The Iraq war brought us the concept of "embedded journalists". Now we have the concept of "embedded librarians". An embedded journalist is supposed to have better access to a story; an embedded librarian provides better access for students to him/herself and to the library's resources.
There are several ways for a librarian to be embedded in an online course. In order from greatest presence to least presence:
- Add the Librarian as a Guest Lecturer or student within the WebCT course. Students can consult the Librarian within the course by any of the communications methods available.
- Add active scripts that allow students direct, synchronous access to the librarian, such as the chat service, Chatango:
Students have the advantage of complete privacy, encouraging the asking of the proverbial "dumb questions".
See this in WebCT: Log in as st04 (same password), and choose the SummerTech Demo 04 and choose the Chat with a Librarian icon (from within the View tab). - Add resources and links assembled in consulation between the faculty member and the librarian to the WebCT space (maybe in a Library Resources module). There are several ways of doing this, including the creation of a feed that will add resources automatically as the Librarian finds them.
- Add contact information for the Subject Librarian to the course informational pages, so that students can contact the Librarian at need.