Successful information literacy through librarian-lecturer collaboration

Abstract

This study supports the need for information literacy training for first year or new incoming Community and Health Science (CHS) students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and describes the use of a collaborative framework for integrating information literacy into the undergraduate students' curriculum and for assessing the results. The Collaborative Information Literacy Model (CILM) provided the guidelines for a more structured and fuller collaboration between the librarian and the lecturer responsible for the first year Physiotherapy students. The collaborative partnership employed strategies to teach information literacy competencies which were significantly more satisfactory with the students' abilities to successfully complete a research term paper. The process of integration began with developing learning outcomes, an information literacy program, exercises and an assessment instrument for evaluating student performance. Also emphasized is the on-going exchange of expertise between the librarian and the lecturer to enhance library-related components in the design of the program.