Teaching skills for teaching librarians: Postcards from the edge of the educational paradigm

Abstract

Greater emphasis on core or generic skills is generating sweeping reforms across tertiary curricula, and academics now face the challenge of developing in students complex concepts and skills of which they themselves may possess limited awareness, understanding or ability. This shift in focus demands that the academic must seek out comprehensive, specialised guidance from support areas such as libraries. In response, librarians must be positioned as key educators in the teaching and learning environments of the future. They require new and refined skills and conceptual understandings which will enable them to perform with an educational competence and professional confidence equal to that of their academic peers. The skills required to enable the 'librarian-teacher' metamorphosis to occur must be explored in terms of potential development and sustainability. Evolving roles and responsibilities, changing expectations and customised staff development present implications for librarians and library managers and barriers to success require closer examination. The experiences and outcomes of a recent staff development initiative undertaken by QUT Library further demonstrate practical ways in which to address this issue.