Info Career Trends March 1, 2001 vol. 2, no. 2 ISSN 1532-0839 Published by Lisjobs.com - http://www.lisjobs.com E-mail: editor@lisjobs.com Welcome back to Info Career Trends, Lisjobs.com's bi-monthly professional development newsletter. Today's articles focus on distance education for librarians. Although much attention has been paid to how librarians can best support distance learners, less has been paid to how distance education (DE) is transforming library education, both as a way to earn the MLS and to take continuing education (CE) classes to foster lifelong learning in the library environment. In this issue, find articles that address distance education from the perspective of both schools and students. Rutgers' Karen Novick discusses DE as CE, Madison's Jane Pearlmutter writes about her experiences teaching CE classes online, and Info Career Trends interviews Syracuse DE program coordinator David Pimentel. M. Zoe Holbrooks explains distance CE as a way of developing a library career, while Spring Lea Boehler describes her own experiences in Emporia's DE program and Emporia's Daniel Roland discusses Emporia's offerings from the school's perspective. I'm still seeking contributors for the May issue on changing careers. This can include any of a number of themes: Is librarianship your second career? Have you struck out on your own as an independent researcher or consultant? Have you moved from academic to public librarianship, from public to special, or from librarianship to a nontraditional (yet related) field? Please see the guidelines at http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/theme.htm#contrib, and consider sharing your experiences and expertise with your fellow librarians. For subscribe/unsubscribe instructions, see the bottom of this newsletter. - Rachel -------- A Good Match: Lifelong Learning and Distance Education by Karen Novick (knovick@scils.rutgers.edu) If you read the popular media, you know that much attention has been focused on distance education (DE) degree programs offered by a variety of universities and for-profit organizations. Much less coverage has been given, however, to another distance education activity that is having a significant impact on the way we learn and work: continuing education delivered via distance technologies. For those of us in the library field, the ability to participate in special continuing education (CE) programs available only through distance education is one of the very positive by-products of the rise of electronic technologies. Distance education is generally defined as an educational experience in which the instructor/presenter and students/participants are separated by space, or time, or both. The old correspondence courses, in which teachers and students used the U.S. mail to send course material back and forth, were an early and low-tech model of distance education. Those courses served the same purpose that current distance education methods do: to enable people who cannot come to a particular location at a specific time to participate in education provided by an organization. Technology currently being used to deliver DE includes interactive video and TV, satellite transmissions, cable broadcasting, CDs, and, of course, the Internet. Some of this distance learning is synchronous, meaning that the instructor and students are participating at the same time but in different places. Interactive television and live webcasting accompanied by chat are examples of synchronous DE. Other DE is asynchronous, so all the participants are not "in class" at the same time. Web-based courses with threaded discussions are the most prevalent example of asynchronous DE. Threaded discussions allow people to respond to a given discussion question over a given period of time, allowing, for example, people to post their first responses over a couple of days and then respond to each other over the next few days. Some instructional designs allow for classes that include both synchronous and asynchronous DE. One issue in the design of a distance education program is whether or not a class involves a cohort group as part of the learning experience. Cohorts are simply people participating in an experience together. For shorter types of educational programs, such as a two- hour program delivered via satellite, cohort groups are less important. You could probably watch a program like that alone and have a good learning experience. Some distance education is in fact designed to be undertaken alone, such as a self-paced tutorial delivered on the Web. The tutorial might provide self-tests for you along the way to make sure you understand one section before you move onto the next, and also provide e-mail or phone access to an instructor so you can ask questions about content you do not understand. On the other hand, most people find it difficult to complete a semester-long course or an entire degree program on their own, with no interaction with fellow students. For this type of educational experience, participation with classmates can be critical to your understanding of the material and to your success in the class. Studies of distance education programs have found that there is a larger drop-out rate in programs where there are no cohort groups. For both these reasons, most providers of longer classes and programs enroll people into programs in cohort groups. For library staff members (and all other working adults!), "CE via DE" offers wonderful possibilities. It allows you to structure your lifelong learning around your work and family schedules. It reduces or eliminates commuting time to classes. It may allow you to listen to a presentation by an expert in a field whom you might not be able to travel to see. And it allows you to take advantage of classes offered by providers who are not physically close to your home or office. The number of DE continuing education programs for library staff is increasing each year. For example, programs delivered via satellite are sponsored on an ad hoc basis by the American Library Association (ALA) and its many divisions and by the Special Libraries Association (SLA). The College of DuPage (Ill.) has run a very popular series via satellite for library assistants each year. Many colleges and some