Our Services
THE VIRTUAL LIBRARIAN SERVICE AND ITS LIBRARIANS HAVE BEEN SERVING THEIR CLIENTS FOR MORE THAN A DECADE
Responding by email to your online student’s queries.
This is our most basic service, and the most popular one. When your students are having problems with either access to, searching in, or retrieving from your library’s electronic resources including free web links, commercial databases and ebooks, who do they contact for quick response? Email assistance to your student is 7 days a week, and especially on weekends and holidays. No need for your campus librarians to job-share with a consortium.
Creating , uploading and monitoring instructional aids/subject guides/research guides, library orientations
This is our second most popular service. Students need help at the time they are researching. Many prefer self-help aids before they contact someone. These aids are branded with your institution’s logo and save your library staff time in their creation, uploading and updating.
Assessing or reviewing your online library against your accreditation standards
This is one of our most helpful services for your administration. The Virtual Librarian is very familiar with DEAC, ALL 6 OF the regional accreditation bodies, ACCSc, and some international education accreditation models. If you have been expanding and are becoming concerned about whether you are in compliance or meeting the standards for your library, we will do a comprehensive assessment or review. Using your accreditation standards and our experience as peer reviewers, we will report on the student’s online experience and make suggestions where improvements should be made.
Creating and monitoring your library gateway/portal page inside your online software platform
The library gateway page includes links to a range of help aids and enhances access and increases student use of your virtual library. We will create that page if needed, enhance it if it exists, and provide ongoing maintenance.
Providing usage statistics
While you probably look at your institution’s web site visits, we will collect, look and analyze your database usage statistics to ensure students are using what you have purchased and have access to other tools they may require.
Communicating with appropriate staff
Because we are librarians, talking and sharing information with your library staff is natural and for a coordinated effort, necessary. We are also knowledgeable of the various technology glitches that occur when students try to link to the publisher’s content, so we can talk to your IT staff. We are familiar with the virtual conferencing medium and can communicate with your online faculty, library staff or any other representatives you wish in this manner.
Responding to your needs
You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that your students and faculty are adequately served and that they have access to adequate and appropriate resources and training. The Virtual Librarian service provides the extra professional staffing on contract to actually get the job done and works seamlessly within your institution.
Library Budget
Upon signing the VLS Proposal and Agreement, we invoice monthly the same agreed to amount inclusive for everything. One line in your library budget that is foreseeable, complete and reliable.