A Faculty–Librarian Partnership: A Unique Opportunity for Course Integration

ABSTRACT

Librarians at the University of California, Berkeley have created a partnership with faculty in the teaching of a special course, “Introduction to Environmental Studies.” This class is interdisciplinary in nature, covering science and the humanities, and has offered a unique opportunity for library staff to develop a special program incorporating the teaching of analytical skills along with research skills for specific subject areas. The continuous collaboration with faculty and the challenges of working with students with very varied backgrounds and interests are the main points of discussion in this article.

KEYWORDS:

• collaboration
• course-related instruction
• embedded librarian
• environmental studies

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Since we began this collaboration with the faculty, various members of the Berkeley Library staff participated in the lectures, and I want to acknowledge their efforts.

Smadar Izhaky, who was at the Bioscience and Natural Resources Library at the time we began this class, was instrumental in creating the slides and the library lectures, as well as participating in the instruction sessions. She is currently an information specialist at the Research Institute for Health and Medical Professions, at Ono Academic College in Israel.

Michaelyn Burnette, humanities librarian at the University of California, Berkeley, and Sarah McDaniel, who is now at the University of Wisconsin, assisted with the humanities and literature components of the lectures.

Susan Garbarino, the Librarian at the Giannini Foundation Library of Agricultural Economics, and Isabel Stirling, the Associate University Librarian and Director, Public Services at Berkeley, also gave several sessions, covering some of the key electronic resources in the humanities and social sciences.

Heather Thams, on the staff of the Marian Koshland Bioscience and Natural Resources Library, has been invaluable in creating the course guide and materials used in the actual demonstrations, in addition to coordinating the sessions with me and corresponding with the students about their e-mail exercises.

Notes

1. The current course guide, which has live links, is the equivalent of the handout that we use (see Appendix C).