Unveiling Students’ Views on Librarians as Teachers in Virtual Library Instruction Sessions

This study explores students’ perceptions of librarians as teachers or instructors in virtual library instruction sessions. This study applied online surveys as data gathering techniques, using open questionnaires. The respondents were students (diploma, undergraduate, master, doctoral) of Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia. Students perceive librarians as teachers or instructors in the virtual world as someone who is “cool,” “knowledgeable,” “motivating,” “helpful,” and “tech-savvy.” Those are positive values for librarians as teachers or instructors in virtual library instruction sessions. Theoretical contribution of this study is the enrichment of librarian’s roles concept that has existed, especially librarian roles as teacher in virtual environment. The findings could also guide librarians in shaping their roles as teachers so they can increase the engagement with students.