Abstract
This presentation will explore the cross-skilling program that we implemented to enable our frontline librarians to transform into teaching librarians, at King's College London. This session is for delegates who are curious about – or who might be themselves approaching – that space between the traditional desk-bound librarian and the teaching librarian, as we will cover our successes and challenges illustrated by examples of the activities and methods we used. We will discuss how we taught key knowledge such as pedagogical theory, literature searching, and inclusive teaching practice. Additionally, ‘the teaching librarian works with students as coach, guide and mentor’ (ACRL, 2017), hence we’ll cover ways in which we supported fundamental ‘soft skill’ development like exploratory questioning, setting boundaries and expectations, and assessing for learning.
Background context:
Between 2018-2020, the Libraries & Collections division at King’s College London underwent a restructure. From within the new set-up, the Learning Design & Delivery team (LDD) launched two brand new offerings for King's students and NHS partners: workshops and 1-to-1s. These focussed on help with literature searching, systematic reviews, and critical appraisal of healthcare research. In order to deliver this new in-depth teaching, 25 senior library assistants (SLAs) from the Frontline team moved permanently into the LDD team. Most had zero experience or qualifications in education, and had never expected to work in a primarily teaching-focussed role.
Our aim was to develop teaching librarians who were not only capable of teaching the standard IL skills and knowledge, but who were also invested in their new responsibility to foster appreciation of information literacy. Developing their roles as advocates was important; Wheeler and McKinney (2015) discuss how librarians need to be able to prove our own proficiency in the field of teaching and learning, especially in the field of IL that remains widely misunderstood by mainstream teachers. Constructing a new professional identity was also important: Polger (2024) and Nichols Hess (2020) both explore the development of the academic librarian’s identity as a teacher, emphasising the importance of gaining that instructional experience, i.e, learning on the job, as literature suggests that formal education opportunities for the librarian-as-instructor are thin on the ground.
Now:
Six years after launching the 1-to-1s service in particular, we are proud of its success and popularity. Evidence of this can be found in the consistently glowing feedback from service users: e.g., "outstanding assistance", "supportive and made things understandable", "great coaching", "passionate about teaching", "extremely good at presenting information in a palatable way for neurodivergent people" (taken from student feedback gathered between 2019-2025). Our SLAs have harnessed the challenges and thrived professionally. We recorded their reflections in the early training days: fears and concerns such as "how will my lack of experience impact on their learning?", moving through the stages of "I’m gaining confidence with each session (…) especially when you see the benefit it has for the learner", and up to the current day where we have SLAs who are proactively seeking to co-design workshops on genAI and racism in healthcare, and organising critical appraisal journal clubs for their peers.
References
Wheeler, E and McKinney, P. (2015). ‘Are Librarians Teachers? Investigating academic librarians’ perceptions of their own teaching roles’, Journal of Information Literacy, 9(2), pp 111-128. Available at - https://journals.cilip.org.uk/jil/article/view/265. (Accessed: 20/10/25)
Nichols Hess, A. (2020). ‘Academic Librarians’ Teaching Identities and Work Experiences: Exploring Relationships to Support Perspective Transformation in Information Literacy Instruction’, Journal of Library Administration, 60(4), pp 331-353. Available at - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01930826.2020.1721939?needAccess=true (Accessed: 5/11/25)
Polger, M. A. 2024. ‘The Information Literacy Class as Theatrical Performance: Librarians’ Understanding of Their Teacher Identity’, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 65(2), pp 137-162. Available at – https://utpjournals.press/DOI/pdf/10.3138/jelis-2023-0009 (Accessed: 10/11/25)
Association of College and Research Libraries [ACRL]. (2017) Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians. Available at: https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/teachinglibrarians (Accessed: 1/11/25).
