Connecting with Faculty and Students through Course-Related LibGuides

Abstract

Academic librarians face increasing challenges when trying to connect their services and resources with faculty and students, especially as courses move online and are taught by adjunct faculty. Online research guides, most commonly LibGuides, can be automatically inserted into course shells within Learning Management Systems (LMS) using Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI) protocols, but an alternative to automatic integration is for librarians to match and suggest appropriate subject guides to faculty for inclusion in their courses. Personally matching and recommending LibGuides to faculty can be an effective form of library outreach and relationship-building. This article describes a pilot project of suggesting specific LibGuides to faculty and its success in forging and strengthening several library-department connections.