Library Collaborations and the Transfer Student Environment

Partnerships between public colleges and universities are a cornerstone of the U.S. higher education environment. Community colleges play a pivotal role in expanding access to higher education, and both college and university institutions serve a variety of populations, including nontraditional students. Many of these students rely on transfer partnerships to continue their academic journey between college and university settings. However, the transition between institutions can be fraught with challenges, including academic adjustment and gaps in academic preparedness. One such gap is in information literacy (IL), a competency essential for academic success, which is not consistently addressed across academic institutions. Librarians are charged with supporting IL development, though their efforts are often based solely on their own institutions and lack coordination between sending and receiving institutions. This paper explores the policy environment and nature of IL instruction for transfer students, focusing on the potential for collaborative instructional relationships between college and university library environments. A case study examining the relationship between A COLLEGE and A UNIVERSITY indicates that informal networks among librarians may be facilitating some IL collaboration. The work highlights the need for more structured collaboration to ensure transfer students receive scaffolded IL instruction and concludes with recommendations for strengthening institutional librarian partnerships.