Karen Munro, Learning Librarian

I’m the E-Learning Librarian at the University of California, Berkeley. I’m what John Shank and Steven Bell would call a “blended librarian,” I think. I’m basically a teaching librarian with a concentration in educational technology and new media.

And what does that mean?

I teach classes, do digital and in-person reference, create online tutorials, manage a website, and keep abreast of what’s going on in instructional design and emerging technologies. I work with our campus educational technology services unit on ways to provide library services in the course management system. I try to see the library through the eyes of your typical undergraduate–whoever that is–who spends part of every day on a cell phone and in Facebook, and who thinks of the library as a big book warehouse. Then I work on ways to reach that student.

I’m also a former literature librarian, with a continuing interest in how the humanities are tackling changes in scholarly publishing and communication. I think the book is a wonderful technology. I’m pretty sure it will have serious competition from electronic formats within my lifetime. I worry about the consolidation of publishing houses and media outlets as much as I worry about e-book readers. (Actually, more.)

Want to know still more? You can check out my reference question blog, or my home page.