Community & Junior College Libraries . . . the journal for learning resources centers

---

Librarian and instructor collaboration: development of a customized website at Lane Community College

by Don Macnaughtan

Community and Junior College Libraries 9.1 (2000): 333-38.

Abstract

Discusses a pilot project to develop a website of online resources for a community college class in world religions. The project is a joint collaboration between the class instructor and the reference librarian. The site may be seen as an extension of traditional collection development into new electronic resources, but also a new partnering of instructors and librarians to address the rapidly evolving information needs of students.

Introduction

All librarians have experienced the information revolution brought about by the world wide web in the 1990s. This revolution has been felt especially in college libraries, where students have seized the potential of the web, with astonishing, gratifying and sometimes disappointing results. Our challenge has been to harness the information power of the web to best serve the students and their teachers. Many students and instructors have adapted quickly, and can achieve excellent results; others flounder, lost in the welter of irrelevant, useless or misleading information, or baffled by arbitrary search techniques. As librarians, one of our premier skills is to bring order to the quest for information; providing tailored online information is one approach to this challenge.

In this project, I partnered with an instructor to offer students a customized suite of electronic resources for a class on world religions. Our intent was:

• to make the student's research task easier and more productive
  
• to add an extra resource to the instructor's array of teaching methods
  
• to investigate how the library can work closely with faculty to provide subject-specific Internet consulting, ranging from construction of the site to identification and selection of the resources

Background

The origins of this project lay in a casual remark. I work at Lane Community College Library in Eugene, Oregon, as a reference librarian and as selector/liaison in social sciences. In the summer of 1997, I was discussing selection of religion books with the teacher in that area, Dr. Clif Trolin. His course covers three classes at the 200 level in Religions of India, Religions of China and Japan, and Religions of the Near East. The class is popular, with students enrolled each term. We were well served by print resources, but Dr. Trolin remarked that his students were having problems accessing information from the Internet. They were either overwhelmed with data, or frustrated by the difficulties of searching and retrieval. My initial reaction was: if I can acquire and organize print information for Dr. Trolin's students, why not do the same for information on the web? Initially, I saw this as a logical extension of selection and liaison; to Dr. Trolin, it was a way for his students to have one-stop shopping for electronic resources directly related to their class work. We agreed then to collaborate to create such a site.

The planning

We began work that summer, and spent several weeks exchanging ideas on how to present the information. Dr. Trolin was new to the web, and I had a superficial knowledge of world religions, so we spent time educating each other. We agreed that Dr. Trolin would set out the conceptual framework of the site, and I would carry out the technical creation and locate the online resources.

• we would devote one page of links to each religion, with a completely standard interface for each
  
• we would make it easy to navigate and attractive to view
  
• we would integrate the pages as much as possible with the syllabus and instructor's pages (although we would base the site on the library's server)
  
• we would be especially careful, balanced, and respectful of each religion, given the sensitivities involved (this involved some careful research -- for example, on the Islam page I had to find a scholar who could advise me whether the graphic image of Arabic text I was using was appropriate in context).
  
• we also agreed to include a disclaimer on every page, pointing out that we did not endorse the views of any particular religious group by including a link (we were in fact challenged on one occasion by a student who was offended by a link to a particular Buddhist sect).

The process

After Dr. Trolin and I had worked out the general guidelines, I began to organize the site, work on the graphics, and find the resources. The initial setup took about 80 hours over 6 months. I had to learn a lot more about html and graphics than I currently knew, so this slowed the process considerably. Once I had mastered those details and put the structure in place, the work went much more smoothly. We opened the site in January 1998 with 8 pages. The site now has 17 pages with hundreds of links, including resources on some of the more obscure religious communities such as the Jains, the Sikhs and the Druze, and even an Atheist page (for balance). I wrote standardized introductions to each faith, and added scripted links through to the Library's online web-accessible catalog for books and article citations on each religion. LCC students also have access to the huge resources of the nearby University of Oregon library, so I added in scripted links through to their holdings on each subject. My next step will be to add access to full-text electronic reserves which can be added to the library's Innovative Interfaces online system. E-reserves will need to be passworded and restricted to students in the class for copyright and contract reasons, as is access to the full-text databases such as Infotrac and SIRS.

The results

The site averages 60 hits a month, more during the school year. It is impossible to tell what percentage come from students in the class, since they could be accessing from a variety of locations -- home accounts or college locations. We do know that we have the following pattern of visits:

• 30% from educational sites (.edu)
  
• 25% commercial sites (.com)
  
• 20% from networks (.net)
  
• 15% unknown
  
• 10% international (most from Australia, then Canada)

Additionally 20% of the visitors logged in on 9 or more occasions, 10% from 2-8 times, and 70% were single visits (a single visit may still involve a long period of using the site).

Anecdotally, Dr. Trolin reports that students are finding the customized pages a much easier route to Internet information. He publicizes the site to students through URLs on syllabi and class handouts, class announcements, and internal links.

Problems have been relatively few. The single biggest obstacle is that this is quite a time-consuming exercise. However, once the setup and initial work are complete, maintenance is fairly straightforward. I run link-checker software through the links regularly, and I get considerable email on additions and (occasionally) deletions.

Customized sites and alternative learning structures

After setting up the world religions site, I have begun a number of other course-specific projects, especially for the alternative structures for teaching and learning called "learning communities". Learning communities are cross-disciplinary classes which revolve around a common theme. They are designed to foster "more explicit intellectual connections between students, between students and their faculty, and between disciplines." They may be linked or paired classes, team-taught course pairs, or completely integrated courses drawing on teachers and materials from many classes. However, they can be challenging to manage for teachers, especially in organizing resources across disciplines. Librarians have a key role which we can play in these new teaching structures, and we are in a unique position to contribute:

• we are one of the few academic communities on campus which transcend the boundaries of disciplines and subjects
  
• we have a tradition of providing learning services to teachers and students
  
• we are in a strategic position to mediate the information needs of these highly diverse classes, and to help navigate students and teachers through the mass of information.

Current projects include a learning community on the effects of class in American life ("Fat cats and underdogs"), and another on the nature and structure of identity ("Inner spaces, outer places") based on "An anthropologist on Mars" by Oliver Sacks. It will be a challenge to find the web resources to back these wonderful but diverse communities, but who better to take this role than a librarian?

Benefits of course-specific websites

• directs student research efforts in profitable directions
  
• overcomes some of the problems of too much web information
  
• helps student new to the web by guiding them subject research
  
• greatly increases collaboration and interchange between the library and the teaching faculty
  
• increases the role and visibility of the library on campus
  
• increases awareness of the areas in which we select.

Points to consider

• for maximum efficiency, libraian should be proficient in html and graphics
  
• can consume a lot of time, especially during the early learning curve
  
• works best where the librarian and instructor can collaborate closely
  
• librarian needs to either know the subject area well, or be willing to learn
  
• useful to have a web-accessible library catalog so that the website /catalog interface can be seamless i.e. users can be directed to appropriate bibliographic records as well as web resources
  
• measuring outcomes can be difficult
  
• given the specialized audience, are the results worth the effort?

Ways to add value to a customized website

• add annotations to the list of resources
  
• link directly to the online catalog for books and articles on the subject
  
• link to electronic reserves and full-text databases (this is usually restricted by licensing agreements to the class students only)
  
• add study guides, search hints, and research advice.
  
• provide clear navigational links to the instructor's page, syllabi, and other class materials.

Lane Community College World Religions Site
http://2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/library/faith.htm