schools and public libraries have the equipment to downlink this type of transmission. A number of library schools offer asynchronous continuing education classes via the Internet, including: **University of Wisconsin (polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/slis/academic/ces/), **University of Buffalo (their Internet classes are part of their MLS program but you can enroll in them as continuing education; see http://www.sils.buffalo.edu/distancepage.htm), **University of Toronto (ce.fis.utoronto.ca/courses/webbased.htm), **University of Pittsburgh (www2.sis.pitt.edu/profdev/index.html), and **Rutgers University (http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/pds/). At Rutgers we offer a number of individual classes you can take totally online, as well as an online Certificate Program in Youth Literature and Technology, designed as a post-degree program for individuals who want to pursue advanced studies in youth literature. We hope to offer more online programs in the future. Self-paced tutorials are offered by the continuing education program at Toronto's Faculty of Information Studies (http://ce.fis.utoronto.ca/index.htm). OCLC has just announced its first self-paced module (http://www.oclc.org/institute/oll/index.htm), and evidently more will follow. SLA (http://www.sla.org) has just discontinued its series of self-paced tutorials, but it still offers videos of past programs, as does ALA (http://www.ala.org). Often overlooked by library people are the many DE programs offered by providers outside of our field that are very appropriate for library staff. For example, the American Management Association has a variety of self-paced online programs (http://www.amanet.org/elearn/index.htm), and hundreds of colleges and universities offer individual asynchronous courses you can take as continuing education. While participating in a seminar or taking a class that is mediated by technology will have a very different feel to it than being in a room with your colleagues, the feedback I get from DE participants is that a DE course can be as richly rewarding as any other educational experience, and it allows for the possibility of lifelong learning you might never otherwise be able to accomplish. Karen Novick is Director of Professional Development Studies, the continuing education program at Rutgers University's School of Communication, Information and Library Studies. She is a former public library director. Her department's web site can be found at http://scils.rutgers.edu/pds/ -------- *** Post your resume online at Lisjobs.com! See options and (minimal) fees at http://www.lisjobs.com/resumes.htm#options -------- Teaching Virtual Collection Development in a Virtual Environment by Jane Pearlmutter (jpearl@slis.wisc.edu) Electronic resources are becoming increasingly important to all types of libraries. How does this impact traditional library collections, and how do librarians keep up with the changes? In an online continuing education course, Jane Pearlmutter, faculty associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Library & Information Studies, has been teaching librarians around the country and the world to select and evaluate these resources, develop policies, and consider methods of delivering electronic resources to library users. She developed the first version of the course, Virtual Collection Development, in 1997-98 with the assistance of a grant from UW-Extension. Participants connect from their libraries or homes via the World Wide Web, and use WebCT courseware to do readings, post assignments, discuss the topics with other students, create student web pages, and contact the instructor. The course is composed of six modules which correspond to the six weeks of the course. In each module there is a short "lecture," readings for the week (which include articles from electronic journals and links to other web sites), and discussion questions or projects. Most students report working four to six hours per week on the course. On the course Bulletin Board (rather than in a realtime "chat"), students discuss topics such as the evolving responsibilities of a collection development librarian; budgeting and reallocating funds from print to electronic resources; selection tools for Internet resources, databases and electronic journals; negotiating licenses; cataloging and access issues; filtering; and copyright issues. Students also may e-mail the instructor with private questions or comments. In ten sessions of Virtual Collection Development, Pearlmutter has had over 500 students from almost every state and 20 other countries. Students appreciate the exchange of information with librarians in a wide variety of locations and types of libraries. Ellen Buchberger, an early participant in the course, commented, "This has been a fascinating and valuable experience once I learned what I was doing. There was so much good information here, especially the readings and diverse comments from a wide range of librarians. This method of course presentation is going to be the way of the future, and I'm glad to be in at the beginning." Helena Mlekus, participating from Ljublana, Slovenia, said, "I was very glad to participate at the Internet course and I have learned a lot from the course materials as well as from the answers of other participants." Another librarian, Vicky Tsai, wrote, "The lectures, readings and discussions in this course has given me a panoramic picture of the issues we are facing in our transition to electronic resources, and the various ways librarians are dealing with them; also brought into light are future issues we may have to tackle on this "runaway" train." Diane Rein, a library school student taking the course, commented on the international aspect of distance education, "Another take home lesson for me, was never, ever to forget that virtual collection means internationalization and globalization of resources." The course was originally created in Lotus Notes/LearningSpace software and redesigned for WebCT when UW-Madison began its WebCT pilot project in the fall of 1998. Most students find this software very easy to use and report that they would take another course in this format. In addition, students benefit from the fortuitous match