Meet a Distance Learning Librarian

Don’t know what a Distance Learning Librarian does? Well, neither do I, to be perfectly honest. I seem to do a little bit of everything at work. I am responsible for our online presence in WebCT and have built a cute little portal in there for the distance learners. I help the distance learners with database access problems and with their research. I’m supposed to be in charge of our library’s Web presence but since I’m not allowed to physically deal with the Web pages, that’s kind of tough right now. I create online information literacy tutorials for the distance learners and faculty. I am the liaison to Academic Computing and the School of Graduate Studies. I develop all sorts of fun social software tools (blogs, wikis, etc.) to improve communication and collaboration in the library and between the library and students. I developed an IM reference service for Norwich students and faculty. I provide online and physical reference services. I teach information literacy classes. I’m the go-to girl for Web technologies. I push for technologies that will make research easier for our students, like link resolvers and bibliographic management systems. It’s a great job because I have a lot of lattitude in defining my job and have a lot of opportunities to try new things.
Source: Meredith Farkas