Ashley Hoffman
Kennesaw State University
eLearning Librarian
What’s your job like?
Support student success by creating virtual instructional materials, videos, tutorials, learning aids, and research guides for students. Market library services and resources to online teaching faculty. Maintain library presence in the LMS.
What are some things you like about your job or working in libraries in general?
I like my job because it’s completely a moving target. When I was first hired last year, my official title was Distance Learning Librarian. However, we discovered that every tutorial I made or every outreach effort I made benefited more than just distance students. At our university, most courses have a presence in the LMS, even if they meet exclusively in person. So now we’ve realized that we can better reach ALL students on campus if we target our materials to their course homepage in D2L. This is completely the opposite of our prior emphasis on LibGuides. I love that my job is constantly evolving and I love that I can use technology to help reach students where they need us most.
What’s a project or committee you’re working on right now that you’re excited about?
I am so excited about a series of asynchronous library instruction modules we are working on. In the process of working on them, I discovered that there may be a way to directly embed LibGuides into our LMS, D2L. This is amazing because it means that all of our librarians (who are already familiar with LibGuides) can help create content to be shared through D2L instead of just me being the gatekeeper of All Things LMS. Now we can leverage our subject guides and course guides directly through a course’s homepage in D2L instead of trying to coax the students to the library homepage. We think this is going to increase our LibGuides traffic exponentially!
What got you interested in libraries?
I’ve worked in libraries throughout my whole education. It was always a part time job “on the side” as I was going through college, and then later grad school. I had this idea that I was going to pursue a career through the state department or international business, but when it came down to applying for jobs I realized that I had already found a career I was excited about – librarianship.
What is one of your favorite things about NMRT?
I like that there’s no pressure to be an expert immediately. I love being able to connect with other new professionals and exchange ideas and advice without feeling embarrassed about my lack of knowledge or inexperience. It’s a safe learning environment!
Do you have any advice for other new librarians?
Become involved in professional associations!! I wish someone had told me that before I started applying to full time positions. The best recommendation you can bring to a job application is from other professionals who have worked with you through professional organizations. If someone can say “Oh yeah, I know her from X committee. She does good work!” about you, you are going to be a stand out candidate.