The Joint Higher Education Library of Lahti: Confluencing for Academic Knowledge – Supporting the Study Paths from Upper Secondary School to University

The Joint Higher Education Library of Lahti: Confluencing for Academic Knowledge – Supporting the Study Paths from Upper Secondary School to University

Promoting the development of pre-academic information literacy skills of the so-called Google Generation, and especially among the upper secondary school students, is one of the current topics of discussion in the field of media and information literacy. The Joint Higher Education Library in Lahti, Finland has taken several steps to meet these demands by collaborating with the region’s educational institutions of vocational, upper secondary and university levels. This paper discusses these issues and presents our approach to supporting and promoting knowledge creation, pre-academic information literacy skills and lifelong learning. As a joint library we are in a unique position to offer our users local access to the licensed digital resources of three universities; therefore the focus of our services has shifted into teaching and guiding users in both the use of these collections and in information literacy. To further promote especially the development of pre-academic skills, we have recently teamed up with Lahti’s Kannas Upper Secondary School’s new IB-programme which, with its critical, innovative and scientific focus, is an excellent starting point for learning the information literacy skills needed in later academic studies. As one part of this collaboration, we are planning to launch a new initiative to create a futuristic and mobile Information Skills Clinic. The aim is to develop new methods for teaching pre-academic information and media skills by using serious gaming and participatory design. As part of their studies, the students themselves will participate as developers and testers of this new service. The Skills Clinic will go mobile for example in LINKKU, a multiservice smart bus that also serves as a modern learning environment, making IL guidance and access to library’s digital resources available also to the region’s more remote upper secondary schools.