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ALIA 2001 TAFE libraries conferenceIntegration of information management services into an online learning environmentIntroductionEducation is in an era of unprecedented change. There is a trend towards a new type of flexible learning known as e-learning. Educational institutes and libraries need to develop new models of support in order to provide this growing user group with the same level of service, as a student attending face-to-face classes in the traditional classroom. As educational institutes take up this teaching medium, it becomes obvious that there is more to e-learning than posting course notes to the web. A variety of studies have been undertaken which illustrate the special needs of this group. Often there is a general feeling that, yes, we are moving this way but very little seems to be changing within the organizational structure of educational institutes to facilitate these massive changes in pedagogy. Libraries, with their already stretched financial resources, struggle to provide the best they can for students. This paper will discuss some of the changes and future developments that are occurring. Many of these developments were observed while on a scholarship trip to the United States and Canada. This trip was made available under the auspices of the Office of Employment, Training and Tertiary Education (ETTE). The project was designed to observe best practice models of library support for teachers and students, to examine the move from sole emphasis on developing resources to developing a wider environment that supports the learner and to examine the librarian's role within this environment. The current trend, both overseas and in Australia, for e-learning, is to offer technologically enhanced courses combining classroom and online subjects. However as predicted by Hayes (2001) there will be a greater swing towards more fully online classes. The Gartner group have predicted that by 2005, educational providers will be forced to deliver more than 75% of their educational content electronically. Librarians need to understand the client group with which they are dealing. Students who are fully online require access to full text databases, online literacy sessions and user support, to ensure they are not disadvantaged. However, all students require accelerated access to print and electronic course-relevant information. Part of this new consumerism demands full text information being delivered to the desktop. There is zero tolerance for delay in information delivery. This was supported by Parnell (2001) who states "for many students, not only is something better than nothing, its better than waiting." With this in mind, it's important that librarians are activists in the development of online courses and investigate all possible implications and impact on traditional library services. Jones stated in 1997 that, "we need to think creatively, operate with integrity, put innovations in place and share our perspectives and solutions faster than we have ever done before". This certainly has not changed today. It is an even stronger imperative. Electronic information servicesVirtual reference services:E-mail reference services have been around for a number of years quite successfully. A quick Internet search of e-reference services offered by Universities and Colleges globally will provide numerous examples of simple e-mail reference services. The user will be supplied with an online form, which they complete and e-mail to the reference desk. The librarian responsible for these e-mails has a certain time frame in which to respond - usually 24 hours. This service will often be called by the catchy but ubiquitous Ask A Librarian/Cybrarian or Ask A Question title. The Ask A Question service provided by Grant McEwan Learning Resources Center in Canada is no different, with the exception that it was developed and is maintained by a consortium of libraries. The concept began in 1998 at an Alberta Association of College Librarians. Government funding was secured and a librarian was employed to coordinate the project. Today there are 13 libraries that are part of this consortium. The service ensures that the numerous questions are responded to quickly by qualified staff. Chat Services:The success of the virtual reference desk via e-mail belies the many inherent limitations and problems with an e-mail service. It does not offer the instantaneous response and immediate gratification of face-to-face interviews or web based searches. It does not allow a reference interview to be conducted and the burden of answering questions falls on the librarians. With the number of dot.coms challenging this core service, many libraries are beginning to re-evaluate its future. The Internet search engine AskJeeves receives 3 million hits a day and a number of other sites have been established such as AskMe.com and AskAnything.com, which have recruited librarians to assist in responding to enquiries. (Weissman 2001) This makes searching the Internet more efficient and preferable to waiting 24hours for a librarian to respond to your query with possibly several transactions required to complete the query. Chat addresses many of the problems of e-mail. It puts a 'human face' to reference services and allows the librarian to conduct an interview. It also allows for information literacy sessions to be conducted via chat lines to distance education students. Many librarians are reporting that their chat sessions for e-learners began when they were 'invited' or they asked to participate as a guest on regular chat sessions between teacher and student in on-line courses. An excellent example is the University of Toronto's The Virtual Library, discussed later in the paper. Synchronous Live reference sessions:Chat also has limitations, for example it does not allow you to queue and route questions easily. It is little wonder then, that Libraries are increasingly moving towards real time digital reference as the solution to their problems. This is the next major development in digital services and many advances in this technology have been reported. E-mail transactions which were thought to be a breakthrough, are now viewed with frustration by customers, who would like an immediate