Sharing the passion for Information Literacy and lifelong learning: Partnerships between school and tertiary libraries

Abstract

The University of Tasmania (UTAS) has an Information Literacy policy that acknowledges leadership from the library and a shared responsibility for developing students’ Information Literacy between the Library, the UTAS Centre for Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) and the Faculties. Librarians collaborate with academics from faculties and CALT to embed Information Literacy into the students’ learning. While embedded programs have been implemented in units and courses across all faculties, we are still not reaching all students. To assist this collaboration to produce information literate students, the Library is developing a framework of learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment exemplars as well as an online learning resource that can be contextualised to specific disciplines. The Framework is based on a continuum of Information Literacy learning outcomes from first grade to graduation, developed by Adelaide University academics, John Willison and Kerry O’Regan. While the framework aims primarily to support current UTAS students’ skills, we also aim to use the framework to work with senior secondary schools to introduce students to the University environment and ease the transition between senior secondary to University. The paper presents the framework and our progress with its implementation and uses this groundwork to explore with conference participants how the framework can be a basis for partnerships between schools and tertiary libraries for the benefit of our students.