ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 5 5 2 /C&RL News A strategy for supporting faculty use of the Web b y T e r e s e H e i d e n w o l f a n d J a c k K a y ser Collaborative team provides co o rd in a ted support a n d m ore F or the past three years, both the library and computing services at Lafayette College have b een facing a growing dem and for trainin su p p o rt from faculty using the W orld Wide W eb. B ecause d em an d has g ro w n quickly, changes in the W eb are so frequent, and no new staff has b ee n ad d ed to service W eb use, su p p o rt and training have b ee n ad h o c and som etim es ineffectual. To rem edy this situa­ tion and encourage m ore faculty to use the Web, a collaborative strategy w as developed for p ro ­ viding W eb su p p o rt an d training at Lafayette, draw ing u p o n expertise already available on campus. An integrated approach Librarians at Lafayette, along with others on cam pus, had b een offering W eb training for several years, b u t k n ew that faculty n ee d ed m ore support. While there w ere know ledge­ able W eb u sers s c attered th ro u g h o u t cam ­ p u s, w ith a few faculty serv in g as unofficial ex p e rts in th e ir d ep a rtm en ts, th e re w as also fru stratio n am o n g so m e faculty th a t n o u n it o n cam p u s h a d form al resp o n sib ility for s u p ­ p o rtin g W eb use. Librarians w a n te d to see b e tte r c o o rd in a tio n o f cam p u s W eb support w ithout relinquishing their role as key players in W eb training. To this end, they decided to take the lead and form a team o f W eb trainers w h o w o u ld provide W eb su p p o rt an d pool cam pus expertise. Librarians ap p ro ach ed colleagues in other departm ents an d drew together a team o f com ­ g puting services staff, librarians, and an ed u ca­ tional te ch n o lo g ies specialist. W hile m em bers o f th e team re p re s e n t o n ly a sm all p o rtio n o f ca m p u s W eb ex p erts, team m em b ers felt co n fid e n t th a t th ey c o u ld b e facilitators o f W eb s u p p o rt o n cam p u s. By tak in g form al resp o n sib ility fo r s u p p o rt, th e team h o p e d atnod m ove to w ard a c o o rd in a te d service, w hich could then draw u p o n the expertise o f others w hen needed. T h e te a m ( d u b b e d “T h e W eb S u p p o rt. Team ”) quickly identified several goals it h oped to achieve beyond just answering faculty’s ques­ tions about the Web. These goals included pro­ m oting faculty use o f the Web, providing a fo­ rum w here faculty w ith W eb expertise could share their know ledge, and offering a range of instructional services for beg in n in g th ro u g h advanced W eb users. To m eet these goals, the team decided to offer a com bination o f w ork­ shops, on-dem and support, an d informal p re­ sentations during the n o o n hour. Since W eb w orkshops w ere being taught by various d ep a rtm en ts o n cam pus w ith som e duplication, th e team consolidated w hat was already being d o n e an d developed a schedule o f sequential w orkshops for p eo p le o f varying know ledge levels. The schedule consists o f four tw o-hour w orkshops taught on a regular basis: an in tro d u c tio n to th e W eb a n d N etscap e (“Netscape for Beginners”), an introduction to creating W eb pages (“Writing for the W eb”), detailed instruction o n digitizing an d m anipu­ lating images (“Scanning for the W eb”), an d a class for W eb authors w ho w ant to learn som e advanced design techniques (“Beyond HTML”). The class for beginning writers is offered three times p er year, while all the others are offered twice. Because m ost o f these w orkshops— or Terese Heidenwolf is a reference a n d instruction librarian at Lafayette College; e-mail: heidenut@lafayette.edu. Jack Kayser is a n educational technologies specialist at Lafayette College; e-mail: kayserj@lafayette.edu mailto:heidenut@lafayette.edu mailto:kaysetj@lafayette.edu September 1 9 9 7 /5 5 3 at least portions of them— had already been taught in various forms, team members had only to com bine some of their scripts and coordi­ nate schedules to p u t the w orkshop com po­ nent o f their plan in place. Although faculty are encouraged to attend the workshops, the team thought it also im­ portant to offer individual consultations for fac­ ulty w ho n eed additional help or w ho have questions that dem and imm ediate attention. D espite som e co n cern s ab o u t b ein g o v er­ w helm ed with requests, the team decided to offer and advertise on-dem and support to all faculty. This support ranges from answering simple questions over e-mail or the telephone to meeting with faculty in their offices to assist with browser configuration or page authoring. Although some faculty have b een taking ad­ vantage of this service, the dem and has not been too large to handle, and by distributing the workload, team members are able to pro­ vide on-dem and support in a timely fashion without disrupting their other work. A forum for teaching and discussion Biweekly lunchtime presentations or “brown bags” are the final com ponent o f the team ’s offerings and are aimed at faculty w ho already have experience with the Web but w ho w ant to learn more or keep up with new develop­ ments. At each brow n bag, one or tw o speak­ ers present information on a Web-related topic for 20 to 30 minutes and then engage in a dis­ cussion with members o f the audience. Team members made presentations at the two initial brow n bags but then asked faculty in atten­ dance or others know ledgeable about the Web to speak on a topic o f their choice at subse­ quent sessions. (See sidebar for a list of brown bag topics.) These lunchtime presentations have been particularly successful. They seem to be the Brown bag topics • Loading and using Acrobat Reader • Techniques for searching the Web • Using tables effectively • Basics of scanning images for the Web • Designing Web pages for teaching and professional use • Extending class discussions with Web conferences • Audio files on the Web ideal forum for teaching people about diverse topics that relate to the Web and for getting faculty members involved in the teaching. The inform ality o f th e b ro w n bags an d the short p rese n tatio n tim e m ake it less d au n tin g for faculty to v o lu n te er to sp eak , w hile th e fre­ q u en cy o f th e b ro w n bags allows for the cov­ erage of many small, discrete topics that might be hard to fashion into a coherent formal w ork­ shop. In addition to being instructive, the brown bags have also b een successful in providing a forum for discussing Web use on campus and for making more faculty aware of w hat their colleagues are doing. The discussions that fol­ low each presentation have been lively and frequently w ander far from the topic being cov­ ered as faculty exchange ideas about how to use the Web in class, tell one another about some new software they have discovered, or describe their latest projects. Faculty w ho at­ tend the brow n bags because they are consid­ ering using the W eb in teaching have a chance to solicit advice or ask for help. Team mem­ bers and others from the library and com put­ ing services w ho listen to these discussions get a better understanding of how faculty are us­ ing the Web for instruction and w hat kind of support is most needed. Because its w ork w as w ell-received, the team decided to expand its offerings beyond the initial plan and gather more resources for Web users. Naturally enough, team members had built a W eb site w here instructional mate­ rials as well as announcem ents of Web activi­ ties w ere m ounted. (See www.lafayette.edu/ library/support.) To supplem ent this and other materials available on the Web, the team pur­ chased reference b o o k s for W eb designers, w hich w ere a d d e d to th e library collection an d ad v ertised o n th e team ’s W eb site. O ne team m em b er also started a cam pus b u lle­ tin b o ard o n W eb topics to p rovide a place b ey o n d b ro w n bags w h ere W eb discussions could occur. T he team even extended its sup­ port to providing hardw are by moving the library’s scanner to a semipublic area of the Reference Department and making it available to all faculty w ho w ant to digitize images for the Web. Measuring success Though there is more w ork for the Web Sup­ port Team to do, team members feel they have (Faculty use cont. on page 566) http://www.lafayette.edu/ 554 / C&RL News 5 6 6 / C&RL News Banionyte, director of the Vilnius Pedagogical University Library. Banionyte spoke o f and described the various cooperative efforts initi­ ated by Lithuanian libraries after the declara­ tion of that country’s independence in 1990. She described a variety of cooperative endeav­ ors between Lithuanian libraries and other li­ braries, especially those in Nordic countries. She identified the Lithuanian Librarians Asso­ ciation as being the m ost active gro u p in Lithuania in creating and maintaining interna­ tional contacts as well as carrying out general library development projects. Speaking to a problem that is com m on throughout the former Soviet Union, Elena K. Aleksandrova of the National Parliamentary Li­ brary of Ukraine in Kiev spoke on “Ukrainian L ib ra rie s in th e Legal E n v ir o n m e n t.” Aleksandrova discussed the progress and de­ velopment in Ukraine of a legal infrastructure appropriate for a relatively new independent state and indicated that some 900 separate leg­ islative acts have been approved. Libraries in Ukraine are under the direct or indirect juris­ diction of some 20 different, recently enacted laws. In general, these laws ensure the rights of citizens to access information via libraries. Nevertheless, there are a num ber of laws that seemingly allow for variant interpretation, and some aspects of library activities and services are not reflected in the approved legislation. Further, some executive aspects o f the laws are in dispute. Aleksandrova also pointed out that current economic conditions in Ukraine often force unpopular decisions about librar­ ies, including the reduction of their hours of operation, the transfer of library staff to part- time employment, and, in some cases, the clos­ ing of libraries. The foregoing are but a few examples of th e w ide variety o f p resen tatio n s m ade at Crimea ’97 about libraries and their conditions in Eastern Europe. It is clear to those w ho have attended previous Crimea conferences that great progress has been and continues to be made. Nevertheless, there is a large measure of work to be done throughout the Former Soviet Union to standardize procedures, to enhance interli­ brary cooperation, and to extend services to all citizens. Crimea ’97 was a rewarding expe­ rience, both professionally and personally. It is indeed a fascinating experience to meet and to interact with people from a variety of coun­ tries and cultural orientations. ■ (Faculty use co n t.fro m page 553) made much progress in pooling Web exper­ tise on campus, coordinating support, and pro­ viding a forum for sharing ideas about instruc­ tional use of the Web. Attendance at workshops and brown bags is good, faculty are adding pages to the college’s Web server, and more classes are using the Web as a regular part of their work. While it is too early to make any final as­ sessment of the team ’s effectiveness in provid­ ing support to faculty, for the library; the team has already achieved its secondary goal of keep­ ing librarians involved in campus Web activi­ ties. By serving as a central location for the teams’s activities—w orkshops and brown bags are held in the library—the library is able to demonstrate its interest and involvement with the Web. By collaborating with other team members, librarians broaden their own Web skills. And, most important, by being under the aegis of the team, librarians’ efforts to sup­ port the Web are now more visible and reach more people. ■