answer and a reference interview such as they would have face to face (Borchardt, Croud 2001). In order to move forward in live reference services, call centre software has been adapted to suit librarians' needs. There are a number of products on the market. (see appendix 1 for examples of digital reference desk projects). They all basically allow the student to click onto the library's web-site, and have an interactive reference interview with a librarian. The librarian is able to both chat and interact by sending web pages to the student. At the end of the session the student receives a transcript, which is also kept in the system. This is then used as a basis for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's). Improving library services in order to satisfy students' expectations of having everything available online and in full text - and that they did not accept inferior reference solely because they were available full text on the internet, has not stopped at live synchronous sessions. Students also demand that library services are provided at any time and at any place and not just fully online students. Libraries will need to plan for 24/7 virtual reference desks. 24/7 ReferenceThe 24/7 Reference Project (www.247ref.org) is an excellent example of a solution to the "web-driven mandate of 24/7" (Helfer 2001) The software is simple, requiring nothing more than a personal computer, preferably a Pentium II with 128K of memory and the ability to execute Java script. The software is also simple from the librarian's point of view and can perform the following actions; send web pages to the student, preview the web page prior to sending, send chat responses, send predefined scripted messages, capture and send screen shots, walk the student through slide-shows, transfer calls to other librarians or other libraries and produce a transcript of the session. How can TAFEs in Australia keep up with this fast-paced technological environment? With many of the universities and colleges in the United States and Canada having Distance Education librarians or web librarians and often their own IT department, it would seem a daunting prospect. Colleges visited, support the idea that a collaborative and partnership approach is essential. Grant McEwan established their Ask a Question service in close partnership with a number of colleges. The IT department worked in collaboration with library staff, to ensure that all the essential elements for a successful service were provided. Many of the universities and National Libraries are collaborating to provide 24/7 reference. The Library of Congress and the National Library of Australia are realizing "there is real potential for collaborative 24/7 reference on a national or even global scale and collaboration is essential" (Schneider 2000). Global collaboration is very useful due to time-zone issues. Finally, although the call centre platform has a good deal of promise as a platform for online reference services, it is far from perfect. The next step in the seemingly endless progression of advances in technology is the VoIP or the Voice over the Internet Protocol. Given the speed with which technology moves, collaboration would seem to be the best solution to achieve high standards of electronic services. ONLINE INFORMATION LITERACYInformation literacy delivered online is a service that will see major developments and innovations in the future. As mentioned earlier, there are a number of students who have elected to undertake a combined online and classroom course. Libraries have therefore developed online services that are suitable for these students, as well as developing online services that are for fully online or distance education students. Online coursesOne of the advantages of online sessions for on-campus students is that the sessions can be more detailed. Acquiring the necessary research skills often takes longer than the one hour normally given to librarians to teach students in face-to-face sessions. Both Seneca and San Francisco City College have excellent examples of this type of information literacy. Both courses are delivered over a semester, are comprehensive, interactive and require assignments to be completed and marked by the lecturer. San Francisco City College also has mid semester and end of semester exams which requires the student to be on campus. Seneca's series of information literacy courses titled 'Research For Success' took a number of months to develop. These modules resulted from a close partnership with teachers and instructional designers. Librarians conceptualized the material and provided a logical framework. They reported that it was a challenge to ensure that it was not wordy, that everything fitted on the screen and the essence of what they were trying to teach came across. The instructional designers developed the HTML, the graphics and the technical aspects. The teachers developed assignments and assessed students' results. The information literacy module developed by San Francisco City College was developed solely by the librarians - content, design and assignments. The module meets the Information Literacy standards set by the American Library Association. It is a full university accredited module and students who are intending to articulate to a university course are encouraged to undertake it. Online courses, such as those developed by San Francisco City College and Seneca, are fast becoming prevalent, not only in universities but also in community colleges and TAFEs, both overseas and in Australia. There are also many online information literacy tutorials that are available to both enrolled students and the general public from library web-sites. These tutorials are self paced and for the self motivated student. The Queensland University of Technology , Texas University (TILT) and York University have excellent examples of this type of online tutorial. They include interactive quizzes that mark the progress of students as they complete the exercises and demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter. These tutorials do not require any special software to be downloaded by the students, and are quick, simple and straightforward. Online courses for distance education studentsAn excellent example of an online