Supporting Scholarship: Reshaping a Vocational Educational Library for Higher Education

Abstract

This research explores library support of the scholarship and research needs of Higher Education (HE) lecturers in a Victorian TAFE (vocational college). Its purpose is to investigate how vocational libraries, now supporting HE delivery, can better provide information resources and services for the scholarly information needs of HE lecturers. The study is an exploratory case study approach for William Angliss Institute library that draws on the related literature on HE and vocational libraries, as well as from qualitative semi-structured interviews with librarians from Victorian TAFE institutes that deliver their own HE qualifications. The term scholarly can be defined in an information context, with the library having a role in supporting the scholarly information behaviour of lecturers. The study shows that TAFE libraries support the scholarship of teaching and learning of HE lecturers but are seen as immature in meeting their research needs. The challenge for the HE TAFE library is to provide access to the range and depth of discipline specific, quality electronic information that encourages and facilitates scholarship and research. The study contributes to firstly, the literature on how libraries can support the transition from a dominant vocational legacy to a hybrid model supporting both VET and HE cohorts; and secondly, the necessary prerequisites to help build research capacity and a HE learning culture within TAFE institute