Information Literacy Models | Library Policies

The IL literature indicates that there are two main Information Literacy models, the Liaison Model/ Campus Librarian Model, and the Team-Based Model.

Liaison Model - The liaison model is a commonly used organizational structure of designating individual library staff as the primary contact for specific departments or programmes. This model is currently being used at the Faculty of Engineering and Busitema University at large. A variety of terms including library liaison, subject librarian, Campus Librarian, and subject specialist all refer to this concept (Tennant et al., 2006). The goal of the liaison model is to provide a key point of contact that will manage the collection and services within their assigned area (Livingston, 2002). Whatley (2002) identifies three main components of the liaison role: reference services, instructional services, and collection development. The Library Liaison Model, called Campus Librarian at Busitema University, provides an opportunity to grow and develop relationships with the faculty, lecturers, students, and departments and to build a strong understanding of the curriculum and resources for assigned courses.

Team-Based Model - A team-based model places each staff member within a group in which their skills are focused and service is delivered in a collaborative format. In this model, a team of librarians and lecturers “design and deliver a range of supplemental, integrated and embedded services” (University of Guelph, 2012, para. 6). A separate team delivers services related to collection development. Shifting to a team-based model is often described as being motivated by budget, a desire to increase productivity, and to increase flexibility (Andrade & Zaghloul, 2010). For engineering students, the change to a team-based model appears to have little effect as long as they continue to receive consistent service and their needs are being met.

Embedded Librarianship model - Embedded librarianship provides another method of delivering IL instruction to students whereby library instructional staff are ‘embedded’ in the various places, virtually and physically, where users can best access them as a resource. The library literature provides a wide range of levels of ‘embeddedness.’ For example, Williams (2012) describes the four main ways in which library staff might become embedded:

In online classes
Through co-teaching a course
Physically in other locations (outside of the library)
Within a Teaching/ Learning Centre on campus

Becoming embedded allows library staff to move out of their traditional space within the library. By taking the library staff out of the library, they are then able to move from their supportive role into a more collaborative partnership with lecturers and students (Carlson and Kneale, 2011, 167). The embedded model can be applied through a variety of methods as suggested above. Tasks of the embedded library staff person typically include providing both reference and other research services (Clyde and Lee, 2011). By providing these services outside of the traditional library environment, library staff is able to reach additional engineering students and provide service at the point of need.

Following a review of our own model and considering the advantages of a Team-Based Model, the curriculum review committee's decision is to continue with our current model for at least three years of implementing the new curriculum (2022/2025). Continuous studies will be conducted to gather evidence to ensure that we are meeting the needs of the engineering students with this model and the role of the Engineering Campus Librarian as a library staff position has become well established and successful.