The Embedded Science Librarian: Partner in Curriculum Design and Delivery

ABSTRACT Information literacy is essential for success in undergraduate science programs, but teaching faculty are generally ill-prepared or unwilling to provide intentional support in their courses. Librarians are uniquely qualified to help. In this article, the author presents one example of a faculty–librarian collaboration in which the science librarian is embedded in a first-year, undergraduate course in nanoscience, both as a codesigner of the curriculum and a member of the teaching team. She traces her progress from new appointee to faculty partner, and describes the unique, electronic-journal project they designed to promote the development of information and academic literacies. KEYWORDS: assessment rubricscurriculum designelectronic journal publishingfaculty–librarian collaborationinformation literacylearning commonsundergraduate science studentswriting ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The electronic journal project developed for the University of Guelph's first-year undergraduate nanoscience course has been a truly collaborative venture and would not have succeeded without the contributions of many specialists from across campus. The author would like to thank the following people, in particular, for their unwavering support and assistance: Dean Tony Vannelli, College of Physical and Engineering Science; science specialists Dan Thomas (associate professor of chemistry, associate dean academic, College of Physical and Engineering Science), Detong Jiang (assistant professor, Department of Physics), John Dutcher (professor, Department of Physics), and Paul Rowntree (professor, Department of Chemistry); information specialist Wayne Johnston (head, Research Enterprise and Scholarly Communications, University Library); Writing Services specialists Barbara Christian (manager, Writing Services), Margaret Hundleby (science-writing consultant), and Elizabeth Murison (science-writing specialist); Learn- ing Services specialist Dale Lackeyram (science learning specialist); teaching and curriculum-development specialists Peter Wolf (associate director, Teaching Support Services [TSS]), Mary Wilson (curriculum-development associate, TSS), and Nancy Schmidt (director, Learning and Pedagogy Initiatives, Office of the Associate Vice-President [Academic]). Finally, the author is grateful to Daniel Thomas, Janet Kaufman, Margaret Hundleby, Andrew Kropinski, Nancy Schmidt and Helen Salmon (associate chief librarian, Learning & Collections) for their careful and critical reading of this manuscript, insightful comments and helpful suggestions. Special thanks go to Helen and Nancy for sharing so much of their time and expertise. Notes 1. http://www.uoguelph.ca. 2. Available online at http://www.uoguelph.ca/registrar/calendars/undergraduate/current/c02/c02-learningobjectives.shtml. 3. http://www.nano.uoguelph.ca. 4. The organizational renewal document is available online at: http://www.lib.uoguelph.calabout/components/documents/organizational_renewal_2009.pdf. 5. Library associates are support staff who have earned undergraduate degrees but do not have LIS credentials. 6. The Canadian National Centre for Supplemental Instruction (SI) Programs http://www.siprograms.ca/ is located at the University of Guelph: http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/assistance/supported_learning_groups. 7. http://www.academicintegrity.uoguelph.ca. 8. See Schmidt & Kaufman (2007, pp. 248–249) for details. 9. The successes of the author as an award-winning university lecturer, and the learning specialists as leaders and innovators in Supplemental Instruction (see Note 6), were evidence of what the team could achieve. 10. http://www.tss.uoguelph.ca/cdinst/index.cfm. 11. Topics may fall under one of three main areas: (1) a fundamental aspect of nanoscience, (2) an aspect of future possibilities, or (3) a nanoscience issue in the news. 12. http://davinci.lib.uoguelph.ca. da Vinci's Notebook can also be linked to through the University of Guelph's electronic journal page: http://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php. 13. "Open Journal Systems (OJS) is a journal management and publishing system that has been developed by the Public Knowledge Project through its federally funded efforts to expand and improve access to research." http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q = ojs. 14. http://pkp.sfu.ca. 15. See Acknowledgements. 16. These rubrics were developed by the author and her faculty colleague (D. Thomas), in consultation with their Learning Commons colleagues. Inspiration was also drawn from the free rubric databases maintained by iRubric, http://www.rcampus.com/indexrubric; and Rubistar, http://www.rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php 17. Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph (SURG) is a refereed, multidisciplinary electronic journal that publishes research articles by University of Guelph undergraduate students. Available at http://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/surg. 18. "Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal is a professional-level, refereed, electronic journal that publishes scholarly research articles by Columbia University undergraduate students." Available at http://cusj.columbia.edu/cusj/.

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