Faculty Accomplishments: Elizabeth Walker-Papke

Online and Distance Learning Librarian Elizabeth Walker-Papke’s arrival at SAU in 2012 was nothing short of serendipitous. Just as she was finishing her master’s degree, SAU began searching for a new kind of librarian, one with a passion for online and distance learning — which happened to be Walker-Papke’s specialty. Since then, Walker-Papke has enthusiastically sought out and shared new ideas for helping SAU students, traditional and nontraditional, with technology and research.

Last year was no exception, as she presented at two academic conferences. In May, at the Michigan Library Association Conference, Walker-Papke delivered a poster presentation, entitled “Distance Outreach Within the Course Management System,” on her collaboration with Professor of Communication Dr. Robert Woods in embedding library research into one of his graduate courses. In August, after receiving the SAU Faculty Scholarship Grant, Walker-Papke gave another poster presentation at the Distance Teaching & Learning Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Her presentation, “Chatting it Up: Supporting Students Near & Far at Their Point of Need,” covered SAU’s integration of online chat services connecting students and librarians.

“What’s really neat is that I get an opportunity to interact with all kinds of different disciplines of thought — it’s one of the things I love about librarianship. We love to share information, and we love to learn from other people,” she says.