Assignment X: How does the Hyperlinked Library apply to me?

I have been gleaning a lot so far in this course, but I am still wondering how to best integrate what I am learning into my present Librarian position.

I am a Solo Librarian for Family of Faith Christian University, which offers programs that are solely online. I work in a physical library that holds 20,000 physical resources that are not being physically used by our present online students on a regular basis. I do occasionally have to mail a resource on loan out to a student or scan a chapter of a physical resource I have on campus for a student in another country, where they do not have access to the resource. But otherwise, my days are filled with answering emails, meeting with students via Zoom, managing our online library resources, filing out all the reports expected of me, and doing all the ordinary university library day-to-day jobs. I do not have staff or helpers, so I wear all the hats and juggle them or change them constantly.

As I read the sections on “participation” this last week, I started writing down virtual projects for connection that I have tried, and noted what has worked and what has not. Here are some of them:

• Q & A Library Open Hour on Zoom – I had a weekly open hour where students could drop in and ask resource questions. We would work through the questions and learn how to find the answers together using our online resource library. This extra use of my time did not work out. Many times, no one would show up or drop in, so I cancelled the service.
• Fun Hour for Faculty and Students – This was scheduled for the first time in the Spring of 2022. I was hearing stories from students that they felt completely alone academically. Doing classes completely online and having no physical or virtual interaction with other students or even their professors at times was weighing heavily on the students, so I planned this fun hour for everyone who wanted to attend. The time went well, and everyone who attended, faculty and students alike, had a blast getting to know each other outside of class time and completely separate from course material subjects. It was so successful that I planned another Fun Hour the next semester, and it ended up being a flop with one professor talking the whole time. I have not scheduled one again since, but I am thinking of trying it again for the sake of the students in this upcoming course offering (course offerings change every 8 weeks) to bring more connections between all of us. The university has also changed up its online connections to help alleviate the feeling of being alone. The courses now have scheduled open Zoom meetings per course to instill interaction among students and faculty.
  • Professor Stephens stated:

    (Stephens, 2025, slides 25 & 26)

• • • I tried to talk to the administration about the lack of personal touch and the need to have a face-to-face interaction time for the students and professors. The students were sharing their needs with me in our one-on-one Zoom meetings, but the requests and pleas went nowhere with the administration. So, I planned and hosted it, and invited everyone to attend. The faculty that attended saw it as a great non-academic outlet for everyone and enjoyed it.
      • I see this as the Librarian being the connector between the faculty and the students. The students were not talking to the professors about the need, but they talked to me, and I connected the two.

• 24-hour Library access – We have a keypad app entry door on our building and another one on our library door that all students and professors have access to on their phones. Local students and professors can use the library at any time of the day or night. This has come in handy for those who needed open library hours outside of my office hours. They are expected to be responsible and respectful of the library and its property during their time in the library. If they want to check out materials when I am not present, they text me the barcodes and I process their request on my phone.
  • This brings in the “Radical Trust concept” (Stephens, 2025, slide 49) since no one is in the building but those using the library after hours. I am having to trust they will take care of the library, be respectful and clean up after themselves, as well as trust that the students will not walk off with the books without checking them out through me first. This concept was talked about by Professor Stephens in Module 4’s recorded lesson.

(We desperately need to replace the outside keypad!)

• Offered 1:1 Zoom meetings for research help – These meetings are offered to all university students, staff, and professors. The meetings normally last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. The library patron gets individual attention, where we walk through whatever they need help with from start to finish.
  • Professor Stephens stated that 83% of people find value in having a librarian’s personal help (2016, p 56).
    • Those who take the time to meet with me usually speak very highly of our time together to others in their courses because they find the personal help extremely valuable.
    • This aspect of my job can be considered transparent and participatory in that, whenever I can, I flip the screen literally in Zoom and have the patron do the work as I talk them through it. We explore the resources together and learn together.
  • Monthly Library Morsel – I create these monthly and send them out via email to all students, and faculty when applicable. They consist of personal encouragement, new upcoming library news, answering students’ questions, bringing light to something that could be helpful, and much more. They always end with an invitation to meet with me via Zoom and space is left for personal comments and recommendations on the university dashboard pages, where these are also posted for all to see.
    • Out of everything I do, I guess this one could be put into a blog post or a Facebook post as well.
      • I have not created a virtual library presence. I have not seen the need prior to this course, but maybe it would be a good idea. I do have student who say they do not check their emails or their course dashboards for my notes. So, they miss the information. One of the reasons I have not created an online presence is that it will just be another thing I have to keep up with. Being a Solo Librarian, sometimes I feel like I am running in all directions.
    • I send out surveys every year to get ideas and input to help make the library and resources more user-friendly, as well as space to have comments on anything that the patrons want to comment on or ask questions about. I am always asking for resource suggestions and other additions to our online resource library. Some patrons take advantage of the opportunities to have a personal touch on our library’s resource space and resources, and others do not.

I am open to ideas and comments. I want to meet the needs of my patrons on all levels and be as transparent as possible. I do not want to hold the reins, but allow the students to get involved to expand our spaces together and make it fun as we learn and serve together. Being a solely online university is making me think hard about how to implement the things I am learning in our virtual space.

Resources

Casey, M. (2011, October 11). Revisiting Participatory Service in Trying Times. Tame the Web. https://tametheweb.com/2011/10/20/revisiting-participatory-service-in-trying-times-a-ttw-guest-post-by-michael-casey/

Stephens, M. (2016). Heart of librarianship. American Library Association.

Stephens, M. (2025). The Hyperlinked Library Participatory Services and Transparency [Google Drive Slides]. WordPress,  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l9Kd4Rx4EEGxFrpKNRHQpdmoIO3l2GaX/view