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The purpose of this paper is to assess the recent outreach service efforts of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Main Library in the form of a Hall of Residence Librarian Programme. The aim of the programme was to minimize library anxiety through partnership with the Office of Students Services.

The transition from the secondary to the tertiary level is not always the smoothest for some students. On the islands of the English-speaking Caribbean, such as Jamaica, it can be especially difficult as some matriculants have never used an automated library. These students often experience great difficulty in effectively using the library which may result in them shying away from doing so and thus negatively impact the quality of their work. The UWI, the UWI Main Library, Mona campus, Jamaica has sought to address this challenge through the development of an outreach project to the first-year students entitled the Halls of Residence Librarian (HRL) programme.

This new form of library outreach on The UWI Mona campus has yielded the offering of library services in new locations, strategic partnerships, increased interactions with the first-year students and a greater awareness of these students ' needs. Most importantly, it was very effective in reducing library anxiety among the first-year students.

The “low” turnout to Research Rescue was largely attributed to the fact that this programme was entirely optional for the students, and it was not affiliated with any compulsory course or class. There was also the issue of a lack of incentives to boost student attendance at these sessions.

This initiative is untested in the English-speaking Caribbean. The paper explores the outreach efforts of the library at the Mona campus of The UWI and seeks to add to the limited body of literature on Academic Library Outreach in the Caribbean.

The transition from school to higher education is a complex process. Peer mentoring is often used by institutions to facilitate this process. The purpose of this research, which was conducted at a South African university, was to determine whether a peer mentoring programme, which involved a large number of students and a limited number of mentors, could successfully assist students to adapt to the academic and psychosocial demands of university life.

A sequential explanatory mixed method design was implemented. In the first phase, a questionnaire was used to collect data to establish participants' experience of the programme. The findings from the questionnaire were used to inform the qualitative phase, in which the participants' perceptions of the benefits of the mentor programme were further explored by means of group interviews. The qualitative data were analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis.

The results indicate that a structured peer mentoring programme, in which a mentor works with up to 70 mentees in a group setting, can be a useful tool to assist with students' transition to university. The research found that the peer mentoring programme contributed to the students' academic, social and personal integration into the higher education environment.

The perspectives of mentors and faculty were not included. No comparative study with students who did not participate in the programme was conducted.

This research illustrates that it is possible to mentor large groups of disadvantaged and vulnerable students notwithstanding limited resources.

In contrast to the existing literature on peer mentoring in higher education, which focuses on one-on-one or small-group mentoring, this research suggests that peer mentoring of larger groups can also play an important role in assisting students to transition to higher education. The description of the programme and the benefits students derived from it offer other institutions with limited resources some ideas about how a peer mentoring programme can be implemented.

This study describes the evaluation of a first‐year experience course which emphasised the “appreciative advising” theoretical model – a strength‐based, relational approach to student development that aims to enhance students’ self‐efficacy and academic self‐perception. In order to measure the effectiveness of the course and its impact on student academic achievement, an outcome‐based evaluation was conducted. The evaluation focused on the impact of the course on students’ attitudes and perceptions towards their academic ability, their actual academic achievement and student retention. Using a number of comprehensive measures, including the tracking of academic outcomes, and assessment of students’ attitudes and behaviours, the evaluation evidenced the positive impact of the course.

This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2020.

The paper provides a brief description of all 440 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested in a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction through an extensive annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2017 in over 200 journals, magazines, books and other sources.

The paper provides a brief description for all 590 sources.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This paper aims to highlight recent resources on information literacy (IL) and library instruction, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and IL published in 2015.

This paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain either unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and IL.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

Introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2013.

Provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the expectations and reality perspectives accrued in a preliminary management course and understand if they impart and embed real-world skills and develop work readiness.

Primary data collected for the research were qualitative. A total of six focus groups were conducted with a total of 52 students enrolled at a large metropolitan university in Australia. NViVO was used to code and analyse the data.

The study found that at the commencement of university studies, the expectations were simple like, making new friends, getting around the campus and settling well into the university culture, which over time extended to getting a part-time job, securing internships, memberships of associations, desire to participate in exchange programs and get work-ready by the close of the first year. The research outcomes show that those who held a part-time job while studying demonstrated a better understanding of the preliminary management subject matter taught in class and obtained better grades. Primarily, the preliminary management course did not specifically impart work-ready skills and it would be fitting to embed employability skills in the management curriculum from the commencement of their programs in the first year.

