Creating an Electronic Document Center for NCATE Accreditation

This paper will discuss the development of the electronic document center (EDC) at the University of Central Missouri. It will highlight the initial assumptions and planning, discoveries made along the way, and thoughts and ideas as we reflect back on the process. It is hoped that sharing this insight will help those who will be preparing for their own site visits

The Benefits of University Faculty as P-12 Substitute Teachers

The current substitute teacher shortage was exacerbated by COVID-19 and is not expected to improve any time soon. A solution that may benefit both P-12 schools and higher education involves the occasional utilization of university faculty as substitute teachers. This alleviates some of the pressure on school districts in finding substitute teachers while also building relationships, providing university faculty with current classroom experience, and serving as a recruitment pipeline

Instituting Blended Learning at a Small College: A Library Director’s Perspective

Saint Anthony College of Nursing (SACN) is a small private Catholic institution that offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Founded in 1915 as a school of nursing offering only diplomas it is now fully accredited regionally by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association (NCA) and program specific by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLN-AC). As a single purpose institution with 13 faculty, 11 staff, and fewer than 100 students, SACN has continued to strive to modernize the program over the past decade with limited resources. Recent technological improvements led by the library director include the development of it’s own college Web site, a newly remodeled and enhanced skills lab, networked classrooms with teacher computers and projectors, and a renovated library with a computer lab, full-text online databases, and around 70 computer assisted instruction programs along with the usual slew of videos and print resources. During the 1999/2000 academic year ideas were tossed around about enhancing courses with class Web sites and tools to create a blended learning approach. Technology has been steadily improving and costs have become more manageable during that time. Faculty, however, were not comfortable creating sites from scratch, so a commercial course management system was required. Informally faculty and staff had looked at different options, vendors, and services. During 2001, in conjunction with our sister school, Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing, we decided to jointly license with eCollege, an application service provider (ASP), to provide faculty with the ability to Web enhance all of our courses. This would also serve as a learning stage before jumping into full-blown distance education courses at some point down the road. The interesting part to this endeavor is how involved the library director has been in instituting these technologies due to the size of the college. The smaller the college, the more hats you have to wear. This can be both exciting and draining at the same time. Everyone is truly expected to play broad roles at the college, from heavy committee assignments to being responsible for several areas. Because of my comfort with technology my position had been expanded from those of library director to also include support, guidance, and planning for technology not just in the library but for the college as a whole. Following are some of the experiences I’ve had in these distance education technologies, from the initial groundwork to troubleshooting and support through the first year

School Library Website Components

chool library websites are a necessity. The earliest adopters have now had almost 10 years for development and redesign. Many sites have gone through numerous iterations with major improvements each time. During the last couple of years we've seen these sites expand into almost all the schools, becoming integrated into everyday life for our students and colleagues. There are of course a few last holdouts that have not made that leap yet, but issues of cost, time, technology and training have made the discussion more a matter of deciding what to include and how to structure the sites than of whether to have a website or not. While most current library media specialists went to school before web design became a topic of course content, those in school now are expected to learn at least some of the basics. The technical aspects of designing a good school library website are, therefore, not the largest hurdle any longer. While there are certainly more advanced features that would be nice to include, most sites consist of a place to make available links to databases and other websites and a way to post information and documents created in the library and the school. Additional time and money could produce richer websites with more features, but the needs of most students can be met inexpensively by school librarians. A somewhat difficult hurdle is the actual design and organization of the website. There are countless ways that this type of information can be organized, and the ages of the students can have a major impact. A K-12 school, for instance, has very different needs for its younger and older students. In this case, separate paths may have to be created to direct students toward age appropriate resources. Simple and easy to follow structure is important. Don't frustrate students by designing a flashy site that is difficult for them to use. The most difficult part is adding the content, especially providing quality resources and websites to link to. This takes a lot of time. Each link to a website needs to be thoroughly evaluated, and constantly checked for dead links. The advantage of the medium is that you are not entirely on your own when deciding what to put on your own site. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. So what are other library media specialists really doing on a day-to-day basis? What have they created? What are some of the basic components of a good school library website? This paper will provide a list of current features many websites contain, and some interesting ideas that others may want to incorporate. There are entire subfields of website design which talk about navigation, colors, organization, readability and much more. However, while technical issues and design techniques cross disciplines and types of websites, there are specific concerns when talking about school library websites. This paper focuses on content of websites, about which there is currently very little research published. What we are considering here is what makes a good school library website i

Technology and the school library : a comprehensive guide for media specialists and other educators / third edition

xxvi, 236 pages : illustrations ; 23 c

An analysis of library web sites at colleges and universities serving distance education students

Includes bibliographical references (pages [103]-108)This study researched college and university library services provided to distance education students. The purpose was to determine whether library web sites differed depending on the amount of distance education offered. Using constructivist theory, this study examined how distant library patrons relate to information services through a web browser. The library web site contains the citations, articles, full-text information and more that students need in order for them to engage in their studies. The library and its resources are cognitive tools for learners as they construct knowledge. Constructivist theory also serves as an underpinning for investigating the instructional relationship between learner and librarian. Librarians can use the web delivery systems to guide learners in developing information literacy skills, teaching patrons about the resources available, what would be appropriate, how to evaluate resources and use the information found. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The study began with a content analysis of library web sites. The web sites chosen were categorized by the amount of distance education offered to students: fully online institutions, traditional institutions now offering complete degrees via a distance, institutions offering the most individual courses via a distance, and institutions not yet offering distance education. Personal interviews with librarians and surveys of distance education students were also conducted in order to gain a deeper understanding of the participants' perceptions. Results indicated that the size of the institution had the strongest correlation to library services offered to distance education students (Spearman's rho of .618), not the degree to which distance education is provided (rho of .076). This thereby brings into question whether some institutions have been too quick to provide distance education services without properly addressing student library needs. Other findings indicated that greater amounts of online materials are needed. More instruction, personal assistance, and improved navigational design are required due to increasingly complex web sites and a multitude of database offerings. Furthermore, while feedback is solicited, there is a lack of formal needs assessment to fully determine student needs. Finally, inadequate financial support, and a corresponding lack of adequate staffing, is a continuing problem.Ed.D. (Doctor of Education