information literacy tutorial designed for the remote distance learner is the Virtual Library at the University of Toronto. This tutorial was developed with full cooperation and an exceptional partnership between faculty and library. The packages are designed for specific courses. With over 13,000 full text journals and 300 databases, the Virtual Library course was designed to ensure that distance education students were fully versed in the correct databases and journals they required for their course. Smaller institutes that have fewer electronic resources would not experience this problem. Initially University of Toronto's Virtual Library students experienced technical problems and there was a huge student drop-out rate because of these frustrations. These problems have now been sorted out. Due to the flexibility and ease of use of the software (everything is point and click) e-learning is now a breeze. Although the University of Toronto is much bigger than most TAFEs, libraries can learn from the success of their services in areas including: on-line chats with the reference librarian, e-mail reference desks and discussion messages posted on bulletin boards by students, teachers and library staff. PORTAL TECHNOLOGYThe first effort in customization of the World Wide Web experience was through the creation of homepages. These were initially institution-centric slabs of information, which could be read but not interacted with. In the second phase of this phenomena there were various services made available through the homepage within the context of service being offered by the institute/library. The addition of some services being offered via the page was a major advance but clients were still only seeing the institute's view of itself. All clients saw the same screen despite varied needs and preferences (Strauss, 2001). The new model of customization is the web portal. These are user-centric and interactive. So, what is a portal? Portals have been used to describe many things. Some institutes have merely changed the name of their homepage to portal. This is not a portal. There are many types of portals. In simple terms it is a web-site that incorporates content from other web-sites both external and internal to an institute in a structured way (Millichap, 2001). In more advanced terms it "provides a gateway to the web that allows the plethora of information available both on Internet and Intranet web-sites to be organized and customized through a single entry point."(Connolly, 2000). Latest developments in portals include voice portals that "let you talk your way to web based information from any phone" (Manes, 2000). For details on the different types of portals see www.traffick.com which is known as the portal to portals. For the purposes of brevity Enterprise/Campus and Library Portals are the focus of this paper. A portal is the first thing clients will see when they switch on a PC within an institute or login externally. It is intended to provide a one-stop shop to services/resources, and presents the institute's corporate image. It is important that an institute get it right, which is why a Campus Portal Strategy is important. It is imperative that niche portals in key service areas like the library are linked to the Campus portal. As Katz (2000) states, "the challenge of creating a portal strategy is no less than the challenge of bringing higher education fully into a new wave of technology". Educational Institutes - Campus portalIn an article by Levine (2001), Gartner estimates that, "by Autumn 2005 higher education portals will reach 80% of all the colleges and universities in the United States with an enrolment of more than 1, 000 students." Sylvester Oliver, chief technology officer at Rust College, Mississippi, notes that, "Campus Intranet portal development can range from costing several hundred thousand to several million [American dollars]" (Roach, 2000). This could mean that TAFEs potentially would be unable to afford this new technology thereby creating an even further distance between the TAFE and University sector - deepening the digital divide. Some companies have been developing portals and making them available to colleges for little or no cost. They offer the use of their portal in exchange for the right to sell advertising space on the campus portal web page. Companies advertising on the portals and in some instances Colleges, are gaining commissions on products and services sold to clients who make their purchases via the campus portal. This may be an entrepreneurial function of the portal, which could benefit the college financially. It is possible to have no advertising displayed if the College wishes to pay for the platform. The best-known developer of campus portals would be the Salt Lake City based company Campus Pipeline, Inc. While travelling, this platform was demonstrated at Centennial Community College. Centennial College - My Pipeline Portal uses Campus PipelineCentennial Community College would be on a parallel educationally and size-wise with an average Australian TAFE. Campus Pipeline collaborated with Centennial to integrate their chosen technologies and content to tailor the portal to the institute's needs. The College opted for an advertising model to cut costs. Advertising was modified to ensure; that only Canadian advertising was present and nothing was displayed or promoted that the College considered unacceptable. Centennial selected from a variety of online services being offered by Campus Pipeline as well as linking to things the college had already created on web pages or nominated as a useful external link. The platform places all the content students, faculty and staff members need at their fingertips - via one URL and one password. The user can customize their information. They gain access to chat, e-mail, class schedules, class tools and more (Poulter, 2001). The Campus Pipeline software is "in more than 65 schools in 21 states" across America as well as "three colleges in the Canadian provinces". "Three schools in the UK are testing it out." According to Campus Pipeline "more than 600 schools worldwide have licensed the platform for future startup." (Levine, 2001) For more examples of campus portals see Appendix 1 Why does an Institute need a Campus Portal?
