Collaborate to Innovate: New Methods to Advance an Information Literacy Program

In a large university, it can be difficult to effectively market library instruction to students and faculty. The traditional subject liaison model provides a foundation for developing instruction opportunities, but innovative approaches can be employed outside this model. This presentation will highlight an emerging partnership between one library’s Circulation and Teaching & Engagement departments to push the boundaries of what is possible for our library. The department heads for each department took on their roles within the last three years, and have worked with the User Engagement Librarian to start identifying opportunities to host events. The first successful series was a Color Away Your Stress event held initially during the fall 2015 semester exam period. This event covertly informed students about library services by featuring custom librarian paper dolls for several subject liaisons. Making students comfortable in the library space is a foundation of our library’s instruction program. Events like this one, and several poetry related events give students a safe space to express themselves. This helps build empathy, and results in more positive interactions at all service points. Presenters will share their experience with the entire process of running an event from idea generation through evaluation. We will openly share our failures and successes, lessons learned, and future planning. The culture of our library is slowly being changed by these efforts to a more welcoming, safe, and inclusive space. This culture shift, and the events themselves, have had a positive impact on our instruction program overall