Reinventing the Library for Online Education:

Views from a Virtual Library------------------------------------

American Library Association WebinarJanuary 8, 2015

Fred Stielow, Ph.D., M.L.S.APUS Emeritus VP/Dean of Libraries

U.S. Commissioner to UNESCO

2014 Distance Librarian of the Year

Established Paradigm: Research Library

The forces of nationalism, the industrial revolution, & Rise of the Mass Press contributed to a transformation from liberal arts into modern “scientific” universities; this featured areinvigoration of the academic library characterized by:

• Research Mission: Academic Library reformulated from warehouse into a go-to role as the bibliographic laboratory

• Collection Focus: Embrace of a renewed Alexandrian ideal thru ownership of massive, print-based materials for “just-in-case” discovery

Corollary Developments--Sample• Main Library positioned as campus monument on the

new quadrangle

• Building & contents massively capitalized over time

• Onset of professional librarians

• Cataloging/Technical Services bring order to the explosive outputs of the Mass Press

• Publish-or-perish environment adds functions:o Depository for theses/dissertations

o Help launch and form the key financial respites for academic presses

• Educational mission as secondary with course reserves and, especially, distance education on the fringes

Forward to the Web:Disruption & Reinvention in Process

Internal Library Responses

• Early 1990s—Initial bulletin board for hours, displays…

o Access, creating, & vetting of Open Web resources

o Special Collections focus

• Turn of 21st c.—Physical facilities reshape

o Electronic Journals replace costly print & free space

o Arrival of Information Commons as electronic study zones

• Reinvention with Web Interface remote & new patron expectations

o OPAC revamped beyond pointers to e-texts for direct access

o 24/7 opening versus fixed hours of operation

o Travel requirements obviated

External ThreatsA. Google & Loss of Research Monopoly:

B. Emerging Alexandrias

• Web replaces the research library in fulfilling the ideals of a world library

o Amazon

o Google

• Established Libraries emerge as online alternatives

o Digital Public Library of America

o Library of Congress

Commercial Competition Still Coming

Mobile Bachelor's DegreeNovember 26, 2014 By Paul FainBrandman University’s competency-based bachelor’s degree gives a glimpse of where the increasingly popular form of higher education might be headed.The new bachelor of business administration is fully online. There are no textbooks. Students can access 30,000 pages of course material for the degree (not all of it required) on their tablets or smartphones.

C. Online Education & the Web Economy Disrupt Higher Education

• LMS software & SCORM standards proffer new educational forms

• Online Universities tap non-traditional students

• Add unprecedented accountability and metrics

• Faculty influence diminished to business interests

• Rise of IT and advent of Instructional Developers

• Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists author a new type of university

Campus Entitlement Under Siege

ACRL, February 21, 2012: University budgets continue to increase, but the budget percentage

for academic libraries shrank for the 14th straight year in 2009

Prelude—Questions

Exercise—As an Online Entrepreneur Why Invest in a Library for a Virtual University?

Does a New Academic Library make sense for the Web?oNationalism out as factor

oResearch concerns minimal for teaching institutions

oNo monumental building or huge investment in books

How much will it cost to build from scratch?

Does it make sense to have “just-in-case” holdings?

Won’t the Web suffice?

Why not outsource?

Can the Library bring any added value/ROI?

How does a Library work with an Online School?

Case Study from the Edge

Pioneering Lessons from a Proactive Virtual Academic Library

2005-2014

Consider a Divergent Educational SettingAPUS (American Public University System), 2005

• Fully online with LMS as sole campus—Remote registrations, faculty, courses, grading

• Asynchronous classes without interactive lectures

• Available 24/7—no need for physical travel or parking

• Monthly semester starts—facilitate course availability

• Affordable—tuition at $250/hour will not change for 15 years & grant for undergraduate course materials

• 1 product, but separate American Military University & American Public University brands

• Non-traditional military student orientation/market

• Circa 8,000 part-time students in 100+ countries

Enter Campaign for Regional Accreditation:Institutional Driver & Library Opening

• Preliminary visit—Accreditor demands enhanced library/research

• New provost hired—Embraces traditional academic values as part of application tactics

• University president—Lends support & holds favorable view of libraries

• Authorize funds and hire expertise for a newly designated Online Library

• Five-month construction window

Baseline Facilities

Prior ORC (Online Research Center) minimal operations held under tight fiscal restraints

