College of Information assistant professors Lorri Mon and Sabah Currimrecently received funding from the Institute of Museum & Library Services to build an online learning community and explore sustainability issues as one part of a collaborative multi-university project for the Internet Public Library. The full project, “A Virtual Learning Laboratory for Digital Reference: Transforming the Internet Public Library” was recently funded at $613,478 with Drexel University,Florida State University and the University of Michigan among the collaborators.

The IPL is a public service organization founded at the University of Michiga and hosted by Drexel University which provides digital library collections and online question-answering services. Graduate students at Florida State University, among many other universities, have participated in hands-on community service learning by answering questions asked by real people from around the world via the Internet Public Library’s e-mail service.

Enhancements to the Internet Public Library funded through the IMLS grant will make digital reference learning objects available to faculty in all ALA-accredited LIS programs, provide a laboratory with access to new technologies used to offer digital reference and digital library services, and create a collaborative learning community for faculty, students, and working librarians. This innovative approach is designed to meet the needs of digital librarianship training in a changing world in which librarians are experimenting with services via e-mail, chat, virtual worlds, and Web 2.0 resources.

“Students graduating from today’s LIS programs are likely be employed in libraries offering not only traditional face-to-face reference services but also online question-answering services using a variety of remote and digital media,” said Dr. Lorri Mon, co-principal investigator for Florida State’s sub-grant. “My work at Florida State University will involve building the learning community site, while my co-principal investigator at FSU, Dr. Sabah Currim, will focus on the long-term sustainability of the project.”