"Other Duties and Places as Assigned," Heather Blicher gets published

"In a post-pandemic world, libraries need to conduct a thorough survey of library personnel, services, and resources that specifically support online learning and develop an action plan for improvement," says Coordinator, Library Services, Heather Blicher.

Back in 2014, long before the covid pandemic, Heather had her focus set on online learning and strategies libraries could adopt to offer services virtually. She became an active member of a national online learning association and got to meet and exchanged ideas with other librarians and educators across the country.

"During and post pandemic," Heather says, "I became frustrated with libraries not being open to adapting services and overlooking expertise and experience in this area." And that's how she got involved in co-authoring a chapter, Other Duties (and Places) as Assigned: How Analog Approaches are Impeding Progress in Online Librarianship, included in, Sustainable Online Library Services and Resources.

From Heather

A little background on me and why I wrote the chapter:

• Since 2014, my focus has been in online learning, focusing on strategies to develop library services to make a positive impact for online students in a sustainable and equitable way.
• Before coming to Reynolds, I was the Online Learning Librarian at Northern VA Community College from 2014-2018 and then the E-Learning Librarian at Southern New Hampshire University from 2018-2020.
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• In both positions I worked to reach online students directly and by supporting faculty in developing online courses with Open Educational Resources, with a focus in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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• All of this was pre-pandemic! (I started my current position at Reynolds in August 2020)
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• During my time at NOVA, I was awarded the ACRL Distance Learning Librarianship Award (2017)
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Who will be using the book:

• The book shares experiences and ideas with librarians, instructional designers, and educators on sustainable and scalable online services and overcoming challenges in a post COVID-19 landscape.

How I got involved in writing the chapter:

• I’ve been an active member of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Distance and Online Learning Section (DOLS) since 2014. I’ve chaired DOLS committees and until this past summer, I was an Executive Committee member
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• Serving in the DOLS section allowed me to meet Online Librarians from across the US to discuss and share ideas about services for online students.
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• During and post pandemic, I became frustrated with libraries not being open to adapting services and overlooking expertise and experience in this area.
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• In a post-pandemic world, libraries need to conduct a thorough survey of library personnel, services, and resources that specifically support online learning and develop an action plan for improvement.

Here’s an excerpt from the chapter:

“…while librarians often embrace the jack-of-all-trades mentality as a product of necessity and an indication of adaptability, this does not mean we should accept or normalize “emergency remote teaching” (Hodges et al., 2020) or services that were hastily instituted under quarantine as standards for Distance and Online Learning (DOL) librarianship. Just as librarians have intentionally developed and strengthened face-to-face services according to professional standards, so too should we intentionally create and support standards-based DOL work. To accomplish this work, we propose that academic libraries require both dedicated, experienced DOL librarians and progressive organizational structures that embrace the post-traditional work environments needed to fully support modern, i.e. post-pandemic, students.”