Online Learners & Libraries: It’s time to connect to the revolution | Editorial

Online learning, much touted and often doubted, is revolutionizing education as we know it. This is good for learners and could be transformational for libraries. The connection between learning and libraries has always been natural and strong—it’s fundamental. This particular transition, however, intensifies the need for libraries and calls for stepped-up services to support these independent learners.

Online learning, much touted and often doubted, is revolutionizing education as we know it. This is good for learners and could be transformational for libraries. The connection between learning and libraries has always been natural and strong—it’s fundamental. This particular transition, however, intensifies the need for libraries and calls for stepped-up services to support these independent learners.

This summer, “At a Tipping Point: Education, Learning, and Libraries,” a report from OCLC, framed the opportunity for the profession. It argues that we are on the brink of “being a nation of confident, empowered online education consumers.” A perfect storm is forming as people adapt rapidly to life online, prices for mobile technology dive, and the cost of traditional higher education escalates. Learners now see an expanding array of alternatives to traditional settings—and they are more likely than ever to want to take advantage of them in light of the growing perception that higher ed is not worth the money. As individuals embrace online models, however, they’ll want help.

“Online Learners need a support ecosystem,” states the report. Libraries can and do provide such support already, the report adds, but people too rarely think of a library when they need it.

“The library is valued, but as the ‘context’ of how we live changes (primarily a mobile-based communications life), the library role is not viewed as central in that new context,” Cathy De Rosa, OCLC VP for the Americas and global VP of marketing and a principal contributor to the report, told me. “It is not a ‘book’ problem (people clearly still value books) but rather a context problem. Until libraries are more central in our mobile lives, this will continue,” said De Rosa. “Many library leaders are telling me that their website traffic now exceeds their physical library traffic. So, again, a new opportunity is emerging for libraries to shape ‘how’ they can deliver in a mobile world.”

Supporting online learning is a particularly good fit for libraries. We serve autonomous lifelong learners better than any institution. Now we can do it wherever they are and often at any given moment. We provide space in which to focus or commune; technology access, especially for the disadvantaged; a curated collection to support ranging interests; research aids; and a human interface no smartphone can top—sorry Siri. Partnerships like the one between the New York Public Library and the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House, which provides the opportunity for human interaction within a ten-week poetry course, exemplify the potential of blended learning.

But with or without such integration with educational institutions, libraries can make a more significant difference now than ever before thanks to new technology. Right now, these formal and informal learners need critical thinking skills, and many are operating without a defined net. They need to be able to evaluate and select sources and conduct independent research to succeed. Supporting that is central to library work, especially in academic institutions, but it will demand more attention from public libraries. Now, in a sense, every library in every town is becoming a sort of college library.

Some public libraries are already redefining themselves as educators. Howard County Library System (HCLS), MD, won the 2013 Gale/Library Journal Library of the Year Award for doing so and the resulting success in public support. In this issue, Valerie Gross, HCLS president and CEO, writes about how that strategy is resonating overseas (see “The Education Hook”). That’s a great experiment, and we should keep thinking about how to refine the understanding of our connection to education. For the moment, though, we can support this transition from a place of core strength. Great educators are going to need to do their part, and our part is more critical than ever.

Online learning might be disrupting education, but it is not a natural disrupter for libraries. Providing an “ecosystem” for those learners is a match in terms of mission, skills, and community infrastructure. Libraries are poised to be central to this major cultural shift.