Behind the Scenes with SUNY Empire’s Online Library

An exemplary embodiment of Empire State University’s access mission, the Online Library serves students, staff, and faculty, delivering information virtually and boosting the affordability of course reading materials.

For a behind the scenes look, Jennifer Collins, scholarly communications and OER librarian, Sara Hull, collaborative projects, reference, and outreach librarian, and Heather Shalhoub, web services, user experience, and systems librarian share their experiences. Collins joined SUNY Empire two years ago, Hull joined 19 years ago, and Shalhoub has been with the university for 18 years.

What does the Online Library contribute to SUNY Empire?

Collins: Scholarly communications is an umbrella term for assistance with research, course resources, open educational resources (OERs), and it also holds information about our affordability program.

To me, one of the most impressive things about our library is that because we’re online, collection development looks different for us—we don’t have a physical library. Our students are scattered all over the world—literally. Instead of going for that approach, we have a collection of online materials that includes e-books, newspaper articles, journals—everything you’d think of in a traditional library.

The other thing we’re able to support is the affordability program. Essentially, any textbook we’re able to purchase, we purchase online licenses, so students access their textbooks for free. We remove that burden from students as much as possible.

It’s been impressive to see how it’s grown. We’ve saved students over $7 million. In fall 2025, 74% of our textbooks were available. We’ve just kept increasing those numbers. From an online library standpoint, that’s one of the things that’s unique about us and how we function.

Hull: In my area, we function as a sort of translation service. Students come to us with assignments and they don’t necessarily always understand all the jargon that’s associated with them. Working with a librarian, or through some of the self-help materials we’ve developed, like our tutorials and FAQ, students can gain knowledge about what all those terms associated with research mean.

We have outreach services to make sure students are aware of what’s available to them through the library, whether it’s the resources themselves, or working directly with a librarian through a variety of mediums.

We also collaborate with other student-facing units across the university. For example, we’ll have a panel discussion this month to talk in-depth about what it looks like to get a student to the correct resources they need, whether it’s a handoff from the library to writing peer tutors or learning coaches, or taking to someone at student success.

Shalhoub: Usually, with the systems and web resources, I focus on collaborating with other departments like accessibility services and digital accessibility to make sure library resources and our web content is as accessible as possible. We’ve been doing usability testing of our website once a year and making improvements to our homepage and navigation. The biggest thing I’ve been doing is making updates to all our web content for Title II and accessibility.

Collins: I would say a lot of librarianship functions like ducks on water—you want smooth operation on top, and frantic movement on the bottom.

How does having an online campus shape the way the library delivers services?

Collins: It’s quite different. In an online library space, we have to consider things like accessibility for our students. And also, the idea that people have that it’s not a physical space, so do the students feel there’s a human connection?

We end up interacting with students for longer and more meaningful stretches of time, because a student has to make the decision, in an online space, to approach us and have that discussion. They can’t just walk by the desk and say, “Well, I’m here anyways. I’m just going to ask.” Because they’re seeking us out, these interactions tend to be more thought out from the get-go.

Hull: Living in an online space has been both a blessing and a curse. In some ways, we are invisible because we’re online and we’re not that building that students go to in their pajamas to study and get away from noisy roommates. [Being online] makes the outreach portion of my job a challenge.

Our students have access to all our resources that are online 24/7, 365 days a year. That’s not just the ebooks—that’s contact with a librarian, because we participate in the Ask Us 24/7 consortium of librarians. What that means is we answer questions for other universities and colleges, students, and faculty around the globe for several hours a week. Anytime we are unavailable to live chat with our users, there are other librarians at other institutions around the globe who are logged in, and they’re going to answer our users’ questions for them.

Making our resources and services available 24/7 is a huge blessing, because with nontraditional learners, they could be working well into the night after kids have gone to bed or they’ve finished their night shift.

Shalhoub: I think because I worked at other SUNYs and community colleges before I was here, the interactions we have with students are often more meaningful because they’re reaching out to us when they have a research or information need, whereas in person, it’s giving directions to the bathroom and fixing the printer a lot of the time. We need to be aware of everything at the university to know where to direct our students, or how to help them at a point of frustration.

In the last three years, we have expanded certain services like the interlibrary loan (ILL).  Now, we can get online articles, some ebook chapters, and occasionally, a full ebook.  We’re connected to many libraries across the world, not just across SUNY, so there’s a lot more available to our students. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes setup that goes into making it work, and a lot of testing, which I’m involved in.

Research support can mean very different things to different students. How do you meet people where they are, whether they’re in the early stages of higher education or earning an advanced degree?

Collins: Libraries have changed significantly. When we have a brand-new student, I usually start with level setting, and say: “Have you done a library database search before? What is your experience looking in libraries?” A lot of times, a new student will have the same needs as a returning student, who will tell me: “Last time I did this, it looked like this. You did it this way, and now it looks totally different—I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Sometimes people don’t even know what they’re looking for, they have a kind of vague idea, and you can proceed through the interaction, so the idea develops.

Hull: It’s about conducting what we call a reference interview; we try to tease out what parts of the assignment or question the student understands, what they need further help with, and what they know about how the library tools and resources work.  

Shalhoub: There’s the research aspect of it, and also the navigation of our resources that I think plays into it a lot. Most of our users will go directly to OneSearch, which searches most of the library at one time—but that’s not always the best avenue.

We have other options like resources by subject, because we have 128 databases of articles, ebooks, and various resources including videos. Sometimes it’s better to go to those resources that are best for a certain subject area instead of using intense keyword combinations. It will weed out the extra stuff.

Hull: One of the big pieces in Heather’s job is conducting usability studies. When she talks about navigating the library, she’ll sit there and watch new users or new grad students try to find something. She’ll tell them to look for a database on a specific topic, see how they respond, where their impulses take them, and based on what she learns from watching those interactions, figure out the best way to make the library more accessible to the students trying to navigate it.

Shalhoub: A big part of that is tracking our usage and traffic. If there’s something we think is very beneficial that isn’t getting used, that’s often how I’ll test it. I’ll make up a scenario for the tests and see if students can find it, that way we know how to point students to it and promote it better.

If a student has never reached out to the library before, what would you want them to know and how can they get in touch?

Collins: Come to us before you’re frustrated. There are so many avenues for communication. You can sign up for a consultation time with us. You can email us. You can chat message us. You can message the library, and it will go through a triage system where the appropriate librarian will pick up your question and answer it. We’re here, we’re flexible, we want to help.

Hull: We can save you a ton of time. We know the tips and tricks to get through these kinds of challenges. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we can share them with you and make your academic life much easier.

Shalhoub: Don’t be scared of us. We’re not going to judge you because you’re asking a question. You’re probably asking a question hundreds of other students have also asked, even if you feel like you’re the only one.