• Fully online with Web Interface and open 24/7

• 1 support staff and 1 part-time librarian

• Materials licensed—absence of physical property: o 20,000 e-books, rudimentary PDFs

o 5,000 e-journals, basically ProQuest & Ebsco packages

• Some tutorial support for student studies

• Slight campus recognition—circa 3,000 monthly visits

Phase 1: Accreditation Response

Adapt to accreditation—i.e., narrative/structures to satisfy educational expectations set by the research paradigm, yet carefully crafted with online flavors: A. Web site construction

o Revised landing page—Emphasize curricular support

o Enhanced Tutorial Offerings—25 subsidiary pages, stressing Web Information Literacy

B. Collection Development—Demonstrably map enhancements to research and also departmental needso E-book titles—collection development by packages

o Journal subscriptions—focus on accumulators

C. Validate Faculty Involvement

D. Include Student Evaluation/Regularized Surveys

E. Promote/Actuate Vision of Online Library for Accreditors—but also to Management

• Lobby Information Literacy into educational goal

• Infiltrate library exercises into mandatory faculty training and introduction to online college course

• Assert authority over copyright

• Proclaim ADA/508 compliance

• Promote library as Brand/Marketing element

HLC Regional Accreditation, 2006Victory Reset

• APUS enters hyper-growth by 2014—100,000+ students in 120+ countries

o AMU (2010 #1 in military market)

o APU (civilian and corporate focus, 2010 WalMartselection as its university)

o APEI—Public stock offering on NASDAC

• Library ensures recognition for its role

o Immediate addition of 3 librarians

o Library collection support as requisite element in new program development

Questions—Accreditation Approaches

Phase 2: Post-Accreditation & Reinventing for Online Pedagogies

Recapping for the Web, 2006

Research Library and Distance Library Services emerge as ill-matched for birthing a fully online academic library:

• Central, yet bereft of monument status & large capitalization

• At that moment, just-in-case Collection Development was technologically and financially unfeasible

• Audiences were largely unaware of library services and deferring to Web browsers for research & access

• Web demanded different modes of thought and further reinvention across the entire fabric of a virtual library

oAbsence of physical library eliminates multiple functions

oAll remaining activities have to be recast

oA new range of functions were appearing

Positioning Tactics for an Online University Look to leverage accreditation success with an entrepreneurial cocktail of scholarly narrative, financial, and bureaucratic tools:

• Historical: Rather than the research paradigm, return to the university roots—Sorbonne’s 13th-century invention of the academic library with student services in mind

• Institutional: Library destined for bureaucratic competition with Instructional Developers, CTL…, but in hyper-growth where a traditional narrative could foster partnerships

• Financial: Need to “speak business” and find economic justifications

• Pedagogical: Recognized online instruction as disruptive and in process of rapid evolution—an arena that the Library could profitably explore for quality and financial enhancements

The Hunt for Opportunities• Online Classroom: With the loss of the Library’s “go-to”

status, this largely untouched arena beckoned for engagement to re-attract clientele

• Course Materials: The marketplace was in turmoil and school shortsighted on the logical position of the variety of electronic materials for online education:

o Textbook Dependencies—Quality issues arose from reliance on printed textbooks and contradictory overlooking Open Web and peer-reviewed resources

o Inflation and Shipping Charges—Given APUS underwriting and responsibilities to students, financial incentives loomed large

Making a Business Case

A. E-Textbook Bookstore—Low-hanging fruit. Absorb bookstore operations in a controlled shift from print to electronic versions, especially for high volume Gen Ed courses. Chaotic marketplace with evolving technologies demands bargaining skills and flexibility

B. Library/Web Strategy: Second stage emphasis to upper division courses. Add subject-specialist librarians to shift Academic library beyond research focus to engage classroom support with high-level ROI

C. AMU ePress—Third stage re-engineer University Press to move from monographic focus to teaching. Strategically commission e-textbooks/course packets

Supporting Theory for a Paradigm Shift

CRIS (Classroom/Research Information Services) as a transformational, inversion model from print to Web:

• Educational Mission: Research remains, but the online library emphasizes classroom engagement to address the school’s teaching mission

• Librarian Focus: Specialist services and licensing of electronic resources tailored to the school’s curricula and remote access take the lead over physical collections and print ownership considerations