of the teaching medium with the subject matter. UW-Madison's School of Library & Information Studies is now offering basic Cataloging in this format, with plans for additional continuing education courses delivered via WebCT. The online courses are offered year-round. More information about the continuing education program and distance education courses can be found at http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/slis/academic/ces/index.html Jane Pearlmutter, director of continuing education for the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Library and Information Studies, conducts frequent workshops and online courses on issues surrounding and applications of new information technology. -------- *** ADVERTISEMENT *** FastTrack: the Web-Based Master of Library and Information Science Degree Program at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Sciences invites you to join our on-line community of learners...The FastTrack MLIS Program at Pitt, ranked third in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. Courses begin May 14, 2001. Register by March 30, 2001. For information, phone: 1-800-672-9435, or email: salman@mail.sis.pitt.edu. http://fasttrack.sis.pitt.edu -------- Develop Your Career Through Online Education by M. Zoe Holbrooks, MLIS (ZoeH@acadio.com) Today's information professionals face high expectations from both clients and employers. In addition to our traditional job skills and responsibilities, we now also need technological savvy! The employment landscape is changing. Budgetary belt-tightening, demographic shifts, and corporate consolidations have resulted in staff downsizing and job revisions. LIS training is also undergoing radical change. A major die-off among library schools over the past two decades has left fewer campuses granting library degrees. How can we advance our careers while working full-time and juggling "Real Life?" Step One: Set a Goal In five years, do you want to be further along in your current profession -- or in a new career field? Step Two: Analyze * Need to add to your current skills? Do you have up-to-date computer skills? Competence with the major online databases information professionals rely upon? Management or supervisory experience? * Need an MLS degree? The University of Texas LIS program recently surveyed distance ed graduates. Ninety-one percent reported an improvement in economic status, and almost all reported greater participation in decision making, and in administrative responsibilities as a result of obtaining their MLIS. (See report online at http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla64/149-136e.htm.) * Need a second degree? If you already have an MLS, you may be more competitive if you add a second degree or certification in the industry niche you work in (or want to move into). Many MLS holders find an MBA, JD, or Master of Technical Communication useful. Gain time by testing for credit for lower-level courses. * Need to manage your time? Look at your time constraints: Do you work full-time or part-time? Do family or social obligations take priority in your schedule? How much time do you need just to recharge your batteries? Step Three: Investigate Training Options * Catch up by crafting a disciplined program of reading in the topic area(s) you need by setting up an informal reading group with colleagues. * Professional library assocations schedule continuing education (CE) offerings during their annual and mid-year meetings and through their web sites. Local or regional chapters may dedicate annual meetings to CE workshops. Your association(s) may share complementary relationships with other groups, giving you a discount to other training opportunities. * "Community education" classes can be a source of up-to-date information on a wide range of useful subjects, such as popular software applications, programming, etc. High schools, community colleges, vocational-technical schools, churches, libraries, and unions can be sources of free or low-cost classes. * Free Web tutorials: Online freebies generally focus on tech topics. Learn enough HTML, XML and JavaScript in a few afternoons online to build your own web page. * Workplace training: Larger firms may offer free or inexpensive in- house training courses to employees. Small and medium-sized companies usually offer some sort of training assistance in lieu of offering classes. Step Four: Investigate Distance Learning Options * DE options include correspondence classes, telecourses, and Internet- or Web-based courses. These "self-supporting" options are sometimes priced differently than regular campus classes. They may or may not carry credit. If you plan to obtain certification or a degree from your coursework, verify how any "non-traditional" classwork can be applied. * LIS education embraces innovation. Many schools offer LIS distance coursework, including Catholic University of America, Drexel University, Emporia State University, Florida State University, San Jose State University, Southern Connecticut University, Syracuse University, Texas Woman's University, University of Arizona, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Rhode Island, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Washington, and University of Wisconsin (Madison and Milwaukee), among others. Some require short campus residency periods * Be a smart shopper when looking into online courses. Scams abound! Look for: 1. Accreditation status by a recognized accrediting body listed with the U.S. Department of Education (Not all programs on an accredited campus are necessarily accredited.) ALA accreditation is important to LIS students. See the ALA's website (http://www.ala.org/education/) for more information. 2. Information about the school's policies regarding prior learning credit and portfolio assessment. 3. Names and contact information for administration and faculty. 4. Detailed descriptions of degree programs and the courses (required and elective) offered. 