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Library Support for Distance Learners

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Resources for Distance Learners (Oswego)

Distance Learning at Monroe

Putting Metalib to Work

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MetaLib is a library portal that "enables users to access library e-collections, obtain appropriate services, and personalize their environment." MetaLib enables you to simultaneously search disparate electronic resources, including your library's catalog(s), subscription databases, and some Internet search tools, within a single interface.  Because the user logs into the system, MetaLib becomes a kind of cyber-workstation (or Memex, for the Vanever Bush fans) where users can choose databases, save searches, create email alerts, and save and annotate records.

Sojourner Truth Library (STL) first deployed "MetaLibrary" in Fall 2003.  STL has long desired a web-based catalog.  There were several critical issues with our text-driven DYNIX catalog: clunky telnet access; no hyperlinking; and overly-complicated Boolean searching.  Sorting results wasn't automatic or intuitive;  this gave users the impression that we only had "old stuff."   And of course, the DYNIX OPAC didn't aspire to reflecting our electronic holdings.

Many of our distance students were unwilling to search the catalog if other electronic resources--subscription or otherwise--were more convenient.  So we strove to provide them--and their on-campus colleagues, of course--with palatable, Google-like access to our many resources.  Owing to our eventual upgrade to ALEPH, we chose its sister Ex Libris product, MetaLib.  Not only does it offer the features we sought, but we envision that the transition to ALEPH will be smoother for our patrons already familiar with MetaLib.

Great Features for Distance Students

Like our on-campus users, distance students appreciate speedy access to materials, policies and services.  Students who study at geographically remote locations need access to full-text articles, search assistance, and document delivery services.  Many of them may be unaware of the full complement of services available to them.  Most of our distance students are part-timers who are [somewhat] capable of navigating the commercial Internet, and they expect our e-resources to have features similar to the ones on their favorite websites.  MetaLib's features meet many of these challenges, and they will appeal to remote users regardless of where they and how they attend classes.  These features include:

• Single interface: MetaLib's straightforward search environment is ideal for building searching confidence and for illustrating simple concepts like Boolean searching, limiting, citation reading, and saving results to a workspace.  Distance students who require an introduction to database searching can grasp these concepts before moving on to more advanced tools.  Because full-text access has an especial significance to students who are remote to the physical collection, MetaLib's federated search features and kinship with SFX enable the distance learner to amass a wealth of full-text information in a single search.  And the friendlier OPAC interface helps to endear distance students to the wealth of available print materials that they can order or retrieve on campus.
• Resources by Subject: MetaLib employs menus to guide users to discipline-specific resources.  Patrons can then choose specific tools to search or save to "My Resources."  The next evolutionary step might be to create distance learner-specific resource lists e.g., "Online master's seminar in..." where students would find pre-selected databases and distance-specific guides and information.
• My Resources:   MetaLib's interactive display enables users to select resources for themselves. A Nursing distance learner, for example, may add to My Resources the major health-related subscription databases, along with a sociology and an education database, and the OPAC.  Users can keep track of which subject-specific tools were discussed in  reference consultations, and harvest worthwhile interdisciplinary tools.
• Embedded linking:  Rather than copy/pasting detailed OPAC records into e-reference emails, you can embed links to the MetaLib records.  Embedded links can be used in Distance Learning e-newsletters and other outreach endeavors.
• E-Shelf: Students can save selected records in a personal file. This tool can inspire students to be more discerning about what they find, because it challenges them to re-read the saved records before printing or ordering.  Users can organize results into folders and annotate with "personal notes."  These features encourage critical thinking by compelling the users to organize their results as they search.
• Saved Searches:  Saved search strings can enhance any reference or instructional situation.  For those using certain virtual reference packages, you might save a search during a MetaLib co-browsing session, in order to help the user generate satisfying results later.  Instructors can save searches before virtual or on-site demos: this conserves precious instructional time.  Students can learn about Boolean searching by comparing search strings in the Saved Searches folder, and predicting the outcomes of each search.  As with the E-Shelf features, searches are saved within the MetaLib environment.  You and your users won't have to worry about mis-directed emails or mis-translated search operators.
• Alerts:  Push technology is now commonplace: "membership" alert emails from commercial sites alert our users to new products.  Users can employ MetaLib to perform a search daily, weekly, etc., from the OPAC and from other resources.  Users are then alerted if new resources match the criteria.  When users log in, MetaLib runs a fresh search. (Oddly, this differs from the method employed by EBSCO Alerts and similar services, where users can retrieve just the new records.) Nevertheless, distance learners can appreciate the alert services because it enables them to "gently research" throughout the semester, while it reminds them of the library's beneficial presence. Like the other features listed here, setting up an alert profile during library instruction motivates distance users to take control over their research.

