It’s great to be introducing this project and the wonderful team working together on it.
University communities are increasingly regarding their students as ‘partners’, able to contribute valuable skills and expertise that can shape and improve the student experience across a range of areas. Lying at the heart of the University experience, academic libraries in particular are well suited to a ‘Students as Partners’ approach, with their long history of collaboration and engagement (Salisbury and Dollinger, 2020).
The project will generate knowledge and develop practical resources to support good practice in developing Students as Partners projects in academic libraries.
Project objectives
The three main objectives of the group are to:
1. Develop an understanding of, and report on, current practice related to students as partners in academic libraries in Australia and New Zealand, and internationally.
2. Develop an evidence based toolkit to support CAUL member institutions to engage with students as partners.
3. Model a Students as Partners approach by collaborating with students on the development of the toolkit.
The project has clear and tangible benefits for academic libraries. It will create opportunities to share ideas and experiences about Students as Partners and provide access to a valuable toolkit designed to support good practice in their institutions.
Access the project brief (pdf) here.
Please do our Students as Partners survey – everyone working in an academic library is invited to participate!
Our team
The project team, led by Dr. Mollie Dollinger (Deakin University), includes Danielle Ambriano (University of Technology, Sydney), Kerry Bedford (Australian Catholic University), Kate Conway (Curtin University), Vanessa Crosby (University of New South Wales), Daniel Hamilton (University of Technology, Sydney), Imogen Harris-McNeill (University of Newcastle), Trent Hennessey (University of Melbourne), Paul McKenna (Deakin University), Karen Miller (Curtin University), Wendy Ratcliffe (La Trobe University), and Susan Vickery (Macquarie University).
We’re all excited to be part of this project, and hope you will take a few minutes to watch the video below, in which we share some thoughts about the project and what we hope to achieve.
Reference
Fiona Salisbury, Mollie Dollinger & Jessica Vanderlelie (2020) Students as Partners in the Academic Library: Co-Designing for Transformation, New Review of Academic Librarianship, 26:2-4, 304-321, DOI: 10.1080/13614533.2020.1780275