5. Residency requirements (time spent on the institution's physical campus). * Good online resources for researching distance education options are Dr. John Bear's site, http://www.degree.net, and Vicky Phillips' http://www.geteducated.com. Also check the web site of the individual school. Step Five: Investigate Funding Options * Costs vary widely with type of training. School tuition depends on residency status, degree level, and number of credits. A distance education degree from an institution outside your home state will require you to pay out-of-state tuition, just as if you were attending in person. Commercial vendor-provided training is also usually more expensive than community college/vocational-technical school classes. * Employment-based educational assistance: Policies are unique to each company. If you're a member, your union or credit union may offer assistance as well. Workers in contracting industries or subject to layoff may qualify for state-administered retraining funds, usually through the employment security/unemployment division. * Even the IRS wants to help you go back to school. Check out the Hope Scholarship Tax Credit (up to $1,500) and the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit (up to $2,000) on the IRS web site (http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/hot/not97-601.html and http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/hot/not97-601.html, respectively). * Non-governmental funding sources such as scholarships, grants, endowments, bequests, and loans are available. Check ALA's web site at http://www.ala.org/work/awards/scholars.html as well as other library associations for scholarship opportunities. * Commercial financial aid loans are widely available for traditional students. However, the increase in non-traditional (second career) students has had an effect on the lending community. Loans may not be available for continuing education or certificate programs. Exceptions might be made by state funding agencies for retraining certification that guarantees employment, such as the Novell, Cisco, or Microsoft technical certifications. It's worth investigating. Step Six: Create A Timeline Create a timeline that starts today and ends on a specific date. Based on your research and your choices, indicate the milestones between now and then. Identify courses that have prerequisites or which can only be taken in a specific sequence. Step Seven: Go for it! Enlist the support of your social network. Make new connections among classmates. Contribute from your experience and expertise when you can -- be part of the community as a resource as well as a learner. -------- *** Like the newsletter? Help support it (and its editor!) by suggesting that your library purchase Teaching the Internet in Libraries, my guide for libraries, librarians, and Internet trainers facing the challenge of training the public on Internet use and skills. Available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0838907997/librarisjobsearc/1 07-1402070-6258108 or from ALA, B&T, all the usual suspects. -------- An Interview With Syracuse Distance Learning Program Coordinator David Pimentel Note: Responses do not reflect all distance learning programs at Syracuse University, but only those offered at the School of Information Studies. ICT: How has the distance learning program at Syracuse evolved since its inception? DP: The School of Information Studies has been offering master's degrees in a limited residency distance learning format since 1993. This format offers a unique opportunity for those who have schedules that don't allow them to attend regular campus-based courses. (Our students live all over the world, including Central New York.) The program combines brief on-campus residencies with study over the Internet. Initially, only the Master of Library Science was offered in the distance learning format. Following the success and popularity of the distance MLS, the School's two other graduate degrees were later offered in the distance learning format: the Master of Science in Information Resources Management distance program began in 1996 and the Master of Science in Telecommunications & Network Management distance program was added in 1998. Limited residency courses meet in Syracuse for two to four days and then are completed from home via continued study and interaction via the Internet. In addition to the limited-residency format, the distance learning program has also evolved to include Internet-only course delivery. Distance learning and (traditional) on-campus students are now regularly integrated in so-called "joint campus/distance" courses. These offerings are taught in one of the distance learning formats (residency or Internet-only), but are open to both distance learners and main campus graduate students. ICT: What benefits have you found to the brief residency periods that are regularly required of distance learning students? DP: Students find that the intensive course residencies are invaluable, not only in receiving a significant portion of lecture and instruction, but also meeting and getting to know other students who will be working with them (sometimes in teams) in the online environment. Teamwork in a distributed, asynchronous, online environment benefits greatly from prior face-to-face contact. Students also comment that they enjoy meeting instructors and having a chance to interact with them. The School also uses the residency dates to create opportunities for student social activities as well as academic advising and career counseling. The residencies are important to the success of the programs for a number of other reasons: - Students are trained on the technology that will allow them to complete their courses over the Internet. - Activities that are hard to accomplish at a distance are completed (e.g., hands-on labs). - Students bond with the other students in their cohort group. - Students network with each other and faculty members. - Students are exposed to the atmosphere of the school. - Students familiarize themselves with the University and develop a sense of identity with Syracuse. ICT: Does Syracuse have eventual plans to offer the Ph.D. via distance learning? DP:Currently, the School of Information Studies has no plans to offer the Ph.D. in Information Transfer in the distance learning format. Students in the Ph.D. program can enroll in the aforementioned joint campus/distance offerings. ICT: Approximately how many students enter each year's distance learning program? How many students