Janice Scammell

Janice is the Instruction Librarian at Carleton University, a position she has held since 1995. She has been actively involved with Information Literacy and a WILU attendee since 1997. As Chair of the 2001 WILU (Teaching, Using and Learning in a Pluralist Setting) hosted by Carleton, she helped to promote the expansion of WILU across Canada. She works closely with faculty to build successful academic partnerships on campus within programs such as First Year Seminars, an ArtsOne linked course endeavour and an Enriched Support program for students in Arts and Social Sciences. She is currently engaged in developing liaisons within the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education with Flavia Renon, Instruction Librarian and former high school teacher/librarian.

Flavia Renon - B.Sc, BA, B. Ed. (Ottawa), MLIS (UWO)

Flavia Renon taught high school for over 10 years before joining the Carleton University Library staff in 2003 as an Instruction Librarian. In 1994, Flavia helped set up the Carleton University Library's partnership programme with high schools in the Ottawa area. Flavia is now working with faculty using technology and a team approach to teach information literacy skills to large classes.

Library/High School Liaison: Partnerships, Programs and Information Literacy

Janice Scammell and Flavia Renon, Carleton University

session 2d / Thursday, May 11 / 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Academic library liaisons with high schools can help to enhance and extend information literacy skills of senior high school students and provide support for the transition from high school to college and university. Presenting the example of Carleton University Library (Ottawa, Ontario) the benefits of and strategies for partnerships with area high schools are highlighted.

Find out how one academic library has turned random high school requests for library orientations into an organized information literacy program that supports 24 University High School partners and more! Beginning in 1994 with a meeting of 8 teacher-librarians and 12 Partners in Education high schools our program has evolved to providing support for 24 schools through close to 25 class visits a year. Subsequent meetings in 1998 and 2002, the last with 26 teacher-librarians attending have shared our concerns and interest in information literacy issues. These meetings have provided an opportunity to review the resources available in or through school libraries and to explore ways to mediate the transition from high school to university. These gatherings have helped us to develop and revise our guidelines for class visits, outlining what is expected from visiting students and what our program offers. We, for example expect that students will be prepared with specific research t opics and have formulated basic research questions. Our program will then offer an orientation to the Library, a review of keyword searching of the online catalogue and an introduction to general reference resources. Special emphasis is given to finding journal articles through planned exercises.

The success of our program and its continued growth and evolution highlight the benefits of a proactive program that encourages partnerships based on regular consultation, co-operation and co-ordination. In 1994 teacher-librarians were expected to conduct their own class visits based on a collection of library guides and tip sheets. In 2005, academic librarians work side by side with high school teachers and teacher-librarians in the classroom to provide training and subject support. In 2015 the setting may again change, with technology, to reflect another context for research support and collaboration.