The role of the academic librarian in online courses: A case study

COVID-19 impact on the Chinese top academic libraries: Libraries' response to space, collection and services

“…Despite the fact that a few Chinese academic libraries have implemented textbook portals and integrated them into the university's Learning Management System. These findings are consistent with those of Steele (2021) , who discovered a dearth of embedded librarians engaged in the design or development of online courses. In the 2021 academic year, many courses will remain online, particularly during the first two weeks of the semester or after all courses have been moved online in response to pandemic outbreaks, or will be held in a hybrid format due to sporadic local outbreaks.…”

“…The transition to digital services had been occurring, however, COVID-19 accelerated the process ( Pryce et al, 2021 ; Temiz & Salelkar, 2020 ; Thorpe & Howlett, 2021 ). This required the need to strengthen IT infrastructure and librarians' digital literacy/skills ( Chakraborty & Jana, 2021 ; Runyon & Steffy, 2021 ; Winata et al, 2020 ), while ensuring the library staff adapts to the new normal ( Mbambo-Thata, 2020 ), offers high-quality online services (i.e., hybrid mode of information literacy sessions and reference services), is involved in the design or development of online courses ( Steele, 2021 ), and reaching out to faculty and students more effectively and innovatively ( Mehta & Wang, 2020 ). In addition, there is a growing trend around the societal responsibilities and role of academic librarians, including tackling misinformation and fake news ( Rafiq et al, 2021 ; Tammaro, 2021 ), supporting student mental health and well-being ( Bladek, 2021 ; Cox & Brewster, 2020 ), and promoting reading habits and good reading material to help people in isolation ( Rafiq et al, 2021 ).…”

Embedded librarianship and Greek academic libraries

“…30, 39.47% never use LMSs in their daily routine). These findings show that even during the pandemic, when libraries remained suspended with the urgent need for distance services, LMSs were not fully exploited, although they were among the primary teaching tools (Steele, 2021).…”

“…158–160). He/she also bridges the gap for distance learners, who have limited access to face-to-face training and on-site services in general, something that proved very useful during the COVID-19 pandemic (Starsz, 2021; Steele, 2021) when libraries remained closed. In our days, such integration can be achieved through the employment of learning management systems (LMSs), which are a novel technique that relates libraries to their basic role, namely, providing access to information.…”

Information Literacy: Making Asynchronous Learning More Effective With Best Practices That Include Humor

“…The identification of the use of humor as a best practice in online ILI also appears to be a relatively under-explored field. A number of recent studies and reviews were found that investigated good or best practices within online ILI (Franklin et al, 2021;Johnson-Barlow & Lehnen, 2021;Lierman & Santiago, 2019;Robinson & Bawden, 2018;Steele, 2021) but only one of these papers mentioned humor and that was to advise "focusing on the delivery of content over attempts to be humorous" (Hess, 2014, as cited in Lierman & Santiago, 2019, p. 207).…”