enter your on-campus program? DP: Typically, the MLS program has 55-60 new distance learning students and 25-30 new campus students. The IRM program sees 20-25 new distance and 90-100 new campus. TNM, the youngest of all our programs, has between 10-15 new distance learners and 35-40 new campus students. ICT: Does the distance learning program seem to attract a different type of student? What are some common reasons prospective students give for wishing to enter the distance learning track? DP: Distance learning students typically have families, full-time jobs, or are otherwise only able to pursue graduate study in the highly flexible distance learning format. Many are already working in the field--particularly those that enter our IRM and TNM programs--but some are looking for a career change. The rich backgrounds of the students make each cohort a dynamic group. Our distance learning applicants also tell us that they have experience as independent learners, and are highly self-motivated. ICT: What type of technical requirements are necessary for successful enrollment in one of your Internet courses? What type of computer background is helpful? DP: The School has developed two specific documents on these topics, both are available online, and are published in the Application for Graduate Study: Computer Hardware, Software & Internet Access Requirements http://istweb.syr.edu/prospective/admission/computer_req.shtml Information Technology Literacy Requirements http://istweb.syr.edu/prospective/admission/it_req.shtml ICT: Does Syracuse also offer continuing education courses via the Internet, or are all classes offered toward the degree? DP: While Syracuse University offers many different continuing education options, School of Information Studies distance learning courses are currently only open to students matriculated in a degree program. ICT: Has the distance learning program met with any resistance from faculty? Do all faculty members teach Internet courses? DP: Faculty are very enthusiastic about distance instruction. Currently the number of offerings prevents *all* faculty from teaching in this mode, but all would/could if asked. ICT: What kind of reaction have you had from employers of Syracuse graduates? Do potential employers seem indifferent to how the degree was achieved, or do they seem either more or less likely to employ graduates of the distance education program? DP: Often, we hear that employers of our MLS distance learning graduates are very excited about how students achieved their degree. MLS graduates who have completed a distance learning program are exposed, de facto, to a great deal of technology. Distance learners must be excellent managers and users of technology in order to succeed--so our distance learning students are at an advantage to some main campus students. But as our Director of Career Planning points out, most employers do not usually ask how a student received their graduate degree. They are interested in Syracuse's graduate program regarding content. Employers are most interested in the skills that the student brings to the table. The MLS provides content that allows for skill development and a broad knowledge of the field, with practical experience in the form of internship. "Our MLS program provides for solid skill development and an excellent fundamental knowledge base - that's what sells the employer." ICT: What else would you like to tell me about your program? DP: Regarding the academic content and the curriculum of the School's master's degrees. our MLS is ranked third (and our IRM program is ranked second) in the nation by US News and World Report. -------- *** Your ad here -- in front of over 925 self-motivated information professionals. See http://www.lisjobs.com/ratecard.htm#newsletter -------- The SLIM Experience by Spring Lea Boehler (slb@springlea.com) Living in rural Colorado, where the local college does not even offer an undergraduate degree in library science, made getting an MLS an insurmountable challenge... or would have, if not for the ever-increasing practice of distance education. When I started looking at schools, I was surprised to see just how many institutions offered programs entirely online or ones that required minimal on-campus time. Instead of having only one option for my studies, I had many from which to choose -- and the luxury of selecting the one that would best meet my needs. Emporia State University's School of Library and Information Management (SLIM) program turned out to be the one that best addressed my individual learning style, monetary resources, and location needs. The program is set up so that each course involves two weekend intensive sessions (Friday night through Sunday noon) of in-person classroom experiences, which are supplemented with e-mail discussions, Internet-accessible resources, and online forums. About one third of the program, however, is comprised of Internet-only classes, once students are beyond the core coursework. The weekend sessions are held in a metropolitan area for each state where there is a group of students called a "cohort." For me, this meant that I would drive to Denver (200 miles from my home) about twice a month and do the rest of my work over the Internet on my own time. This proved to be an ideal system of study for me for many reasons. The primary benefit to me was the ability to not only continue living in the same community, but also to hold down a full-time job in a library while going to school. If I had been on a more traditional 2-3 class meetings per week schedule, I'm not sure that I would have been able to work and go to school at the same time. Also, I most certainly would have had to relocate -- probably to an entirely different state. Another benefit was that of having an electronic archive of online class discussions for review at a later date. Since I am a visual rather than auditory learner, having the information written down for me not only addressed this learning style but also made it possible to retrieve salient points weeks and months after the course had ended. This enhanced the on ground classroom experience immeasurably, because it helped to strengthen the connection of theories between each of the courses. In addition to these benefits was