Welcome to the first issue of the Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning for 2021. I hope the four articles we have for you in this issue will be of interest.
This issue kicks off with an article about the creation of library-specific modules to be used in social work bachelors and masters degree programs at the University of Tennessee. In their article, “Social Work Prep – Using Canvas Modules to Provides Baseline Library and Social Work Program Knowledge,” Allison Shepard and Steven Milewski detail their collaboration in creating these modules. Modules not only cover an overview of the social work discipline, but library-specific information as well.
In his article “Utilization of Online Learning Platforms by Library and Information Sciences Faculty Members of Arab Public Universities During the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak,” Dr. Essam Mansour discusses his research into if and how the library and information science faculty at Arab public universities used online learning platforms during the outbreak. Dr. Mansour’s research shows that the LIS Arab faculty have varying preferences for platforms and are eager to engage with their students, but there is still some hesitancy in using them due to lack of training.
While MOOCs were one of the options that the Arab faculty mentioned in Dr. Mansour’s research, Adeyinka Tella and Vusi Tsabedze discuss the use of MOOCs in Eswatini in their article, “Perceived Usefulness, Reputation and Tutors’ Advocate as Predictors of MOOC Utilization by Distance Learners: Implication on Library Services in Distance Learning in Eswatini.” In their article, Tella and Tsabedze provide information on the study they conducted on how three variables impacted the decision distance education librarians made on using MOOCs and the implications for providing library services to distance education learners.
The final article in this issue, “The Conceptualisation of Processes for Handling Online Requests of Information Resources in Academic Libraries in South Africa: Experience from an Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL),” Tinyiko Vivan Dube details how the Open Distance e-Learning libraries use their OPACs as a portal for requesting information resources. Dube provides the step-by-step workflow for handling these requests from the initial submission by the patron to the delivery of the resource or information.
Do any of these topics appeal to you? Do you want to know more? If so, this issue is for you!
Editor-in-Chief