ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 2 4 4 / C&RL News Building a v irtu a l branch By J o h n K. Stem m er and Jo h n Tom barge The CLIO Program brings libraries and faculty together A new vision of information and libraries is taking root in the minds of people in higher education. The image of the library as a building containing paper-based resources is giving way to a more flexible and dynamic view of information and libraries. “In the past, li­ braries held the keys to research and knowl­ edge; in the future, networked desktops will allow much of the same access when and where the user desires it.”1 This new vision of how one gets information sounds like a death-knell for the traditional library and, with it, the librar­ ian. Desktop access to information resources is creating a networked environment vastly differ­ ent from the libraries of the past. One significant problem with this distributed access is that it as­ sumes that end users already know how to use the resources effectively and efficiently. Having dealt with numerous phone and e-mail requests for assistance, librarians know this is not neces­ sarily the case. Libraries and librarians are far from obsolete; they must, however, reevaluate their own relation to the user and overcome the obstacles of place and time since information technology has made information available to users anywhere and anytime. In response to this changing information environment libraries across the country are ex­ perimenting with new ways to provide sup­ port to users who have a growing preference for letting their keyboards do their research leg- work. Libraries in the University of California system are using e-mail to deliver training courses.2 Loyola University of Chicago librar­ ians are holding office hours in academic de­ partments.3 At Stanford University, a test-pro- gram called Information Resources Specialists (IRS Agents) will provide support in informa­ tional and instructional technology for academic purposes to faculty and staff within academic departments or small clusters of departments.4 The University of Arkansas has instituted a “SuperService” program that provides initial training and follow-up to faculty and graduate students.5 All of these programs attempt to train or assist faculty in the process of doing research within the confines of their own offices or com­ puter labs. Librarians are walking out of the library and showing up in offices and computer labs to provide research assistance vital to the work of faculty and students. C reatin g a collegiate lib ra ria n a n d in fo rm a tio n officer Another possible future is being examined at the Carol Newman Library of Virginia Polytech­ nic Institute and State University. The Colle­ giate Librarian and Information Officer (CLIO) program was created to respond to the effect of rapidly changing information technology on the teaching and research of the scholarly com­ munity. In effect, the program aims to create a “virtual branch” in the various colleges at Vir­ ginia Tech. CLIOs have been given permanent offices in several colleges on campus in order to facilitate contact with faculty, staff, and stu­ dents.6 The program allows these librarians to interact with faculty more frequently and infor­ mally than when ensconced in their own sepa­ rate library building. It encourages librarians to exploit a range of contact opportunities with users that did not previously exist. Librarians with offices alongside the teaching and research faculty are less likely to be out of mind since they are no longer out of sight. The CLIO program began as part of the university’s response to the state’s demand for J o h n K. S tem m er is collegiate librarian f o r the College o f A rts a n d Sciences a t Virginia P olytechnic Institute a n d State University, e-mail: jstem m er@ vt.edu; Jo h n T om barge is a reference lib ra rian a t W ashington & Lee University, e-mail: tombarge.j@ wlu.edu mailto:jstemmer@vt.edu mailto:tombarge.j@wlu.edu by Kazuko Masui Foreword by Joel Robuchon and Tomoko Yamada photographs by Yohei Maruyama “Although many guides to the art of from agerie exist, none provide by Miranda Bruce-Mitford such visual detail and at-a-glance “…this lavishly illustrated information…350 cheeses b o o k …loo ks at the e ssen ce o f signs [are categorized] in a dictionary and sym bols…for straightforward form at…a massive am ount of definitions and excellen t co lo r referen ce data to b e consumed illustrations, this bo o k will be p iece by p ie ce .” quite helpful.” —Booklist —Library Journal Maps, photographs. Glossary, index, Illustrations. Bibliography, index. list o f producers and markets. ISBN: 0-7894-100-1 • $24.95 ISBN: 0-7894-1437-6 • $29.95 by Andrew Chevallier “…a visual guide to 100 key herbs “…beautifully illustrated….A gazetteer from around the w orld…[with] shorter plots the location o f m ore than descriptions o f 450 other he rb s…well 1,000 sites on 20 co lo r maps. A list indexed, profusely illustrated, and keyed to the maps notes the authored by [an] established authority founding date o f the site, the country in the field o f herbal m edicine.” w here it is located, and a —Library Journal brief note as to its im p ortance.” Photographs. Bibliography, index. —Reference Books Bulletin, Booklist ISBN: 0-7894-1067-2 • $39.95 Maps, photographs. Bibliography, glossary, index. ISBN: 0-7894-1051-6 • $ 2 9 .95 DK Publishing, Inc., 95 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 • http://www.dk.com Available from your regular supplier, or call 1-888-DIAL-DKP (342-5357). http://www.dk.com 2 4 6 / C&RL News academic