the ease of communication with other members of the learning community. I was always able to e-mail the instructors for clarification about lectures or assignments, even though they lived hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. Also, I was able to converse with members of my own cohort as well as people from other cohorts on the school's email lists. Using e- mail to do this was much easier than relying on snail mail or playing phone tag. In fact, I am quite certain that many of our group learning activities could not have been accomplished without electronic communication. Finally, because the SLIM program is structured so that each cohort begins and ends their coursework at roughly the same time, the bonds that developed between all the students helped to form not only a stable support system while going through the program, but also an immediate network of library professionals on which to build while enhancing one's career. This, to me, was the greatest benefit of the SLIM program. Even though none of the students in my cohort lived geographically near me, I was able to form genuine friendships with them. I think that the enhancement to the virtual communication with the weekend sessions really helped make this kind of bonding possible. Although I did become close to students from other cohorts during Internet-only classes, that connection quickly faded after the course had ended. I'm fairly certain that the same will not be true of the friends I have made in the Colorado cohort since we have had that real world contact. All in all, SLIM seemed to be the my very best distance education option. I valued the combination of face-to-face meetings with virtual communication, the scheduling of classes on the weekends, and the fact that a cohort was brought into Colorado so that I would not have to fly to Kansas all the time for class sessions. While I'm sure that this isn't the right learning environment for every person pursuing an MLS, it proved to be the right one for me. Spring Lea Boehler is a graduate of the SLIM Colorado V Cohort. She is currently living in Alamosa, Colorado, and working at Southern Peaks Public Library. Her future plans include pursuing a Ph.D. in library science and publishing a book on science fiction and fantasy services to young adults. You can view her web site at http://www.springlea.com -------- Maintaining High Touch for Effective Distance Education by Daniel Roland (rolandda@emporia.edu) Attaining a post-secondary education using non-traditional methods has long been a driving force in the innovative use of technology for adult learners. For the would-be student who does not have the option of leaving home, moving into a dorm room or graduate housing, attending classes twelve or more hours per week, and putting in thirty to forty hours reading textbooks and writing papers, distance education has been a godsend. From the technology of a postal system that allows for correspondence course delivery of paper materials and audio/video tapes to the technology of real-time satellite television broadcast and digital video on the Internet, schools and universities are making innovative use of technology to include students who are unable to attend classes on the home campus. The School of Library and Information Management (SLIM) at Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas began its Distance Education Program in 1987. The program was initiated at the request of library professionals in areas without local library and information management schools. In the ten to fifteen years prior to the beginning of the program, library and information management schools in the western half of the United States were closing and leaving large geographic regions without MLS programs. At the time of this writing, SLIM is the only ALA-accredited library and information management school in a twelve-state area. The challenge to design a program that delivers a curriculum to various locations from two hundred to eighteen hundred miles from the home campus while maintaining quality and integrity is formidable -- and is constant. The result is a flexible program that enables completion of an MLS degree in less than three years, for students geographically bound by employment or family responsibilities. Since its inception, more than six hundred students have earned the degree through the program without ever needing to attend class on the home campus. Much of the dialogue around distance education centers around overcoming geographical barriers by means of mediated instruction, such as offering classes over the Internet or via satellite television. For this reason, the SLIM program does not neatly fit the popular definition of distance education in "which teacher and learner are physically separated during the learning process." For SLIM, the student-teacher separation occurs primarily in the interim between weekend classes. E-mail, web page forums and toll-free telephone numbers help to overcome that separation. SLIM faculty travel from Emporia to distance site locations and teach classes in a weekend intensive format. The basic formula is that a two-credit class is taught over two weekends, about a month apart, rather than the traditional two hours per week for sixteen weeks. Students attend class once every three to four weeks rather than two to three days every week. The format allows students to concentrate on the curriculum in longer time frames, so that instruction improves qualitatively. Students are able to schedule classes for a semester sequentially, rather than concurrently, which allows for more flexibility. Dialogue among students and with faculty extends beyond the classroom via electronic mail and discussion forums. Each distance program has a dedicated electronic discussion list that students use to share information among the student cohort. Faculty and administration use the list to post announcements unique to that particular program. A common discussion list for all students helps facilitate communication, news, and general announcements. Each class has a dedicated WebCT site that allows for archived discussions, presentations on the web, and more. SLIM has built its approach to distance education around Naisbett's notion of "high tech/high