WebJunction releases Blended Learning Guide

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 4 May 2007—WebJunction, OCLC's online community where library staff share ideas and use online resources to help them in their work, has released a Blended Learning Guide that mixes online and in-person training methods to offer libraries new approaches to library staff instruction.

The Blended Learning Guide is available online from the WebJunction site:  http://data.webjunction.org/wj/documents/13893.pdf.

"Based on our experience with blended learning programs at WebJunction and research we have conducted, we believe that blended learning offers libraries a powerful strategy for delivering engaging, high-quality training that is cost-effective," said Marilyn Gell Mason, Executive Director, WebJunction.

Several WebJunction programs—the Spanish Language Outreach Program, the Rural Library Sustainability Program, and the Learning Partner Beta Program, to name a few—have demonstrated the potential of blended learning to enhance library staff training.  The Blended Learning Guide provides an introduction to potential tools and offers examples of successful programs implemented in organizations providing library staff training.

The Blended Learning Guide offers quick guides of several different modes to blended learning:  Discussion Boards; Online Instant Messaging/Chat Sessions; PodCasting; Rapid E-Learning Software Tools; Web Conferencing.  Blended learning case studies are included, as well as resources to find more information on the topic.

"Library staff rely on quickly accessing and putting into practice information they need to do their rapidly changing jobs," said Ms. Mason.  "Blended learning approaches can help library staff more quickly apply new skills to their daily work."

About WebJunction
WebJunction <www.webjunction.org> is a cooperative of library staff sharing and using online resources to identify and learn about appropriate technologies that can help ensure relevant, vibrant, sustainable libraries for every community.  In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded OCLC Online Computer Library Center a three-year grant to build WebJunction as a portal for public libraries and other organizations that provide open access to information.  Today, WebJunction is supported in part by OCLC, grants from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, partners in state library agencies and other library service organizations, and by the library community itself.

About OCLC
Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit library service and research organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent and preservation services to 57,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories.  OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and maintain WorldCat, the world's richest online resource for finding library materials.  For more information, visit www.oclc.org.

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