restructuring. The goals were to em­ phasize collaborative and cooperative strate­ gies, extend the reach of faculty, and ensure that students are served well. It was intended to forge stronger and more effective ties be­ tween faculty members and the complex and intricate web of information resources needed by these individuals to teach and conduct re­ search. The program was also designed spe­ cifically to support the inclusion of informa­ tion literacy skills in the college curricula. Information literacy includes a range of skills— from knowing how to use computers and ac­ cess information to reflecting critically on the nature of information itself, its technical infra­ structure, and its social, cultural, and even philo­ sophical context and impact. These skills are as essential to the mental framework of the educated information-age citizen as the trivium of basic liberal arts (grammar, logic, and rheto­ ric) was to the educated person in medieval society.7 The CLIOs rec ognize that to become a Librarians with offices alongside the teaching and research faculty are less likely to be out of mind since they are no longer out of sight. p r o fic ie n t re s e a rc h e r takes practice. Teaching a student or researcher to use appropriately and ef­ fectively all the relevant sources is not done in a day. It requires interac­ tions over time and at dif­ fe re n t sta g es in the project, whether through classroom workshops, one-on-one coaching sessions, or short, to-the- point e-mail messages. C o o p eratio n a n d su p p o rt req u ired Before the CLIO program was established, the library already had a vigorous outreach/liaison program. Regular contact was made between the library and other academic units on cam­ pus. The library even experimented with hav­ ing a librarian hold office hours in one of the colleges. The CLIO project extended this ex­ periment, intending to accomplish it on a much larger scale. In order to support this effort, and in conjunction with a restructuring of the li­ brary organization generally, the library’s ex­ isting resources were reallocated. Work assign­ ments were altered as needed to maintain a high-quality reference service in the library. This included training additional support staff to help provide reference assistance. The CLIO program also required coopera­ tion from units outside the library. Support from the deans of the separate colleges was needed for success. Fortunately, this was readily given. Initially, four colleges— Human Resources, Edu­ cation, Agriculture, and Arts and Sciences— agreed to participate in the project. They pro­ vided an office in a central location or near the dean’s office, and three even added the librar­ ian to their staff. Equipping these offices has been a joint venture drawing on library and college resources. The effort has been well re­ ceived on campus and the program has recently been expanded to the colleges of Business and Engineering. P rom otin g use o f tech n o lo g y One of the initial assignments given to the CLIOs was to actively promote efficient use of the in­ creasing numbers of electronically accessible networked information resources. This empha­ sis complemented a university program called the Faculty Development Institute (FDI), run by the university’s Infor­ mation Systems Unit. FDI provided many faculty with high-powered work­ stations for the first time, and a week-long training seminar helped faculty put these workstations to good use. Evaluations of this program indicated that some of the most rel­ evant training in the program had been pro­ vided by librarians. However, since FDI will take four years to cover all the faculty, we cur­ rently face a continuing demand for additional workshops. These requests come from faculty who have not attended FDI, and occasionally from those who have. These faculty may re­ quest a refresher workshop or one designed to update their skills, such as easing the transition from using Gopher to using the Web with Netscape. All of the CLIOs participate in addi­ tional workshops promoting the use of net­ worked resources. Typically, these workshops concentrate on using Netscape in order to ac­ cess networked resources whether provided locally or on the Internet; however, they have also covered nontraditional library topics such as the use of the Eudora e-mail program and writing HTML documents. The FDI training seminar showed faculty members that librarians are valuable resources for finding information on the Internet. Conse­ quently, as the Internet has become an increas- April 1997 / 24 7 ingly important part of education, faculty have called upon the CLIOs to assist them and their students in using this resource. Greater interac­ tion between faculty and librarians has encour­ aged faculty to reexamine their students’ use of information sources. Now when they see a need for improvement, they request greater li­ brarian involvement in the courses they teach, knowing that librarians understand their needs and are capable of tailoring workshops and assignments specifically to meet the course goals. They know they can rely on librarians to help enable their students to use information sources effectively whether they are in the li­ brary, accessed over the campus network, or on the Internet. In addition, the CLIOs have been called upon by their assigned colleges to assist the faculty in creating Web pages. The CLIOs have con­ tributed to these efforts in a variety of ways: in the actual writing of the HTML document, in its placement on a server, in finding information to add to departmental pages, or by providing training in developing Web