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Librarians have been teaching various topics for years, but this is the first time that UA librarians have offered for-credit coursework on the Web.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
July 21, 2008

For the first time, University of Arizona librarians on the main campus are teaching for-credit courses online.

Librarians have been teaching information literacy for decades and now librarians across the nation are beginning to teach courses for credit in the area of information literacy.

UA librarians have partnered with University College to offer a one-credit Web-based course – UNVR 195A, a freshman colloquium – that is being offered for the first time this month.

The course, now in its pilot phase, is expected to serve as a springboard for additional for-credit offerings by University librarians, said Gabrielle Sykes-Casavant, marketing and public relations director for the UA Libraries, which includes the Center for Creative Photography.

“It is increasingly more common, especially in university and academic libraries,” Sykes-Casavant said. “It’s a great way for librarians to reach students and for students to get the information they need.”

She said two obvious benefits are the ability to reach and teach more students and also the capability to add courses that feed into the UA’s distance learning and outreach priorities.

Carla Stoffle, the UA Libraries dean, pointed to yet another benefit.

The one-credit course will emphasize research skills and academic integrity, teaching students how to navigate library resources, learn how to evaluate information, avoid plagiarism and also understand legal, social and other issues surrounding the use of information, among other things.

“The library can help the campus enhance student skills and enrich the current curriculum by allowing the faculty to do more complex assignments because the students will have the skills for them,” Stoffle said.

Librarians will teach five sections of the course during the fall and the library is already evaluating how to expand the pilot program into other disciplines, Stoffle said. The library is also considering the idea of offering a minor, she added.

“This is a beginning that has been built on a foundation of 35 to 40 years of working with various courses on campus to help students to be successful in their courses,” Stoffle said.

Jana Bradley, director of the UA’s School of Information Resources and Library Science, said librarians who work in libraries have been called to teach non-credit courses not only in information literacy, but also in medical-related fields.

In recent years, librarians have begun “experimenting” with one- to three-credit course offerings, she said. In other situations, librarians may be hired part-time as faculty, she added.

“Library employers differ on their willingness to have their librarians hired by LIS (library and information science) schools as part-time faculty,” Bradley said. “We have many librarians who teach one course a semester for us. These part-time faculty are used to teach the courses where practical experience dominates.”

Certain librarians working in the Arizona Health Sciences Center, or AHSC, have been teaching for-credit courses for a number of years.

Annabelle Nunez is among them.

Nunez is an adjunct instructor with the School of Information Resources and Library Science as well as an assistant librarian at the AHSC library.

There, she teaches a course with the school’s Knowledge River program on health disparities. It is a full-time graduate level course offered at an accelerated pace, Students meet Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“The library school has increased its offerings in medical librarianship and they’re tapping their resources,” Nunez said. “It’s all about what we can do as librarians to help.”