Qualitative research is used to comprehend a research problem from the outlook perspectives of the local population it involves. The limitations of this methodology includes no objectively verifiable result, adept interviewing skills for interviewers, slow and time consuming during interviewing process and intensive category process also as qualitative inquiry is normally open-ended, the participants have more control over the content of the data collected.

The lack of skill mismatch and graduates who are not work-ready incurs significant economic and social costs. A number of policy implications emerge due to university-labour market links and skills mismatches and the impact on students and the labour market. The rise in unemployment and the skills mismatch seen after the economic crisis requires immediate attention. Job creation is crucial but so is the need to develop graduate with appropriate matching skills and qualities to do the job. Mandatory internships, apprenticeships and on-the-job training for university students would help. Governments can provide financial incentives and subsidies to organisations providing the above services and working cooperatively with the universities to get students work-ready. Universities must raise the educational requirements over time as jobs become more complex. Universities can build communities of practice with the assistance of this scheme to enable students to interact with the industry professionals. An additional year of vocational training could be recommended for the graduating students. This would help the young graduates to get work-related skills. Wheelahan et al. (2015) state that building better links between education and work can help provide a more rational approach to vocational development. They propose the use of vocational streams and productive capabilities in the education system and labour market to achieve this.

This requires a combined effort from all stakeholders. A systematic approach needs to be adopted. First, the gap between the knowledge provided by the universities and the skills required by the employers need to be reduced. Second, the employers and the universities should keep a watch on the labour market and develop strategies to meet the dynamic requirements of the labour market collaboratively. Third, career guidance will help inform students make a career choice to match the labour market opportunities. This should be a part of the policy agenda for responding to the lack of work-ready graduates in the labour market.

Learning and teaching activities must include industry interface and engagement right from the first year at university. The main findings from this research indicated the need for better understanding of first-year students’ expectations. The two significant student expectations that emerged were “need for collaborations” and “industry interface”.

This paper aims to describe the inception and continuation of a collaborative effort between York College’s Common Reader program and the York College Library. The Common Reader program comprises academic and extracurricular activities designed to help achieve the goals of York College’s First Year Experience Program to assist in the successful transition, achievement and retention of first-year students at York College, The City University of New York.

The Common Reader Committee was initially comprising only of participating classroom faculty and Student Development staff. York College Library was invited to help with one of the extracurricular events. Subsequently, the collaboration was considered essential to the success of the Common Reader program. This paper describes the library’s role in supporting the initiative.

The library is an active member of York’s Common Reader Committee and is involved in the selection of the Common Reader book; publicity of the program; promotion of library resources and services; and the programming of extracurricular events. Involvement in these areas allows the library to collaboratively build a learning community, integrate information literacy skills into the curricula, nurture the practice of critical reading and help students feel connected in a new academic environment.

Many colleges have implemented common reading programs, and, in many cases, libraries have been involved in the program in some shape or form. However, at York College, there is a strategic partnership between the library and the Common Reader program. Such a partnership has made it possible for the library to be deeply involved in helping students transition to college life.

The purpose of this study was to determine the information literacy trends, challenges and opportunities in Nigerian universities, With focus on its characteristics; content and adequacy for students’ information literacy development and lifelong learning. The effort to ensure that university students are empowered to acquire the competences needed for all round education and lifelong learning has been the primary focus of the university curriculum. University regulatory body in Nigeria emphasised the need to provide students with a study plan which provides them with capacity to locate information resources, access, evaluate and use them in legally acceptable manner. The programme is differently captioned with varying contents. With evolving approach to literacy, this study was designed to determine whether the programme has evolved from use of library education to information literacy or still at its traditional mode.

Descriptive survey research method was adopted for the study. The population consists of federal and state university libraries in Nigeria. The characteristics, content and adequacy of the programme as offered in Nigerian universities was the measure to determine the type of literacy. Questionnaire derived from literature and personal experience was designed to elicit information. A copy of the questionnaire was sent to each university that constituted the sample of the study by mail and telephone interviews were given to the heads of the sampled libraries.

It was discovered that majority of the universities studied were yet to consolidate the library literacy programme offered in their universities. Hence, the provision of information literacy content is yet to be realised in Nigerian universities.

There should be constant evaluation and monitoring of the programme by the regulatory bodies to ensure that the programme is reviewed at the appropriate time and that they also abide to the minimum standard.

For the effective implementation of programme to reflect the current development in research and information sourcing, retrieval and use; collaboration in content development as well as teaching between faculty and library; increasing or splitting the programme content to accommodate first year and higher level undergraduates, the regulatory bodies like Librarians’ Registration Council of Nigeria should ensure constant evaluation of the programme.