Education: Orientations
Social distancing guidelines coupled with mandatory library closures at many campuses across the nation has forced librarians to find new methods of packaging library services for transmission to complex patron groups—emphasis on the plurality of groups! For librarians involved in or associated with health sciences institutions, time is not necessarily an enemy, but it can pose a real challenge when staff are facing wholesale restructuring of service delivery mechanisms for an unspecified period that could span weeks and possibly months. Let’s just say: Sometimes time is not an option!
The process of transitioning traditional, in-house services to something suitable for the virtual realm can be further complicated when semesters are shortened, especially in larger university systems where the library serves multiple locations, a variety of patrons, and diverse subject fields. In such instances, a one-size-fits-all approach per library may not be practical or wise due to variations in academic focus across multicampuses. For example, one campus may focus more on research, while another campus may emphasize clinical instruction; one campus may revolve around pharmacy programs, while another around a dentistry school; one library may offer poster printing, while another library offers 3D printing. The list can be endless—not to mention uber-confusing for both library personnel and their campus community.
Consequently, librarians are having to adapt in unanticipated ways. How can one-on-one instruction be conducted electronically? How can the library and librarians personalize services from the web? How can classes be taught and special, timed exams be administered? The logistical choreography can literally boggle the mind and paralyze any voluntary impulse to act! Key, of course, is prioritizing. What services are most important? What services can be altered more quickly? Knowing the right questions to ask to guide the process might very well mean the difference between success and failure. It may also save librarians from losing their perspectives and their minds!
As many health sciences librarians wrestle with providing online orientations to incoming students, residents, faculty, and staff in the midst of a host of fluctuating circumstances, their struggle often—though not always—centers around how to showcase and how to promote the library as a physical place in conjunction with how to promote the library as a virtual space with virtual resources. So then, the question becomes how does one plan for that murky day when the library eventually reopens? How will social distancing impact the library and its users after the doors are no longer closed? These are concepts that must be addressed in the scope of library orientation sessions or presentations.
For librarians who ford the uncertain waters of virtual orientations, some trade-offs can be found. Online orientations can be organized and presented differently than in-house, face-to-face tours. This means, that, instead of leading a group of weary residents through a walking tour of the library—up elevators, down stairs, and so on—librarians can divide and conquer. Librarians can neatly and creatively parcel up and expand their physical presentations into virtual gems that provide more robust information and explanations of library services and activities. In contrast to paring down information for a person-to-person exchange, librarians can present a series of online presentations that can be five minutes or less in length and, in doing so, can give users a richer understanding of what exactly the library does and can potentially do for those who are taking the virtual tours.
An orientation web page or a LibGuide can, in fact, be a great place to promote special events and popular services. Librarians can build-in supporting materials such as instructional demos. Planting slide show presentations, interactive games, videos, widgets, and the like on a designated orientation web space can, in fact, (1) organize information into bite-sized pieces that visitors can ingest at their own pace and on their own time, while (2) supplying library users with enriched information on a plethora of services and resources.
Don’t let a new way of introducing the library to your patron community be the end of you! Use the opportunity to highlight the services and resources that you are excited about in a way that allows your enthusiasm to shine.