Mara Bordignon, Seneca College

How are teaching librarians transforming the role libraries play in higher education?  As the nature of information has changed with the Internet and social media, librarians have taken on a more prevalent role as guide rather than gatekeeper.

Teaching Information literacy has traditionally been at the core of library teaching programs.  In response to a changing information landscape, and hence changing needs and abilities of students, Information literacy skills need to adapt and change.  New ideas such as transliteracy and threshold concepts are redefining these skills so that they are more meaningful and relevant to students.  Our teaching approach and technique also needs to evolve to include more educational pedagogy and practice. Our approach should be more student-centered as opposed to resource-centered … we need to place the student at the centre, not the library. Student-centered learning can be employed through techniques such as problem based learning.  Applying these new ideas and techniques can make retention and uptake of information literacy skills more successful. My session will be an exploration of theory coupled with real-life examples used in the classroom.