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Taking Stock of Your Library 7 Partners • Library departments such as circulation, collections, interlibrary loan, and course reserves. • Computer/technology support staff. • The department that manages online learning (if there is one). • Departments/colleges with online programs. • Faculty (especially those who are interested in teaching online or already active online). • College advisors are an often-overlooked resource, but they maintain very close contact with their students and can be very helpful in getting the word out about the library. • LMS managers may be able to help you with issues such as automating the integration of library resources into the LMS, adding you to online courses and adding the library into the LMS course template. • The registrar usually manages how students are identifi ed as online or dis- tance in the university system. What Data Is Already Available to You? One key element to being a successful online education librarian is that you get to know your users. This does not just include your students but also the instructors and other groups that support online learning. Just about every librarian who has taken this type of job has discovered the need to do some data gathering about their users, those users’ needs, and how well they are served. You will want to do this at some point, too, but before you do, take some time to fi nd out what data already exists. Given that your students as well as some of your instructors are off-campus, reaching them can be tricky (more on that in another chapter). However, it is likely that some data has already been gathered by either the library or other departments or units on campus. Questions to consider: • Who are the online learners, instructors, and support staff? • Who offers/supports the online and distance programs? • What data are they currently gathering? • How can you get access to it? • If there is a department that manages online or distance education, what data can it share with you? • What data-gathering options are available? If there was a predecessor in your position, see if you can fi nd annual reports, surveys, or other data they may have gathered. Tap into what departments or