pages. Generally, these have been class- or program-related pages, not personal Web pages, because fac­ ulty are being encouraged to develop and use Web pages in their courses. By capitalizing on our early experience in constructing HTML documents to promote our own resources and services, we have been able to provide sup­ port to faculty in these new efforts and expand our own roles in the departments. E xp an d in g fa c u lty partnerships The role of librarian as faculty liaison is an­ other one that has been developed and ex­ panded through the CLIO program. Being in close proximity to faculty makes them more aware of the assistance librarians can provide and has been beneficial in several ways. First, the interaction helps the free flow of informa­ tion between the various units involved. This was especially useful since the library under­ took a serials cancellation during the program’s first year. Second, it allows the librarians to get to know the faculty’s teaching and research interests and needs more completely. This, in turn, influences purchase decisions in the li­ brary. Faculty have discovered that they have an advocate conveniently available to assist with problems that arise with library services, from requesting new materials to handling mix-ups with the reserve desk. CLIOs strengthen and smooth out the connection between the fac­ ulty and the library organization. All of these interactions decrease the sense of otherness that teaching faculty often feel about the library. The library is more “their” library than ever before. In addition to being accessible in the vari­ ous colleges, each of the CLIOs continues to maintain a presence in Newman Library by pro­ viding regular reference hours at the reference desks and keeping an office in the library. While the library administration presented reference hours as optional, all of us believe that they are essential for us to maintain ties with our colleagues. Being open to all reference ques­ tions, not just to those from our colleges, is necessary in order to maintain our information skills, which, in turn, make us more effective librarians in this new position. Also, undergradu­ ates, who are unlikely to seek out their college’s CLIO without meeting him or her first, may make initial contact at the reference desk or follow-up contact after a workshop scheduled by the teacher. Thus, reference hours give un­ dergraduates who are actively attempting re­ search easy access to their librarian. It is an opportunity for librarians to work with under­ graduates which can lead to a long working relationship as they move through their years of study. Due to the vast differences in the colleges and the librarians in the program, each CLIO has structured his or her job somewhat differ­ ently. We are each free to emphasize our strengths and promote our own niche in the college in which we work. All of us have dis­ covered that this new position is very techno­ logically oriented. It requires close cooperation with local computer support in the individual colleges as well as strong support from the li- By capitalizing on our e a rly experience in constructing HTML documents … w e have been able to provide support to faculty in these new efforts and expand our own roles in the departments. 2 4 8 / C&RL News brary A u to m atio n D e p a rtm e n t and the university’s Information Systems Unit. The edu­ cation CLIO has been able to use this position to compile a demonstration library of impor­ tant software, such as encyclopedias or other educational items. The arts & sciences CLIO has found himself participating in the college’s Cyberschool efforts and acting as coordinator of a computer-integrated classroom. The agri­ culture, business, and human resources CLIOs have found themselves working closely to build library instruction programs for their colleges. Flexibility is a key to success. One must find and seize upon opportunities as they come. But, having seized these opportunities, CLIOs are finding that their librarianship skills and their professional projects are developing more deeply and in more interesting directions than they had imagined possible. N otes 1. William F. Massy and Robert Zemsky, Us­ ing In form ation Technology to E n h a n c e A c a ­ d em ic Productivity [paper online at Educom] available from http://www.educom.edu/pro gram/nlii/keydocs/massy.html. 2. Ann Jensen and Julie Sih, “Using E-mail and the Internet to Teach Users at Their Desk­ tops,” ONLINE 19 (September/October 1995): 82– 86. 3. Daniel K. Blewett, “The Librarian Is In,” C&RL News 56 (November 1995): 701– 03. 4. E-mail from Lois Brooks, academic tech­ nology specialist, Stanford University (October 27, 1995) and Michael Keller, e-mail posting to Listserv (ARL-Directors. September 24, 1995). 5. Lutishoor Salisbury, Alberta Bailey, and Usha Gupta, “SuperService: Reshaping Infor­ mation Services for Graduate Students,” Re­ sea rc h Strategies 13 (fall 1995): 209– 18. 6. For an early proposal of such a program see W. Patrick Leonard, “On My Mind: Librar­ ies Without Walls Field Service Librarianship,” Jo u rn a l o f A cad em ic L ibrarian ship 20 (March 1994): 29– 30. For an early description of the program see Joanne Eustis, Linda Maddux, and Dana Sally, “Adapting Information Services to New Realities: The Collegiate Librarian/Infor­ mation Officer Program at Virginia Tech,” Vir­ g i n i a L ib ra ria n 41 (July/August/September 1995): 13– 16. 7. Jerem ey J. Shapiro and Shelley K. Hughes, “Information Technology As a Liberal Art: Enlightenment Proposals for a New Curricu­ lum,” E ducom Review 31 (March/April 1996): 33. ■ http://www.educom.edu/pro-