Collaboration is more than just a nice idea; it is essential to developing a comprehensive strategy for measuring student learning outcomes and for assessing and improving information literacy efforts. Framed in a highly practical context, Collaborative Information Literacy Assessments, to be published by Neal-Schuman on January 15, 2010, explores proven, effective methods to help faculty and librarians form closely-aligned partnerships and develop innovative and effective strategies for assessing information literacy in higher education.

Co-editors Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson are educators whose previous works include Information Literacy Collaborations That Work (2007) and Using Technology to Teach Information Literacy (2008). They divide this collection into three parts, featuring chapters written by eight faculty-librarian teams that successfully worked together to develop assessment strategies. Part I: Business focuses on information literacy within the business and finance fields. The first chapter presents a model that is based on citation analysis as a way to evaluate and improve information literacy, and the second offers a holistic approach to embedding information literacy in an undergraduate business program. Part II: Social Science and Education includes three chapters in which author teams examine an integrated library component, collaborative curriculum interventions, and online assessment strategies. Part III: Humanities introduces three chapters that examine assessment endeavors using a self-assessment approach for writing courses, a holistic assessment in a writing program, and an assessment model in the core curriculum. In their preface, Mackey and Jacobson note that the best practices they’ve chosen “are portable to disciplinary perspectives and institutional contexts” beyond the ones highlighted in their book.

Each chapter includes a detailed literature review, a model for practical implementation, a discussion of the partnership process, and an examination of assessment data. The teams also share guidance for overcoming a variety of collaborative obstacles and challenges, and report on how their assessment process significantly improved student learning outcomes.

Mackey and Jacobson provide section introductions that summarize each chapter and recommend how to apply the assessments in different arenas. There are tables and figures throughout the book to help reinforce the practical implementation of each model. And if readers wish to email the contributors with follow-up questions, the contact information is right here.

Through a clear and practical set of proven, real-life strategies, Collaborative Information Literacy Assessments will help librarians and faculty form effective partnerships to initiate or improve their own information literacy efforts.

Collaborative Information Literacy Assessments
ISBN: 978-1-55570-693-7. 2010. 6 x 9. 270pp. $85.00.

About the Co-editors
Thomas P. Mackey, Ph.D., is the Associate Dean at the Center for Distance Learning at Empire State College, SUNY in Saratoga Springs, New York. He has published articles in such journals as Computers & Education, The Journal of General Education, College Teaching, The Journal of Information Science, and The Journal of Education for Library and Information Science.
Trudi E. Jacobson, M.L.S., is the Head of User Education Programs at the University at Albany, SUNY. She coordinates and teaches in the undergraduate Information Literacy course program. She has published articles in a number of journals, including The Journal of General Education, College & Research Libraries, portal, Journal of Academic Librarianship, Research Strategies, College Teaching, and The Teaching Professor. She is the editor of Public Services Quarterly.

About Neal-Schuman Publishers
Neal-Schuman Publishers is a leading publisher of professional books for librarians, archivists and knowledge managers. Founded in 1976, Neal-Schuman Publishers is based in New York City, with offices in London, UK.

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