touch," (1) which is, that with every introduction of new technology, there must also be a counterbalance of human interaction, or the technology is rejected. Galusha qualifies the need for high touch. She notes that "problems and barriers encountered by the [distance] student fall into several categories: costs and motivators, feedback and teacher contact, student support and services, alienation and isolation, lack of experience, and training." (2) One example of high touch in the SLIM Distance Education Program is the team of four Site Coordinator/Student Advisors who work as the local administrators in each program location. In their role as student advisors, they are available for consultation during class weekends, by telephone and e-mail, and hold office hours for personal appointments. They each have an average of forty students and will have at least four face-to-face advising sessions with each student over the eight-semester cycle of a program. The Site Coordinators also encourage student social gatherings, track the return of student work from faculty, and work as advocates in the local area for their students. The SLIM Distance Education Program received the 1997 Outstanding Institutional Advising Program Award from the National Association of Academic Advising (NACADA). The local site coordinators also provide high touch for visiting faculty members who may be unfamiliar with the classroom facilities, the local airport, motel and dining services. A high level of communication is required about faculty needs and resources long before the class weekend arrives. The coordinators represent SLIM at local library association meetings and maintain the human touch with local alumni. All four of the site coordinators spend several days each year on the Emporia campus for team building, advising training, and general social events so that they, too, receive the high touch necessary for success in their position. Another example of the high tech/high touch approach is the combination of face-to-face and mediated instruction. As SLIM faculty begin to move their classes on-line, most are combining one weekend of face-to-face instruction with the balance of the course taught over the web. This results in less classroom and travel time for both students and faculty, while maintaining a high level of human touch. A final example is the formation of local advisory councils in each of the program sites. Advisory council members are selected from various fields and local association chapters within the profession. Semi-annual Council meetings serve as general information sharing sessions. SLIM keeps members up to date on how the local program is going and council members advise SLIM on the profession within the local state. Council members are invited to interact with the students to help make students aware of the various associations, career paths and professional networks available to them. Council members may also be asked to work with the local Site Coordinator to recommend possible mentors for students. SLIM is not adverse to using mediated instruction technology, and has experimented with live and streaming digital video for several years. This technology was used to facilitate interactions between two sections of students taking the same course, one group in Omaha, Nebraska and the other in Emporia. Later in the semester, these two groups were able to interact with faculty and participants of a conference in Warsaw, Poland. Two students attended the conference and videotaped interviews with conference attendees. The interview videos were then digitized and posted to a conference web site for student use. Similar work from a previous conference was made into a CD-ROM that is used as the class textbook. Such global interactions grow out of an area of the curriculum that focuses on the international nature of modern information systems, and technology is used to initiate and cultivate international experiences. An adjunct faculty member facilitated a summer semester of e-mail interaction between a group of students in Utah and a group of students from a school in Brazil. The faculty member was teaching a course for both schools and groups of students in both countries. It was a valuable exercise in communication and collaboration. Similar experiences are just beginning with students of three library schools in Nigeria. This is an example of how the Distance Education Program sees itself as a learning laboratory. It is aware of the different roles for students and teachers in this learning environment. As Galusha observes, in distance learning, "The teacher is no longer the sole source of knowledge but instead becomes a facilitator to support student learning, while the student actively participates in what and how knowledge is imparted. More than any other teaching method, distance learning requires a collaborative effort between student and teacher, unbounded by the traditional limits of time, space, and single-instructor effort." (3) Not only does learning require a collaborative effort between student and teacher, but it is also important between student and student. The group learning experience is one that draws high marks from its participants in the SLIM program. While the SLIM Distance Education Program brings the campus to the student by holding classes in Lincoln, Denver, Albuquerque, etc., the geographical limitation still exists for students who live in such places as Chadron, Nebraska; Grand Junction, Colorado; and Carlsbad, New Mexico. Students in these outlying locations still face journeys of several hours, often over difficult terrain, in order to attend classes. Information gathered through student recruitment indicates that sizable numbers of potential students are still unable to take advantage of the program due to distance. Another limitation of the current model is that students at locations other than Kansas are able to start the MLS program only once every two to three years. The time frame may be even longer in smaller markets where it takes longer to recruit enough students to make a program economically feasible. It is problematic for a student to join a program even one semester after it has started, because classes in the early semesters of a program