Instruction & Curriculum Librarian Strauss Health Sciences Library CUAnschutz Medical Campus Denver, Colorado
Background: Libraries are slowly being squeezed out of orientation and introductory time with new incoming students. Many teaching faculty believe and assume that students know what the library has to offer and that the students will seek us out when they have a need. Students believe that anything can be learned from a video – and it better be short and focused. So, considering all of this, the Teaching Team embarked on a mission to identify important areas/services for incoming students to know about and to create appropriate online asynchronous training/education material to convey this information in lieu of face-to-face time.
Description: The Teaching Team met to discuss what was needed and strategies for identifying and filling this gap. The team invited campus software experts to present on the available technologies which could be pursued to meet the need. Brainstorming sessions were held to identify specific topics to cover and these were then ranked to identify the most critical to produce first. Team members volunteered for specific topics and began the process of choosing the appropriate medium to convey the required information and to create a product to use with the incoming students. Scripts were written. Handouts were created. Links were identified. Web-based applications were explored. All of the parts were loaded into a Library 101 guide. Social media and traditional flyers were used to promote the information. Much of the guide has been incorporated into the FAQ database.
Conclusion: The presentation will outline the process, as well as, talk about lessons learned, best practices, unifying strategies, and branding. It will discuss how these products have been used to date and what the next steps might be.
