An academic library's instruction program reflects and communicates its vision for teaching and learning within the context of its institution, and the instruction coordinator plays an essential role in shaping and advancing this vision. Instruction coordinators and directors in academic libraries may have a variety of titles and wear an entire wardrobe's worth of hats, but they face many of the same challenges in developing, promoting, and evaluating their instruction programs. This book approaches using the instruction program as the catalyst to further the library's agenda for teaching and learning and gives instruction program directors a set of resources that will help them map out, enact, and assess the impact of this agenda. This book is ideal for librarians and administrators who direct, coordinate, or lead an academic library's teaching and learning program and is particularly useful for new instruction program coordinators--either those new to their position or new to their institution.
Melissa Mallon is the Director of the Peabody Education Library at Vanderbilt University, and Director of Teaching and Learning for the Vanderbilt Libraries, which includes planning and directing system-wide involvement in campus teaching and learning initiatives including strategies for the development of information literacy instruction, library involvement in assessment of student learning, and training and mentoring of library staff. Melissa received her MLIS from Louisiana State University. Before joining Vanderbilt in 2015, Melissa was a faculty member and instruction coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown and Wichita State University. Melissa has published, presented, and taught professional development courses in the areas of digital and information literacies, online learning, the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, and creative use of emerging technologies in assessing student learning. Melissa's previous books include The Pivotal Role of Academic Librarians in Digital Learning (Libraries Unlimited, 2017), and co-edited a book titled The Grounded Instruction Librarian: Participating in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ACRL, 2019).
Melissa Mallon's book examines an instruction program as a whole and explores issues librarians face while leading instruction programs. It addresses a gap in the scholarly literature on coordinating library instruction programs and is a must-read for librarians who direct instruction programs. I wish that Partners in Teaching and Learning had been published during the time that I served as Coordinator of Library Instruction. It would have made my life a lot easier! -- Camille McCutcheon, Coordinator for Administrative Services and Collection Development, University of South Carolina Upstate 'The goal of this book is to provide a roadmap for the successful development and maintenance of a library's teaching and learning program.' The author recognizes the need to take institutional context into account, so is careful to identify a range of alternatives rather than prescribe a particular approach. As noted in the Conclusion: 'While an instruction program can take many different shapes and sizes (from formal to informal and from small to large), it is a crucial and necessary component for positioning the library as a comprehensive and integral leader of teaching and learning on campus.' The Appendix 'An Instruction Coordinator's Bookshelf ' provides helpful guidance for further study of library instruction, teaching and learning beyond libraries, and keeping up with higher education. The book should be useful to instruction coordinators seeking to enhance their effectiveness in various facets of their role (e.g., creating a culture of teaching and learning in the library, advocating for an instruction program, assessing an instruction program) as well as helping to better equip those who aspire to fill such roles in the future. -- Linda C. Smith, Professor Emerita, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois
