Jennifer Hootman, Matt Lee, and Mary Parker
Need
• provide access to the Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM) for 2,700 eligible kindergartens through high schools (K–12) and academic, public, and special libraries in Minnesota
• respond to increasing cost per on-site in-person instructional session and declining numbers of workshop attendees
• discover more cost-effective way to continue delivering high-quality ELM instruction to library and school staff at their point of need
• offer a cost-effective online option when appropriate, not replace all on-site in-person instructional sessions
Benefit
• ELM instruction via virtual conferencing software saves financial resources as well as staff time and travel expenses.
• The ability to archive sessions increases flexibility in accessing content.
• Online instruction and archives allow staff to learn about the ELM resources at their point of need.
• Through online instruction, Minitex can reach more staff of the Minnesota schools and libraries more efficiently and economically.
Minitex is a publicly supported network of academic, public, state government, and special libraries working cooperatively to improve library service for their users in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Minitex administers ELM, a collection of statewide electronic resources in Minnesota. A unit within Minitex called Reference Outreach & Instruction (ROI) provides and coordinates the critical instructional component for ELM that most libraries and schools cannot afford to provide on their own.
In order to provide efficient, flexible, user-friendly instruction, Minitex ROI has made online instruction a focus for a number of years. Instruction helps ensure that Minnesotans not only have access to ELM but learn how to use the resources efficiently and effectively, finding the authoritative, verifiable information they need to succeed in school or the workplace.
Minitex ROI offers a range of instruction, from live webinars to recorded webinars to small group sessions offered on demand. These varying online sessions form the backbone of our online offerings and are offered through Adobe Connect. These options allow for the flexibility Minitex needs to serve libraries of all types in all manner of environments. Offering a range of online instructional options best serves the varying learning needs of our audience.
ROI staff schedule live webinars at times that are convenient for library staff. For instance, webinars scheduled before or after typical school hours target school librarians, while sessions at midday are more likely to appeal to the public librarian’s schedule. These webinars focus on practical applications of the ELM databases. In addition to detailed explorations of the ELM databases by vendor or interface, topical webinars introduce how ELM can support research into such varied endeavors as National History Day projects, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, employment research, and more. Any library staff member from participating libraries can join these scheduled webinars for a quick, efficient learning experience.
Despite efforts to provide live webinars at times targeted to varying library staff schedules, it has been a challenge to find a meeting time that works for a large group. Thus, we take advantage of Adobe Connect’s recording functionality. All live webinars are recorded and posted to the Minitex website, where library staff can view them at any hour of the day on any device.
ROI builds context and added value to these recorded webinars by packaging them with hands-on activities, short video tutorials, and database fact sheets in the ELM Learning Center. This allows library staff to learn at their own pace and depth by choosing online instructional options that fit their needs. Library staff might watch a recorded webinar and then follow up with hands-on activities for a chance to explore on their own. Or they might scan a one-page fact sheet on a database and then view a three-minute video demonstration of that database. Most of the content within the ELM Learning Center is downloadable and customizable. These supplemental materials can be used to support the instructional efforts of library staff throughout the state for their own patrons and students or directly by the Minnesota community.
Traditionally Minitex has sought to provide these instructional opportunities solely for library staff of participating libraries. Recently, however, Minitex ROI has expanded to include K–12 teachers. In this effort ROI has found that online instruction can simultaneously serve its outreach goals as well as its instructional goals. Invitations to online offerings are created specifically for library media specialists to share with their teachers and to host group attendance at their institution.
In addition to instruction on the ELM databases, Minitex ROI strives to help participating libraries share information with each other and to keep library staff apprised of emerging trends in the field. The unit hosts and promotes webinars given by library staff from across the region who have subject expertise on topics such as government information, chat reference services, online health and medical resources, reader’s advisory, and more. We also provide regional access to teleconferences on cutting-edge topics and technology from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and other groups.
Like other consortia and libraries, over the past ten to twelve years Minitex has adopted several different conferencing software tools. Whether it’s a subscription to PlaceWare, Horizon Wimba Live Classroom, Microsoft’s LiveMeeting, or most recently, to Adobe Connect, the intent has always been the same—to facilitate online instruction, meetings, and demonstrations.
From its experience with a variety of conferencing software tools, ROI considers it essential to ask the following three questions when selecting software appropriate to the proposed intent:
1. How does it present content?
2. How does it facilitate interaction?
3. What is the learner experience?
Answers to these questions will help any institution determine the features most important to their online instruction and meeting goals.
ROI considers a high level of interactivity crucial to the online experience it wishes to provide to its audience, and it chooses its software accordingly. Chat, whiteboard tools, polling, breakout rooms, screen sharing for presenter and attendees, audio options and quality, recording and archiving capability, and ease-of-use have all been priority features. Adobe Connect, the unit’s current online software tool, has met these criteria and improves the overall quality of the learner and instructor experience.
Garnering attendance and improving the effectiveness of the unit’s promotional communication continue to be ongoing challenges for Minitex ROI’s online instruction. These challenges are not atypical for consortia trainers. Some of the unit’s efforts to grow and deepen promotional communication and contact lists have included
1. creating a web-based visual e-mail announcement template as well as combining and deduplicating e-mail lists of library staff;
2. expanding the unit’s contacts to teachers, K–12 administrators, and curriculum coordinators by building relationships and forwarding the official e-mail announcements directly rather than relying on others to share that information with them; and
3. exhibiting and presenting at conferences outside the library profession to classroom teachers, faculty, administrators, and home educators.
We continue to address these challenges by continually investigating new and better ways to communicate and reach out to a complex audience.
Minitex has found that our mix of online and on-site sessions, coupled with the availability of online tutorials and archived webinars, has met the needs of our audience. As part of these broad ongoing instructional efforts, ROI is committed to maintaining and growing its online offerings. Shrinking budgets coupled with advances in online teaching and learning technology make that a practical priority. Online tools, including Adobe Connect, Google applications, and others, ensure that our instructional offerings and teaching tools are accessible, available, and easy to use.
Whether on-site or online, Minitex ROI instructional efforts directly contribute to the sustainability of Minitex. This work ensures that the Electronic Library for Minnesota, one of the core resources supported by Minitex, is understood and used more frequently. In this way, the unit’s instructional work is inherently an outreach effort. As we continue to provide instructional opportunities and materials, Minitex also directly extends its services and presence not just to library staff but also to all Minnesotans. Minitex’s online instruction has become a core service, and ROI provides an essential value-added service that demonstrates directly to the community that Minitex is a consortium worthy of continued financial support.