Meeting our students where they live through Distance Education: Designing, implementing and teaching online library research classes

Well-developed research skills are essential to our student's educational success. For a generation that will create more information than was created by all those who came before them access to information is not an issue, at least for those on the access side of the digital divide. However as that wealth of information grows so does the need for the skill sets that allows one to pull the drops of needed information from the ocean that they have available to search. Students, who have not known a world without Google, smart phones, and abundant wireless internet access, often feel their research skills are good enough but usually fail, not in the search for information, but in the ability to determine what the best information is and how to find it most efficiently. Online library research classes are one of the best methods we have for providing our students with the skills they need to succeed. Designing, implementing, and teaching library research classes allows librarians to communicate research skills that meet our students at their point of need. This paper will provide an examination of the benefits for our students, libraries and faculty in providing these classes, an overview on how they can be structured to meet the information literacy needs of any student and basic information on how to create library research classes at any institution of higher education.