In reflecting upon my own transition from art librarian to academic developer, I can strongly relate to my library colleague's frustration in terms of espousing ‘what works’, with ‘earning the right to be heard’. We know we need to move beyond deficit models of learning support which are not practically, pedagogically or ethically supportable. But, we are compromised in this quest by traditional perceptions of the librarian and academic developer role, which do not always position us as equal with our academic partners or as a key partner in the student learning process.

How do artists, designers, architects and craftspeople seek and deploy information in support of their practice? It is a question that is of central importance to the learning and teaching that art libraries provide, yet one that has also been subject to much debate within the historical and contemporary literature. An attentive reading of this literature reveals three fundamental metanarratives, each underpinned by a particular epistemology, and it is these narratives that have then informed how institutions construct, embed and assess the teaching of information skills to their readers. Only by critically evaluating the literature is it possible to resituate our own practice and that of our respective institutions within a paradigm that is most appropriate for our particular contexts. It is also possible to identify gaps in our collective professional understanding, in the hope of signposting avenues of research potential for the future.

The ACRL Framework for information literacy for higher education, the guiding document for academic instruction librarians in North America, encourages a deep connection between information literacy and discipline-specific teaching practices. In the context of art librarianship, one means of attaining this connection is via librarian participation in studio critiques. Critiques enable librarians to identify the similarities between the research process and the creative process, making information literacy relevant for art students. In two different institutional examples, the ACRL Framework provides a conceptual grounding for studio critiques as a collaborative space between librarians and faculty, where students learn lifelong information literacy and critical thinking skills that enrich their artistic work.

Throughout the year, research and instruction librarians at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) instruct students in ways to use the library for studio-based research. At the end of each semester, librarians attend studio critiques for these classes to see the finished work and participate in the critique. These visits are opportunities to look for and reflect upon the presence of research and the impact of concepts taught during library research workshops on the finished presentations and artworks. The coordinator of graduate library instruction created a qualitative tool to assess the evidence of student learning within the studio critique. Its use is cultivating a culture of art and design research within the library and throughout campus by fostering reflection and discussion about the value of qualitative assessment.

Information Competencies for Students in Design Disciplines compiled, for the first time in the US, a list of core information literacy skills for design students. Divided into basic, intermediate, and advanced skills in each design discipline, it helped to define and delimit information literacy skills in these subjects, and were intended to facilitate a systematic means of integrating information literacy skills into the core curriculum of design courses. Closely related to the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, Information Competencies were written by a group of art and design librarians (Jeanne Brown, Jane Carlin, Thomas Caswell, Edith Crowe, Maya Gervits, Susan Lewis, Alan Michelson, Barbara Opar and Jennifer Parker) and published by ARLIS/NA in 2006 (rev. 2007). This article is personal reflection by one of its authors on its legacy ten years after publication.

Teaching and learning visual literacy within art and design librarianship presents several unique challenges. Librarians are better equipped than ever to meet these challenges with the help of ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards and the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, which provides an exciting opportunity to situate visual literacy within the contextual definition of information literacy for art and design students. In mapping these two documents together the author found several ways to address the more critical components of information and visual literacy in more nuanced and meaningful ways. While art librarians have often addressed visual literacy needs to varying degrees and in creative and practical ways, a more systematic approach is needed as we move forward.

The origins and history of Visual literacy (VL) are summarized in this article, from the 1960s writings of John L. Debes, Marshall McLuhan and others of the Rochester School, to the influence of the Internet in the 2000s. ERIC and Google Scholar searches are used to analyse the evolution of its literature over time.

University College London (UCL) Library Services holds extensive Special Collections that are employed in various teaching and public engagement activities. Students and academic staff at the UCL Slade School of Fine Art have the opportunity to participate in the Slade Small Press Project that uses the UCL Small Press Collections as inspiration, recognising the current trend for printed material and text as a visual medium. UCL's BASc students, and participants at library public events focused on non-creative subjects, study ways in which the physical aspects of rare books contribute to understanding the text, with surprisingly creative outputs. While museums have recently adopted Object Based Learning (OBL) as a teaching strategy, this form of learning has long been familiar in libraries, particularly for special collections. However as readers increasingly access library text digitally, and perceive text as unaffected by medium, they are losing the skills to interpret physical books and printed material (skills we term ‘object literacy’), making OBL approaches more important than ever for library staff. In keeping with the UCL 2034 strategy, the Connected Curriculum encourages participation in research at all levels of study and OBL methods enable interdisciplinary enquiry and collaborative practices.

At the University of the Arts London (UAL), Library Services and the University's educational development department have collaborated to ensure that teaching and learning development for its librarians is approached strategically and can be linked directly to the institutional teaching, learning and enhancement strategy. In doing so the librarians at UAL are provided with opportunities to develop pedagogic skills and techniques which acknowledge the arts education environment in which they are working and some of the specific differences which need to be considered when teaching art and design students. This paper presents some of the approaches and initiatives that have been deployed to achieve this.