Library Services for Online Patrons: A Manual for Facilitating Access, Learning, and Engagement

This practical and holistic approach to offering library resources and services to online patrons addresses multiple areas of service to online patrons, including reference, instruction, access, and marketing.

Academic libraries are wonderful resources for university students and faculty on campus, and public libraries thrive on providing targeted in-person services such as storytime, makerspaces, and adult programming. It can be easy, however, to forget about the large population of students, faculty, and community members who access library resources and use library services remotely.

Library Services for Online Patrons reaches out to patrons who are not-or not always-located on campus or who seldom-if ever-visit libraries’ physical facilities and who may not be aware of or able to equitably use library services. The authors focus on ways to organize library resources using principles of design and to cater library services to the specific needs of online students, faculty, and community members. They also address how to effectively target marketing to the online population and how to collaborate with campus and community stakeholders who work directly with them.

Provides novel services and resources that will save librarians already serving online patrons time and energy

Offers a broad, practical perspective to help novice librarians make initial connections with online learners

Emphasizes the importance of identifying other institutional players in online education in order to effectively implement and market improvements

Enhances understanding of the importance of universal design and how to assess possibilities for improvement in online services