E‐learning and Teaching in Library and Information Services

Citation

Joint, N. (2003), "E‐learning and Teaching in Library and Information Services", Library Review, Vol. 52 No. 7, pp. 351-352. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530310487470

Libraries have been at the heart of teaching and learning for centuries. Changes in the nature of teaching and learning must therefore affect the very basis of library and information work. This is the reason for Barbara Allan writing this book – a timely and welcome piece of work that gives an expert account of contemporary virtual teaching and learning and its effect on our profession.

The author deserves full credit for producing such a clear and comprehensive overview of a complex and rapidly evolving field. Dividing the topic into three sections, she first summarises and explains the full array of electronic communication tools used in contemporary e‐learning, but gives special attention to learning environments (virtual, managed and integrated) and to Web‐based training materials.

Her second section looks at the theories underpinning e‐learning and teaching, and then examines how to be an effective e‐tutor and e‐learner. This leads on to a consideration of the design process for e‐learning materials together with practical examples of the activities that such materials ask of the student.

Her third and final section looks at e‐learning and the LIS profession. If you’re keen to know about the impact of e‐learning on librarianship and want to cut to the chase by reading the last section, please don’t. The chapter makes much better sense read in its place at the end of the previous sequence of chapters. It is also quite short, but justifiably so – throughout the text there are so many highly illustrative examples of the interconnections between LIS and e‐learning that this final part works well as a general summation of the practical examples that enrich the whole of the book. These snapshots of practice are one of the greatest strengths of this text, and practitioners should work through it in its entirety using these insightful examples as their anchor points.

Because Barbara Allan is focussing on an up‐to‐the‐minute view of her subject, her attention falls to a great extent on networked learning tools that promote interactive group learning with tutor mediation. These are probably the more unfamiliar aspects of modern e‐learning, and the fact that (for example) VLEs are ideal for promoting learning communities or communities of practice for mutually supported professional development is worth emphasising and explaining. By contrast, Web‐based learning materials, which have been produced by librarians in their role as information literacy tutors for some time now, are arguably more familiar and warrant less attention from the author, although they too are important e‐learning tools.

However, it is probably worth bearing in mind that the author’s excellent extended description of the e‐tutor’s role in mentoring student forums on‐line is not necessarily a description of the new tutoring role of the information worker. Undoubtedly some will take this role on, but in many cases the information professional is more likely to act as the co‐tutor providing (for example) learning resources for use by students, rather than a sole moderator of online discussion. I would hazard a guess that the e‐tutor role will remain in the hands of academics who have the subject expertise to facilitate virtual debate.

But even so, the great success of Barbara Allan’s treatment of e‐tutoring is that it opens up so many opportunities for librarian involvement, not least in the creation of information‐rich learning environments, without which online discussion would be sterile. So, to sum up, this book can be recommended to all forward‐looking LIS professionals who wish to understand the interaction of ICT and education today. The breadth of material it brings together is impressive, and sometimes overwhelming – the cumulative effect of so many compressed summaries of original educational writers is occasionally exhausting. But this merely reflects the nature of the subject – and Barbara Allan is a reliable and insightful guide to it.