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About
Blended Librarianship is a novel form of librarianship practice
first advanced by Steven
Bell and John
Shank in January 2004. In April 2004 Bell and Shank delivered a
three-session
workshop on Blended Librarianship [note: more recent webcasts are 90 minutes] that was sponsored by the TLT
Group and ACRL. With support from the LearningTimes
Network, the Blended Librarian Online Learning Community also became
available in April 2004. At the end of 2009 the community had approximately
4,000 members and is still growing. The seminal article on Blended Librarianship appeared in
the July/August 2004 issue of College & Research Libraries News.
From the beginning, Bell and Shank decided that Blended Librarianship
needed to be more than just a concept. It had to be a working organism
through which library practitioners would help each other to improve
their knowledge of and ability to apply the theory and practice of instructional
design and technology to improve our ability to connect with faculty
for the purpose of achieving student learning outcomes. To facilitate
this vision, working with Hope Kandel of the Learning Times Network,
an online learning workspace was created to provide the necessary learning
community. What takes place there is the exchange of information. This
takes the form of online chats, webcasted events, the sharing of resources
materials, discussion forums, and it facilitates librarians with shared
interests and goals connecting with one another. At this time, through
the support and generosity of the LearningTimes Network, librarians
are being invited to join the community at no cost. In the future membership
information will be provided here. Temporarily, interested librarians
should contact Bell or Shank directly.
Mission Statement
The Blended Librarians
Online Learning Community is librarians, faculty, instructional designers
and technologists, and other academic support personnel working
collaboratively to integrate the library into the teaching and learning
process. It is designed to encourage and enable academic librarians to
evolve into a new role that blends existing library and information skills
with those of instructional design and technology. To that end, the
Community leverages innovation, collaboration, and communication to bring
together its members in a virtual environment for professional development
and learning opportunities.
Vision Statement
Our vision for BL is a
community that:
Enables academic
librarians to integrate instructional design and technology skills into
their existing library and information technology skill set, and to
understand how this new blend of skills can promote better connections
with faculty and other academic support professionals.
Brings together
librarians, faculty, and other academic support professionals to find ways
to effectively collaborate for the benefit of our students. Members are
committed to helping students achieve designated institutional learning
outcomes.
Offers members access to
continuing professional development through ongoing discussions and
webcasts that engage and challenge our thinking about how we fit into the
teaching and learning process.
Transforms the
librarian-faculty relationship by encouraging librarians to support
faculty’s integration of technology, library resources, and information
fluency into their courses through the development of digital learning
materials.
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