Library portalsA library portal is a 'niche portal' or 'vertical portal'. This means it has information only relating to a specialized area in this case libraries, information and research. It is content rich, portable and customizable. There are a number of web-sites providing free library portal software like 'My Library'. These freebies are limited in scope and a number of universities have taken the concept and developed their own MyLibrary type portals. Below is a description of one that the University of Toronto has created. For more examples of Library Portals see Appendix 2. My Library - University of TorontoThe University of Toronto's library network is in an enviable position; they have an Information Technology Services Department with 26 staff set up specifically for them. Of course this allows them to be creative and pro-active in their services. One of their more innovative developments is the MyLibrary Portal. The MyLibrary Portal has many features; it is a window to all the library's services and resources. It is customizable, private, focused and portable. Staff and students appreciate being able to choose items for resource/reference lists with a click of a mouse button. This portal is platform independent; all that is required is a web browser (Poulter, 2001). Portals have been described as the means to free up librarians to do their 'real work'. This is a powerful concept. IT people create or maintain the portal platform while librarians advise of their needs and provide information for inclusion within the portal as the content experts. This allows specialists in each area to work together in a collaborative relationship that benefits everyone (Lakos, 2001). Why does a library need a Portal?
LIBRARY STRATEGIES TO BE INVOLVED IN E-LEARNINGCollaboration and CommunicationCollaborative efforts can save time and money for institutes and libraries. Effective communication ensures that everyone is aware of what others are doing, and this prevents the reinvention of the wheel and promotes sharing of ideas and resources. The new catch-phrase of effective institutes should be "do nothing alone" (McLean, 2001). This was further emphasized recently by Myton who states, "A new institute mindset has to be developed which recognizes and develops its assets, works more in partnerships and deals more beyond its borders" "There are huge numbers of talented and knowledgeable people, who have intellectual assets, are fantastic facilities - all of these could be generating quite a bit more value if they were engaged with more people all of the time" (Myton, 2001). This motto applies to all levels within an institute and can also be applied between institutes and SIGs (Special Interest Groups). Hence the buzz of consortiums. Collaboration can be achieved at many levels and on many things. An immediately achievable example of collaboration within an institute is the 'E-learning module creation' model at Sir Sandford Fleming College. This Canadian Community College ensures educators, information professionals and information technologists collaborate at the conception of each new e-learning module. A team is created consisting of all key staff to examine the viability and development of the course. Another institute which has embraced this concept stated "By mixing and sharing skills and knowledge across borders we have far greater capacity to look at issues differently and find collaborative solutions. We have found bringing people together across functions and hierarchies produces more innovative approaches to new concepts. " (Hayes, 2001) An example of collaboration between institutes is the Bibliocenter of Canada. The Bibliocenter negotiates subscription prices for electronic resources on behalf of the community colleges in the province of Ontario. This consortium arrangement ensures that even the poorest college is able to afford and provide electronic services to its students. As mentioned, 24/7 digital reference service can be problematic without collaboration, as staffing budgets can be prohibitive. The purpose of the consortium which has developed the Virtual Reference Desk states, "The Internet model is one of collaboration and cooperation. Building the Virtual Reference Desk as a single site or within a single service would be difficult, counterproductive and would overlook the incredible work already being done by existing Internet Service providers." It was previously mentioned that e-learning is a relatively new and alternative learning mode which is growing within the academic environment. The most effective way to achieve all the systems of support which will be required for this group is through collaborative efforts. The understanding that all people, within an Institute and further afield, have skills and talents which should be recognized and utilized, will be the difference between success and failure to this user group. People and departments must give up some territory in order to contribute and achieve goals on a broader context. Librarians as instructorsAs the number of students enrolled in online courses increases, teaching these students the skills required to locate, evaluate and use information appropriately becomes more difficult for librarians. By necessity, librarians are moving away from traditional lecture modes of instruction and exploring ways in which they can facilitate, rather than direct, students learning to locate and use information (Kirk 99). Not being able to see the students face-to-face poses a number of challenges, as teachers are discovering. There is a vast body of literature available outlining the needs of these students and their characteristics. It is the responsibility of librarians to become fully versed in this new teaching paradigm, before embarking on any digital reference or other supporting on-line service. CONCLUSION AND