Collaboration

Collaborating with Teaching Faculty

Collaboration between teaching 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.

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.

More Resources
Bibliography on Collaboration
Advocating for Information Literacy

K-16 Collaboration

K16 collaboration is an initiative that has been growing throughout all levels of education since the 1990s . Various educational sectors, including libraries, are creating partnerships to ensure that students have the preparation they need to succeed in college.

Examples of K-16 Collaboration:

The AASL/ACRL Joint Committee on Information Literacy nationally fosters discussion on shared information literacy issues and initiatives for K-12 and academic librarians.

The Rochester Regional Library Consortium (RRLC) has developed K-16 programmatic materials, including the Core Library Skills, 9-14+ outline--the sequential information literacy skills to be used as a guideline for library instruction.

ILILE, the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education is an IMLS-funded project focusing on local, state and national advocacy for fostering K-16 partnerships between school, academic and public librarians.  ILILE provides grant funding for K-16 projects, academic content standards checklists, a toolkit to assist parents in advocating for information literacy and school libraries, and TRAILS, an information literacy assessment tool, based on sixth and ninth grade information literacy standards.

LILi: LifeLong Information Literacy is a California collaborative (initiated by UCLA) focused on investigating state-wide information literacy standards and practices throughout public, school, academic and special libraries.

CLOC, an Athens, Georgia-based collective of school, academic and public librarians provides periodic workshops and resources to area librarians. 

Founded in 2004, the Central Pennsylvania K-16 Information Literacy Network connects area librarians in support of information literacy collaboration and discussion.  In addition to yearly workshops, the Network features a comprehensive web site and email discussion list, which serves as a forum for sharing ideas between different types of libraries.