are required theory courses and are offered only once in an eight-semester cycle. If a student wants to join a program in the second or third semester, these classes must be taken at another location. As SLIM moves toward the goal of having 80% of its curriculum with a mediated component by the end of this year, the vision is to increase the number of program sites from four to eight. It is hoped that students would have to drive no more than three hours to attend classes. Face-to-face instruction might be offered only two or three weekends per semester in these locations, as opposed to the current six to eight weekends, with the balance of classes offered through mediated instruction. Students wanting more than one class per semester in face-to-face instruction would have the option to travel to other locations. The model would allow for economic feasibility with smaller student cohorts and for a more continuous presence in smaller market locations. Since 1987, the SLIM Distance Education Program has extended library and information management education to adult learners by focusing on innovative strategies to bring the curriculum and the campus to the student in order to minimize geographic distance. The program continues to evolve as technology becomes available, but always maintaining the human touch. The reward for the student is a flexible system that is responsive to student need and that is increasingly available regardless of geographical location. The reward for SLIM comes from the participation and perspective of many more students of multiple backgrounds, cultures, and ways of life than would be possible if the student body were limited only to those able to attend classes on the home campus. Daniel Roland is the Director of Communications at Emporia State University School of Library & Information Management. He received a MLS from SLIM in 1995 and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program of the school. He has worked as the Information Specialist for the Koch Crime Institute in Topeka, Kansas. He may be reached at 1-800-552-4770, ext. 5064 or by e-mail at rolandda@emporia.edu. (1) John Naisbitt, Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives. New York, NY: Warner Books, 1982, p39. (2) Jill M. Galusha, "Barriers to Learning in Distance Education," The Infrastruction Network, http://www.infrastruction.com/articles.htm p4. (3) Galusha, p2. -------- What's Online? Recommended Resources: Looking for classes or an LIS program? Start with ALA's Directory of Accredited LIS Programs That Provide Distance Education Opportunities at http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oa/disted.html About.com's Librarians and Library Science guide provides an article on distance education in the library environment, with examples of what different schools are doing. http://librarians.about.com/careers/librarians/bldistlearning.htm Check out the LEEP program at UIUC as a great example of what can be done with distance learning. Tour a LEEP class, see comments from students, find technology requirements, etc. http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/degrees/leep.html The National Education Association conducted an interesting survey of DE faculty, who report a high level of satisfaction with these courses but note that DE and traditional courses do well in different areas. http://www.nea.org/nr/nr000614.html Duncan Smith, "What is the Shelf Life of the MLS?" is recommended background reading at ALA's Congress on Professional Education. More on CE than DE, but raises some interesting issues. http://www.ala.org/congress/smith.html -------- But I Want To Hold It In My Hand! Print Resources: Bahr, Alice, ed. InPrint: Publishing Opporunities for College Librarians. Chicago: ACRL, 2001. Accessible online at http://acrl.telusys.net/epubs/inprint.html - ACRL members, $25, non- members, $35. This e-book might more properly be described as a searchable and browsable database that contains information on a number of library- related journals. Each record notes whether the journal is refereed, and also provides its acceptance rate, average response time, contact information, and a journal precis. Other useful information includes preferred article length, requested submission formats, where to write for sample issues, and a publication URL (if available). Many of the publication URLs, however, are ill-formed and not "clickable." This is an unfortunate oversight by both the editor and ACRL, and does a disservice to readers, given that full guidelines and sample articles are often available on publishers' web sites. Some records are compiled from answers to a survey, while others are taken from published guidelines. The price includes two years of access, and entries will be updated as newer information becomes available. Overall, a useful resource for librarians interested in contributing to the profession through publication. No other recent publication brings all this material together, and the ability readily to access information on a number of journals (and to search, for example, by refereed or non-refereed status) can save a substantial amount of time. Eberhart, George M., comp. The Whole Library Handbook 3. Chicago: American Library Association, 2000. Purchase from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0838907814/librarisjobsearc/ This eclectic compendium of librariana will appeal to any librarian who revels in the serendipitous nature of our profession. Although some material remains unchanged from previous editions (notably a 1996 article on web graphics, which asserts that most users have 14" monitors and that designers should be wary of the poorly supported .jpg format), this is a minor quibble -- and most other information is new or updated from earlier versions. No other printed resource contains such a wealth of professional information in one volume. Subjects range from statistics on holdings and usage to job hunting information to the impact of technology on libraries and their users -- with a multitude of interesting side trips along the way. This book belongs on every librarian's shelf. -------- Info Career Trends is copyright Lisjobs.com and Rachel Singer Gordon. 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