1. Creating, developing and
documenting information literacy
partnerships
Clare McCluskey
Academic Support Librarian
York St John University
c.mccluskey@yorksj.ac.uk
@librarygirl79

2. Partnerships?
• Idea of communities of practice
• Main theorist: Wenger

3. Themes from the literature
• Promotion of library services, rather than
partnerships – ‘we know best’
• Accounts of embedding info skills in
curriculum – but how to reach that point?
• Importance of gaining views from faculty

4. Action research
• Investigate own practice
• Focus on the ‘I’
• Many approaches, e.g. McNiff, Whitehead

5. How have I used it?
• Interviews with faculty members on my role
• Recordings of faculty research meetings

6. Over to you
• Think about where you would like to
build/develop partnerships
• What will you do to facilitate this?
• How will you measure the effects?
• How will you disseminate the findings?

7. References
• McCluskey, C. (2011) Creating information literacy partnerships in Higher
Education. Library and information research, 35(111), pp. 59-72.
• McNiff, J. (2010) Action research for professional development. Poole,
September Books.
• Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of practice: learning meaning and identity.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Whitehead, J. (1989) Creating a living educational theory from questions of the
kind, “How do I improve my practice?”. Cambridge journal of education, 19(1),
pp. 137-153.

8. Work of workshop participants

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19. Thank you
Thanks to all workshop participants for engaging
with me.
Please contact me to discuss any ideas further.