How It's Done: Examining Distance Education Library Instruction and Assessment

Abstract

While articles on individual studies, surveys, and programs abound, there is a lack of baseline data regarding what and how libraries provide instruction for their distant populations. Do libraries generally provide information literacy or library instruction to students at a distance? How is instruction usually provided? Is instruction generally assessed? If so, how is instruction assessed? These questions were asked of librarians in an online survey of 143 institutions offering distance programs, randomly sampled from the College Blue Book. With a 55% response rate, data about instruction offerings and assessment were correlated with information about library staff size, budget, and student enrollment. The expectation was that larger libraries with more money and students would provide more and better services, but interestingly these factors had far less influence than anticipated. It seems that the individual efforts of librarians were the major determinants for services offered by libraries at institutions with distant students.

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