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October 2016

Quality Measures of Library Reference Service.

Quality Measures of Library Reference Service.

The Virtual Librarian Service and its professional librarians offer 7 day a week email reference service. The librarians do not operate a chat service, hunched over our laptops 24 hours a day, demanding that the student who needs help stay in their seat to engage, right now, in long conversations in short tiny chat boxes. Regardless if the student is at work or in less than perfect conditions. Rather, the Virtual Librarian Service duty librarian monitors the client custom email coming to the reference librarian at all hours of the day and night, every day, even holidays. Replies are by email usually within minutes, or sometimes hours from the time of the student sending a reference help request. Reference request replies are predicated on knowledgeable librarians who know the client’s resources and how that content supports the unique programs and often the course assignments.

Problems with an Accrediting Agency - will it affect the library?

Problems with an Accrediting Agency - will it affect the library?

As a librarian I am looking askance at the issues some of our clients may face if they are accredited through ACICS. And when the institution is ACICS accredited, that means their students have access to Title IV student assistance funding.  This DOE negative decision has been looming for a while, and this summer, based on the DOE staff  report, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity voted to deny ACICS the recognition ACICS itself needs to continue. There is a very explicit process for an agency to be recognized as an accreditor. Here is the DOE description of the accreditation process in America: (http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation.html#Overview)