Collaboration

Collaborating with Faculty

Collaboration between faculty and librarians is fundamental to information literacy.

• Collaboration is based on shared goals, a shared vision, and a climate of trust and respect. Each partner brings different strengths and perspectives to the relationship.
• The teacher brings an understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, attitudes and interests of the students, and of the content to be taught.
• The librarian adds a thorough knowledge of information skills and methods to integrate them into the course, pedagogical knowledge for teaching these skills and an understanding of student’s frustration with the research process.

Successful collaboration requires carefully defined roles, comprehensive planning and shared leadership.

Selected examples:

Portland State University
Creating Faculty/Librarian Connections: Collaborating for Information Literacy Collaborating for Student Success A project of the Office of Academic Affairs and the Branford P. Millar Library. Funded through the "Enhancing Faculty Vitality while Increasing Student Learning" campus-wide initiative.

University of Washington
One of the most well-know examples of collaboration is the program called UWired.

California State University, Fullerton
The faculty in numerous departments and librarians at this campus are collaborating to integrate IL into specific core courses in their majors.

Florida International University
The information literacy program is very developed. It includes mission statement, goals, outcomes and includes seven sequenced library class sessions linked to courses in the core curriculum.

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
This campus has developed instructional teams that are led by a teaching faculty member working with a librarian, a technologist, a counselor and a student mentor. Together they prepare and/or revise courses.

University of Iowa
TWIST (Teaching With Innovative Style and Technology) is a program pairing librarians and faculty members from various departments. Collaboratively they develop web-based projects. The “Twisted Pairs” page lists examples of these projects.

More Resources

Bibliography on Collaboration

General Advocacy for Information Literacy

How to Build Librarian/Instructional Faculty Collaborative Partnerships
A poster session from the 1997 ALA Annual Conference.

Collaborating with Librarians

Librarians are specially suited to collaboration geared toward improving student learning. They have a different angle on the student perspective. The role of the librarian within higher education has changed significantly. Their expertise can help modernize classroom practice to make it more fitting to the new learner.

Ask a librarian to review an assignment for possible barriers for students.

Review the library web page for librarian-developed research guides.

Ask the librarian for a list of new resources in your subject area.

Many librarians would enjoy working with you and your students to help them improve their research skills and their knowledge of library resources.

The library webpage may have a special section on information literacy and the library services in support of classroom instruction.