LibraryU

Whew! Today I finally finished my LibraryU module! It's only been on my to-do list for four freaking months. Actually, I feel bad that I haven't finished it before now because it's a guide to Researching the Events of September 11, 2001, and Terrorism. My original intent was to provide a webliography starting back in October so that public libraries in general could link to it rather than having to re-create the wheel. Unfortunately, various projects at work precluded this from happening. But it's up now, so if your library isn't already providing this type of information, please feel free to link to it. I'll be fleshing out some of the pages a bit more and adding annotations to all of the links, although it will take some time. There are other topics I want to add to it, as well. Here's more about LibraryU, the project.

And actually, I think this is the first time I've noted LibraryU on my blog. I'm rather proud of it, even though I'm biased because I've been in on it since the ground floor. If you haven't visited us before, LibraryU is a Web-based repository of tutorials created by librarians for their colleagues and the public. Four Library Systems in Illinois started it last year, and this year we hope to expand it to the other eight Systems. More FAQs on the About LibraryU page.

Basically, it's a way for us to provide brief bibliographic instruction tutorials over the Web. We try to keep the modules to 20-30 minutes so folks won't feel overwhelmed. Some of the courses are aimed at the public, some at librarians. Some are specific to a particular online catalog or regional topic, others are generic enough that anyone could benefit from reading through them.

I know a lot of other libraries have implemented online learning projects (especially academic libraries), but we feel that ours is somewhat unique because it is aimed at John Q. Public and librarians at all levels. For example, the Illinois State Library funds FirstSearch access for all Illinois residents, but we've never had the resources to provide decent training or PR for the project. So we used LibraryU to start an FirstSearch 101: Introduction to Searching tutorial. Next we'll do a FS 102 and so on.

Future topics will be quite varied, but it's all dependent on volunteers to create modules so we're working to keep the momentum going. We hope to add courses for marketing your library, how to be a good library trustee, fundraising, A/V collection development, and the like for the librarian side, while adding more database tutorials, a guide for finding government documents online, more OPAC training, and the like for patrons.

I hope libraries that have pathfinders (online and in print) can translate them into LU for everyone to use and benefit from. I think my module is an excellent example of how we could work together for a common good that helps everyone, especially for time-sensitive information or topics of a wide-interest. (Of course, next time I'll have to work a little faster!) In fact, I envision using this method to enhance the meta data training the Illinois State Library is providing to State webmasters for the Illinois Government Information service.

At this point, the plan is that all LibraryU courses will be free and they won't require any patron registration (they can use "guest" logins for anonymous browsing). We don't plan to offer CPDU credits either, but we have lots of topics we think we can address via this route. Although the focus will be on Illinois and our libraries, some of the subjects will be generic enough that out-of-state libraries could link to them as well.

The only variable at this point is the underlying software. LibraryU is currently based on WebCT's course management software, which for the most part is overkill for us. With new licensing and system requirements for the next release, we're not sure if we'll stay with WebCT or not. Plus, I can't customize the interface the way I really want to, especially to eliminate the frames and other unnecessary barriers, so we'll see. If you have any questions about LibraryU, please don't hesitate to use the Feedback Form on the site or contact me!

Last update: 2/16/2002; 6:10:54 PM.