QUESTIONSTAFEs and their libraries need to think more strategically about their future. E-learners are a complex user group who will grow exponentially in the future. They have special needs that have to be addressed if we are to provide them with similar services and resources to those offered to face-to-face clients. Although services being developed will aid the ease of use for clients in an on-line learning environment, we have a long way to go and much planning needs to take place. E-learning is now intrinsic to the educational experience. Clients take it for granted that they will receive services in a format and at a time they prefer. There is a developing expectation that services and resources will be made available in electronic formats. Australia is one of the most computer literate nations, with one of the highest per capita rates of Internet use. The Bulletin (2000) states, "there is a new generation who have a high level of computer literacy, are time poor and are constantly looking for convenience. What frustrates them most is not getting service or being dissatisfied with the service they receive, their loyalty only lasts as long as they are getting what they want." Adapting services to an on-line environment is very important if we are:
There are many studies reporting that the students opting for online courses are older, mature students constrained by distance, home and work commitments. However, in TAFEs and many universities today. there is a blurring of the lines in their online courses. Many young students are opting for a mixture of classroom and online modules (Kirk 1999). It is these students that in ten years time will continue to opt for online courses, and will continue to demand far more improved services. On-line learning is not a passing phase. REFERENCESBorchardt, K and J Croud. 2001. Digital reference service: a new service or the next logical step? Educause in Australia 2001: Conference Paper. Bulletin. 2000. Bulletin Magazine. January 18, p62. Coffman, S. 2001. Distance education and virtual libraries: where are we headed? Computers in Libraries, April, Vol. 21 Iss. 4 pp. 20 - 26. Coffman, S and S. McGlamery. 2000. The Librarian and Mr Jeeves. American Libraries May Vol 31 Iss 5 pp66-69 Eustis, J and G. McMillan. Libraries address the challenges of asynchronous learning. Journal of Asynchronous learning networks. Vol. 2, Iss.1. Hayes, H. 2001. All the kings' horses. Educause in Australia 2001: Conference Paper. Helfer, D. 2001. Virtual reference in Libraries: remote patrons heading your way? Searcher Feb Vol 9 Iss 2 pp67-70 Katz, R. 2000. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a …portal? Educause Quarterly. No. 3, pp10-11. Jones, M. 1997 Future fast forward. www.ocla.org/oclc/man/10256dis/jones.htm (20/8/2001) Kirk, E, and A. Bartelstein. 1999. Libraries close in on distance education. Library journal 4th Jan. Vol 124 Iss. 6 pp 40 -43. Levine, R and D Haverson. 2001. Masters in collaboration. Transform Magazine. Vol. 10, No 5, pp39-48. Lakos, A and C. Gray. 2001. Personalized library portals as an organisational culture change agent. Information Technology and Libraries. Vol. 19, No. 4, pp.10-18. Lim, E. 2001. From "bricks and mortar" to "clicks and mortar" : leveraging e-commerce technologies for flexible learning support. Information Online Conference Proceedings.
Tenth exhibition and conference. Manes, S. 2000. The web speaks, sort of. Forbes. Vol. 166, Issue 3, p212. McLean, N. 2001. Learning and digital library environments: an IMS perspective. Educause in Australia 2001: Keynote Speaker. Millichap, N. 2001. White paper on portals. www.ihets.org/committee/wpportals.html 6/9/01 Myton, David. 2001. Charlie's Angels. Campus Review. Vol. 11, No. 30, August 8-14, p. 5. Parnell, S. 2001. Drift without direction: how information and information technology is changing the education paradigm. Educause in Australia 2001: Conference Paper. Poulter, S. 2001. Transcript of interview with Gladys Watson, Director of Library Resource Centers at Centennial College, Ontario, Canada. Poulter, S. 2001. Transcript of interview with Sian Meikle, Digital Services Librarian, Information Technology Services at university of Toronto, Canada. Poulter, S. 2001. Transcript of Interview with Alana Callan, Web Production Technologist at Sir Sandford Fleming College, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Roach, R. 2000. Catching the Campus Portal Intranet Portal wave. Black Issues in Higher Education. Vol. 17, Iss. 6, p31. Schneider, K. 2000. The distributed Librarian: Live, Online, Real-Time reference. American Libraries Nov Vol 31 Iss 10 p64. Strauss, H. 2001. A Home Page does not a portal make. Educause in Australia 2001: Conference Paper. Weismann, S 2001 The shape of E-Reference Library Journal 2nd Jan Vol 126 issue 2 pp 46-50 APPENDIX 1:Digital Reference Desk Projects
24/7 Reference Project
The Virtual Reference Desk
The Internet Public Library
AskUsQuestions
Library of Congress Colloborative Digital Reference Service CDRS
Macquarie University Library APPENDIX 2:List of sites related to Educational Institute portals
Monash University
University of Minnesota
California institute of Technology
University of Michigan
UCLA Sites providing access to mass produced portal vendors in the Campus area
Campus Pipeline
Capsoft Development
Ednow.com
Lexis-Nexis
Mobius
Peoplesoft
StudentOnline
WebCT APPENDIX 3:List of good Library portals
Cornell - MyLibrary@Cornell
North Carolina State University - MyLibrary@NCState
University of Washington - My Gateway University of Melbourne - Buddy University of Arizona - SABIO
Virginia Commonwealth University's My Library Sites providing access to mass produced portal vendors in the library area
Bigchalk Retreiver
Ednow.com http://mylibrary.com - no longer working.
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