Implementation Corollaries

• Embrace, monitor, and maintain flexibility for a Web in transition as technological determinant & access portal—in effect, reinventing the academic library

• Extend presence to the virtual campus/LMS & its classrooms

• Target faculty as client with nuance for departmental curriculums

• Market to students, including awareness of transition to Born-Web

• Promote the historical narrative and tradition as positive reputation management and scholarly factors

• Augment scholarly drives and pedagogical imperatives with negotiation skills, legal awareness & business acumen

Operational Sampler: A. Library Locus on the Virtual Campus

B. Copyright/508 Compliance TeamAdapt LMS & extend faculty training

Materials will fall into one of these 7

categories. We ask that you make a copyright declaration for every

item

C. Main Tactic Tailored Course & Department Guides

New Librarian production metric

Ongoing assignments for 3-year curricular rotation

Feature Deep & Open Web resources—extend to Web 2.0, media, & OER

Dual purpose platforms• Faculty pick lists• Student research pads

General (full curriculum) or Selective production for: • Quality & currency• Up-to-date Web Apps• Financial Savings *Move from home-grown to

LibGuides platform, 2009

D. Enhancing Online Reference: Semantic Search Engine + HELP Button

E. Rewire Librarians, Remote Management

Dashboard ControlsAudience Focus: Transition to Born-WebCommunity Builder: Not they will come, but seeking clients & marketing services Multi-Purpose: Avoid “one-offs.” Link to where audience might look.Networking: Don’t reinvent wheel--seek connections to borrow & shareQuality over Quantity: Reverse tendencySearch Engines as Audience: Design sites with them also in mind Simplicity & Transparency: KISSTraining Orientation: Look to infiltrateWeb Construction Engineers: Proactive site development based on user needs

Consciously replace prior research with newer CRIS/Web tropes:

F. Market Librarians & Their Services

• Compliance Masters: Ensure Copyright, ADA 508, HEOA

• High Touch Experts for faculty communications and enhancing student experience, including embedding

• Reputation Management Narrative promoting role as sign of research commitment and academic traditions

• Subject Specialists to work with faculty & content assistance for instructional developers

• Web Gurus—bring unquestioned skills: o Deep Web: Capitalized extant and search for appropriate e-books, e-

journals, media

o Information Literacy: Specialists in teaching Web research

o Open Web: Experts in evaluating for “trusted” subject sites

o Technology monitors: Ongoing patrol of evolving technology, including positioning for Web 2.0, 2nd Life, & ties to Instructional Developers

Questions—New Paradigm Construction

Postscript: Evaluating the Reinvention

A. Business Caseo Library & Librarians into brand/reputation management

elements

o Student satisfaction surveys positive—role in retention management

o Online Librarye-Press Initiative touted on Wall Street as one of Four Pillars for APUS Advancement

o ECM Collective saves $25 million annually by 2013

o Negotiation skills reduce library overhead, e-textbook pricing to >$35

o Online Library with $5 million + in savings more than amortizes its costs; Librarians with 15+/1 ROI ratio

B. External Recognition

• IMS Global 2012 Gold Innovation for Course Guides

• ACHE 2013 Creative Use of Technology for Guides

• Online Learning Consortium 2014 Effective Practice Award for Embedded Librarians in Intro to Online Ed.

• ACRL & Routledge 2014 Distance Librarian of the Year

C. Library Metrics• Classroom Engagement/ROI: 1/3rd of Course

Guides used to populate courses

• Holdings: Increase by factor of 10o E-books from 20,000 to circa 200,000

o E-Journals from 5,000 to 53,000+

• Staffing o Librarians from 2 to 23—Leading corps of online

subject specialists in sector, average 3 masters and include 5 PhDs

o Support Staff—ECM = 6; ePress = 4; Copyright/508 = 2; Library = 3

Usage Statistics (2013)• Course Guides Library: 1,000+ guides as LibGuides’ largest

& most active area with 150,000 monthly visits• Reference: 4 year growth from 6,000 to 240,000 queries • Research Library Visits: 3000%+ roughly 3 times APUS’ growth

rate

• Database Usage: From a 2005 baseline of >1 to 80 million searcheso Top university user of JSTOR & top 10 for ProQuest & Ebsco

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2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013Quarterly Traffic

Questions?

fstielow@gmail.com