What a librarian can bring to your open online course development team.

This paper was written as the detailed research behind a poster presentation made to EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2012, November 6-9 in Denver. The poster featured a librarian sticking out from a team of tall young players on a wooden gym court. The poster title and tag line was, “Want a faster, smarter team? Add a librarian.” The central photo played into the potential biases of the viewer, by creating the visual pun of the female librarian in a sleeveless dress, pearl necklace and iPad standing short amongst a tall uniformed male sports team. She sticks out from the team. At first glance she doesn’t seem to belong. The purpose of the piece is to encourage the audience to consider working with a team player who might not have been on their list of first round draft picks.