The LMS and the Library

What might be the digital equivalent of walking by the library on your way to class? Library buildings have traditionally been considered gems on college campuses: They are usually a centrally located, buzzing hub for students and faculty fromacross many disciplines. Universities tout the number of books and other materials in their collections, and the library becomes a symbol of thewealth of knowledge on campus. The library is always a stop on the college tour for prospective first-year students. Students walk into and past the library building; the library is in focus, or at least in the periphery. Contrast that withwhat a studentmay seewhen they log into their courses online. In a typical learning management system (LMS), where assignments and readings are posted, the user interface is designed to resemble a file directory rather than a college campus.When a student spendsmore time in the LMS than on campus (particularly for students in fully online programs), that student’s experience of what an education looks like may diverge greatly from the on-campus experience, especially regarding the library. The student on campus might walk by the library on the way to class every day, but the student online may never see the word “library” in the LMS at all. Unlike the traditional college campus, the LMSwas never designed to incorporate the library, much less display it as a crown jewel. So at institutions with online and hybrid courses, librarians are finding creative and fruitful ways to insert the library into the LMS. In this column, I give a brief overview of five ways that libraries can be incorporated into an LMS, ordered from easiest to most difficult to scale, or, in other words, least to most personal.