaction through traditional library instruction.
The librarian is included in your Canvas class and will post announcements from time to time to provide links to library Zoom sessions or to provide relevant library resources. The librarian can also create a custom research guide, called a LibGuide https://libguides.swu.edu, to help your students with research. In addition, the librarian will provide you and your students assistance in the following areas:
1. Searching the library system and databases
2. Understanding the research process
3. Narrowing (or expanding) research topics
4. Providing relevant library content
5. Linking to electronic resources
6. Moving beyond Google and Wikipedia to scholarly, academic sources
7. Choosing keywords, search strategies, and tips
8. Creating how-to digital tutorials
9. Citing sources correctly by style
An embedded librarian will facilitate student research and use of library resources either during the entire course or just when needed. She can work with you, the instructor, a little or a lot, whichever best meets your needs. The librarian can:
· Offer individual attention to students during any stage of their research process
· Serve as a contact regarding library or research questions
· Work with students to quickly resolve library access issues
· Provide specially designed content for the course, including suggested resources, tutorials, search strategies and research guides or LibGuides
The most important thing the librarian needs from instructors is promotion of the library and its resources. Announcing that a librarian will be part of the class and will be available for questions is a tremendous first step. If you see students struggling with research, remind them that a librarian is available to help. If the instructor stresses the importance of library resources, more students are likely to use this valuable service!
The librarian will have access to your Canvas course. The librarian can add library-related links and information as Announcements in Canvas.