Because MetaLib is highly malleable, we can add distance-friendly enhancements.  Some great examples are:

• Links to Virtual Reference:  The Florida Community College system, for example, links to their e-reference service ("Ask a Librarian") right where users need it most: inside the MetaLib (okay, now Aleph) interface. This inspired idea was a great feature of the erstwhile AskERIC system.
• Help guides, simulations, and pathfinders:  The resources in Boston College Library's MetaQuest include links to subject pathfinders.  Following the adage that the more you link to a good resource, the more likely your students will find it, these guides are listed right alongside the searchable databases.  This eliminates the clutter of creating a separate space for guides within the display; rather, it places them right in the center of the action.  And there's no reason why you can't link to virtual tours, streaming tutorials that feature the handsome distance learning librarian...
• Additional catalogs:  Remote students benefit from the knowledge that materials may be available close to their homes.  One of the anticipated joys of a SUNY-wide catalog is to be able to search across catalogs and locate copies that are local to the user:  until this becomes a reality, consider including other SUNY catalogs or public library consortia catalogs among your MetaLib resources.  Students may discover useful resources that are closer to their homes and offices.  Here, again, Florida Community College System's Linccweb provides a great example.
• Seamless ILL/document delivery:  Boston College's MetaQuest excels by integrating ILL services and policy statements directly into SFX and MetaLib/ALEPH.  This results in a tremendous feeling of autonomy for the distance student.

What I'd like to see improved

STL's MetaLib system, MetaLibrary, is still in its infancy. At present, some of my favorite features are not working consistently. For example, merge and sort features are still under construction.  The ability to merge, de-duplicate and sort by date was a major MetaLib selling point, and one that would help us to dispell the myth of our holdings being dated. Here are a few other caveats, not unique to STL's MetaLibrary:

• Verbiage and intuitiveness: MetaLib's web front end is a major improvement over DYNIX, but with the ability to manipulate the interface comes the responsibility to create one that is intuitive and clutter-free.  The menus certainly free up screen space, but it is tempting to include hints, tips, links to campus services, and other text all over the screen.  As with any new technology, novice MetaLib users need special instruction regarding value-added services like Alerts and E-Shelf.  It is an ongoing challenge to be instructive to remote users without overloading the display with explanations of every feature.
• Limiting features:  MetaLib is designed to offer, as Michael Robertson of RIT recently suggested, a "reasonable number of results" for a minimum amount of search effort and user time.  Patrons can perform some advanced Boolean searches, and then add limits.  But MetaLib doesn't permit the kind of high-end limiting you'd find in a native interface.  It's disappointing for me because my biggest distance ed. groups--upper-division and graduate Nursing and Education students--cannot take advantage of the publication-type limits so critical to them.  While you can search by keyword for "books," "case studies" or "research instruments," results do not compare with similar searches performed in the native interface.
• Full-text indicators:  While the SFX link appears adjacent to database search results, along with an enticing "More" link to the complete record [why not a hyperlinked title instead, as in other databases?]  there is no way to determine if an item is in full text from the initial results. Distance learners who desire full text might find MetaLib to be a step backward from the native database interface.  Employing SFX actually adds an extra click or two before yielding up the text.

Conclusion: A Catalog is only as good as...

It's been a few years since James Earl Jones first lent his heroic voice to the tag line "a mobile phone is only as good as the network it's on."  The same may be said for a library's remote services and search tools.  After all, why invest in a new web-based catalog when the user won't, or can't, come to the library?  With this in mind, here are a few questions to ask yourself regarding distance services and MetaLib, or whichever system you intend to deploy:
 

• Authentication: If authentication is required, how are your distance students made aware of their usernames and passwords?  Whom should these students contact with their questions?
• Jargon:  Some of MetaLib's more useful features may seem familiar to Ebay and Amazon users, but can your distance   students identify them easily?  Do your Help features clearly indicate what "My Resources", "E-Shelf" and other features do?  Can you rename these features if necessary?
• Inclusivity and Understandability:  Broadcast searching and a single interface are fantastic, but there is the drawback that independent remote users may not be able to discern the nuances of the citations. This is already tricky in the current electronic environment: What steps have you made to instruct online users in the differences between book, journal, and multimedia records?  How might you build upon this in order to provide instruction to remote MetaLib users?
• Help: Distance learners are miles away from "the buzz"--chatter in the libraries and campus halls telling a lot of on-campus users which databases are most/least useful, which are down for service, and which have the most full text. How would your library convey MetaLib features, tips, and service bugs to remote patrons?
• Materials delivery:  Sure, full text is king, especially for busy, remote, and nomadic distance students.  And SFX undoubtedly makes full text articles more  accessible. But how will your library deliver print materials, and how will they be returned? If your library has made a decision against mailing print items, what strategies can you employ that will make distance learners who journey to campus feel welcome and satisfied?  For example, can a distance learner, who may not have an institutional ID, arrive on a weekday evening or weekend and be permitted to check out the very materials they found in your simple-to-use webpac?

All told, MetaLibrary provides distance learners the opportunity to connect with the library in new ways, by offering a complement of simple search features, a cyber-workspace in which to save and annotate records, and a new way to look at research through its alert services.  Distance librarians can leverage these value-added features in their virtual reference, instructional, and outreach endeavors.  As MetaLib continues to improve, it is sure to have an impact on the way distance patrons utilize the library.