Fall blog series: Tales from Eric Novotny, a new (virtually) embedded librarian

For this week’s library news blog, Eric Novotny, history librarian, writes about his experiences as a new embedded librarian preparing for an upcoming online course. Even though he had worked with the professor previously on the course material, this was a first-time experience for both individuals and addresses the processes and current and future resources.

by Eric Novotny, history librarian

Season’s greetings! I am penning this missive in the hopes of reaching others, like me, who are new to supporting a World Campus class. I was recently asked to collaborate on an advanced level History/Jewish Studies course taught by Tobias Brinkmann. My experiences to date suggest that this will be a rewarding activity, for myself, the instructor and the students.

How do I Begin?
While I had worked with Dr. Brinkmann for years on his Holocaust course, neither of us had much experience with designing content for online courses. Fortunately this is not a solo journey and wonderful support is available. To start I met with Victoria Raish, the Online Learning librarian. Victoria shared some stimulating ideas on best practices for teaching online and helped connect me with Jennifer Grey, instructional designer, Filippelli Institute for e-Education and Outreach. Together with Dr. Brinkmann we brainstormed ideas and talked through how the traditional library support I provided for a resident course could be replicated and even enhanced in an online environment.

Rethinking Instruction
One of the exciting aspects of the World Campus experience is how it has expanded the possibilities for reaching students. In the Holocaust class previously offered, I was invited in for a single session with follow-up consultations as requested by the students. As an embedded librarian I will have multiple opportunities for student engagement. We have discussed hosting virtual library study hours at different times to interact with students across time zones. We are also exploring videos and brief tutorials that can be integrated throughout the syllabus, so students would view the content when it is most directly relevant to the course objectives.

What We’ve (actually) Done So Far
To date my work has largely involved preparation and imagination as the class is not yet live. The major concrete activity has been the recording of a brief introductory video which could not have been easier—all I had to do was show up. Stephen Tuttle, multimedia specialist with the Filippelli Institute picked a location, brought the necessary lighting and audio, and walked us through the process. I share the video not because it is a groundbreaking masterpiece, but as a demonstration of what can be (easily) accomplished. Ideally, future instructional resources will include interactive elements for both engagement and to evaluate reception.

HIST 426 Library Videos
The first video we created for this course, “Welcome to the Library,” can be viewed here. By selecting the playlist icon in the upper right corner of this video, you can see the additional videos available including, “Books and Journals,” “Personal Accounts” and “Historical Newspapers.”

After the shoot was concluded, Stephen continued to support the course. He and I worked together to identify and integrate additional images such as screenshots of specific databases being discussed (see for example images from the New York Times at 0:26 mark of the Holocaust: Media and Historical Newspapers video). This added some variety to the visuals and broke up the “talking heads” monotony. Aside from discomfort watching myself on screen, I can say I am pleased with the results.

Challenges
I hope I have conveyed my enthusiasm for this effort. Everyone involved has been generous with their time, expertise and ideas. That said, I do ruminate on the scaleability of this rather intensive approach. Rethinking instruction is invigorating, but also time-consuming. For now the time commitment has not been overwhelming and I believe it is a worthwhile investment to foster skills that should see greater demand going forward. While I may not be able to provide such ambitious support for hundreds of classes, I anticipate that routines and shortcuts will emerge over time as I gain experience delivering content to distant audiences. I look forward to it!