Working together with other professionals to improve students’ academic skills

There is a growing trend amongst UK universities to situate learning development services within libraries and learning resource centres.

This development acknowledges the holistic nature of developing students’ academic skills. Searching for high quality sources of information sits alongside effective reading and note taking skills; students writing at university need to understand referencing and plagiarism and the conventions which underpin academic practice.

Librarians as information literacy specialists are often closely associated with their schools and faculties and have a good understanding of the curriculum needs of their associated disciplines, yet may feel they do not have all the necessary skills and knowledge to teach a broader range of academic skills.

Here at the University of Leeds the library, learning development service and staff development service joined together to launch LibTeach, an innovative staff development programme aimed at encouraging librarians to think of themselves as teachers rather than trainers and through this to become more comfortable with the concept of delivering a broader range of academic skills to students.

Further recognition of changing professional practice is resulting in a closer working relationships between the professional bodies associated with information literacy and learning development specialist. The Association of Learning Developers in Higher Education (ALDinHE) is holding a cpd event on Friday January 14th 2011 at the University of Leeds, where one of the workshops will provide more information about LibTeach and its accreditation for Associateship of the Higher Education Academy.

If you would like to find out more about the ALDinHE cpd event, the other workshops that are taking place and to book a place at this FREE event please visit their website at  http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/leeds0111.htm

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