Blackboard Embedded Librarians in Your Course

Dear Faculty:

Would you like to collaborate with a Blackboard Embedded Librarian next semester, Spring 2010? Have you been toying with the idea, just to see what difference it might make to your students’ research efforts? Have you heard colleagues talking about this online approach to delivering library services and resources that are customized for the courses you teach?

The Gardner-Harvey Librarians have been building research tools and planning for Spring Semester 2010 with you and your students in mind. Before you close your office door for the semester on Friday December 18, 2009, please let John Burke and Beth Tumbleson know of your interest.

To recap the Pilot Program from a year ago, Gardner-Harvey librarians worked with instructors teaching upper and lower division courses across the disciplines. The purpose of the program is to develop information literacy skills in students, whether enrolled in traditional, off-campus, hybrid, or online courses. Once you express interest, we will send you a two page overview of options to determine your needs and schedule an appointment to discuss assignments and your curricular goals in terms of student research. Once you enroll the librarian as a course builder or instructor, content will be added next to the assignment, on the Embedded Librarian page, or wherever appropriate. Then students have direct access to research assistance from a librarian familiar with the course and Miami University Libraries’ collections.

Common research strategies and concepts addressed in prior semesters have included:
• a short list of the most relevant databases and online collections
a list of appropriate subject terms
help narrowing a topic
guidance finding statistics
assistance citing sources using RefWorks and other tools
methods of evaluating Websites
identifying scholarly sources.

If you think your students would benefit from such a faculty-librarian collaboration within Blackboard, please reply to this e-mail and provide the information requested below:

To Complete and Return by December 18, 2010
Name:
email:
Telephone:
Courses: Section, Time/Day, & Location

Best regards,

Beth Tumbleson, Assistant Director
John Burke, Director