You are here

  1. Home
  2. OU Library Community: The Live Engagement Team

OU Library Community: The Live Engagement Team

If you have ever taken part in an online library training session, or caught a Facebook Live broadcast on the OU Library’s Facebook page, then you will have met one of the seven wonderful Librarians who make up the Library’s Live Engagement Team.

[[[image-1 medium right]]]Back in May, the Team ran a popular series of Facebook Live sessions in the run up to the UK General Election. Affectionately known as Fake News Fridays, the series of four short live videos talked about How To Spot Fake News, and how the OU Library is able to help you do that. At the time of writing, each short video has over 1.2k views! “These sessions have been hugely successful.” Helen – one of the Librarians on the Live Engagement Team remarks. “We are planning to do more of these quick, short live videos in the future and always welcome ideas for topics!” The videos are all available to view on the Library website.

The team have also used Facebook Live to run a Librarian Q&A - which was a great way for students to find out the answers to all of their library related questions. “It was really great.” Says Helen. “I was on camera answering questions as they came in, and there were two other librarians there posting links and picking up the questions.” [[[image-0 medium left]]]

Alongside these informal sessions, the Live Engagement team also runs a more formal programme of online training sessions on library skills such as searching for and evaluating information. These sessions are normally run in the evenings so that they are convenient for OU students - most of whom work full time alongside studying. “I do mine in my PJs from my kitchen.” Reveals Helen. 

These training events run throughout the year and recordings of previous sessions are available at any time on the ‘Training and Events’ section on the Library Website.

But it’s not just online where the Live Engagement Team can be found supporting the OU community – they run in-person training events on campus for Associate Lecturers, and they also attend Day and Residential schools – delivering library skills training to our students directly.

The Live Engagement Team take every opportunity to be innovative in their approaches to training our students, and communicating with the OU community. In March 2017, they broadcast a live tour of the library and archive as part of International Women’s Day using Georama. “We get to play with gadgets that let us engage with our community in new and exciting ways.” Says Helen. “We do the fun stuff – it’s very easy to get excited about it!”

You can keep up with the latest Facebook Live offerings and scheduled training events, as well as loads of other lovely stuff, by following us on Facebook.