For school and academic librarians, learning how to partner with teachers and professors to bring the full potential of the library into a learning experience, is one of the most important skills you will ever learn. It will determine your role in the teaching and learning process. It will determine what other people think about your value in the institution. Success in partnering / collaboration may be a major factor in whether you will have a “professional” position in the future.

For public librarians, you will have the opportunity to develop teaching programs for patrons on a wide variety of topics. Some I have seen include:
Reading to your unborn child
Reading to your preschool child
Teen workshop on term papers
How to get a job seminar
Storytelling workshop

Many people feel that the Internet or some other automated information system is all that is needed by any teacher or student. The collaborative philosophy assumes that people do not always succeed in designing, carrying out, and evaluating learning experience &emdash; that a person who knows learning theory, knows materials, understands information systems and technology, and is a good teacher, can and should have a valuable role between teacher/student and the information system.

The presumption is that no matter how skilled a teacher or student is, a human interface, a second teacher, an idea resource person, can and should be a valuable ally.

Steps in learning the collaborative role.

1. Learn how to create a peer relationship with a client.
- from consultant to full collaboration

2. Understand a wide range of possible interventions you could make in teaching and learning:
- in the instructional design process
- in the information literacy process
- in behaviorist model teaching style
- in constructivist model teaching style
- in any type of student learning style

3. Learn how to behave positively during the collaborative process (i.e, if you expect to have clients in the future).

4. Understand how to balance the work load between you and the client.

5. Do a good job, whatever the part you have to play. No one likes to work with a dud.

6. Know how to clear hurdles that students and teachers face in the organization during a collaborative experience:
- access to materials and space
- making sure technology works
- being available at the right times and in the right place
- correcting organizational problems that arise
- helping students and teachers feel important and positive throughout the experience


7. Building a repertoire of successful interventions over time.
- handling individuals with a wide variety of teaching and learning styles
- working with groups vs. individuals to spread your influence
- using the train, release, train release model

8. Evaluating your contribution to the teaching and learning process
- keeping a collaboration log
- measuring the learning
- doing locally-based research (before/after studies)