Librarians and ESL Instructors as Campus Partners in Collaboration and Alliance Building

Abstract

Librarians and English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors can be campus partners to improve student learning. This article describes one way for librarians to begin working collaboratively with their ESL instructor counterparts on a university campus. It offers the creation and use of an assessment tool designed to capture ESL students’ library learning as an initial point of collaboration. Following the discussion of the creation and use of this tool, this article then advocates for librarians and ESL instructors to build mutually beneficial alliances between them. These alliances can be based on commonalities and can offer benefits for professionals working in both roles on campus.