University students often experience hidden challenges in various courses across all levels of their academic careers. These difficulties often serve to deter student learning and academic progress which may end in high student failure rates. In some instances, this may be attributed to tacit assumptions that academic teachers make about their learners when preparing lesson plans, course content and learning assessments. It is often mistakenly assumed that students already possess the necessary information literacy ways of thinking to overcome bottlenecks within their respective disciplines. To this end, the Teaching and Learning Librarian at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) Library, collaborated with an academic teacher to decode specific disciplinary difficulties and to subsequently enhance the required information literacy knowledge practices in student learning. Using a qualitative research approach, this study reports on how an Economics and Management Science (EMS) lecturer and the librarian used the Decoding the Disciplines Paradigm (DtD) to identify and deconstruct troublesome concepts in the Business and Finance module. The DtD model provides a clearly delineated, seven-step process for identifying and analysing disciplinary challenges and provides guidelines for designing instructional, motivational and assessment strategies that support deep learning. Through the DtD Paradigm, the study identified specific information literacy proficiencies that should be developed or enhanced in student learning. Moreover, the article describes how, as one of the paradigm's steps, pedagogic methods were transformed to develop information literacy ways of thinking.

The University of the Western Cape Library uses the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education to introduce an alternative, nuanced approach to information literacy training by transforming librarians' teaching praxis. The Framework presents a new perspective on teaching and learning and is built around six frames, each consisting of a threshold concept which is central to information literacy. To this end, the Library coordinated the Information Literacy Programme for the University's Library and Information Science Department. By using a qualitative approach, this case study describes the integration of the Framework in the Information Literacy Education module to teach prospective librarians to internalise the core concepts of the Framework. The paper discusses how the Framework was operationalised to enhance students' critical thinking through the application of formative and summative assessments and a number of student artifacts.

This article reports on an innovative project which grew out of the desire to facilitate access to information using the Quick Response (QR) Code. Easily read by mobile phones with cameras, the QR Code provides a simple but effective means for library patrons to access library resources. Introduction and background to the study Advances in the progression of information technology are rapidly changing the patterns of communication (Kwanya et al 2009) amongst library users and subsequently, their expectations about the composition of libraries are also undergoing transformation. It is suggested that new technologies offer easier access to information and electronic resources, for instance, individuals find it easier to Google (http://www.google.com) and search for information than to consult their nearest library. Since the digital environment has become the new information ecosystem for the 21 st . century library patron, librarians have to manage these changes and respond to the manifestations of Web 2.0 in order to efficiently meet research needs. The latest developments in technologies have also resulted in the emergence of Web 3.0 as well as the advent of Web 4.0, both which will play a significant role in the future of libraries. While Web 2.0 represents a major shift in the way users view the web "from a read-only web to a read-write web" (Stuart, 2010), Web 3.0 offers virtual 3D worlds which enable users to interact with one another. This platform of virtual interaction has, according to Stuart (2010), been recognized by many information professionals as new ways of seeking information.

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In today’s knowledge-based economy, the role of universities in preparing students to be information literate and independent thinkers and researchers is crucial. Information literacy (IL) skills enable students to become research-oriented, hold critical approaches to knowledge, be critical thinkers, consider things from different perspectives, develop their own ideas and defend and share these in an ethical manner. University students are often expected to access, process, evaluate and synthesise information from a number of sources in order to complete their assessment tasks. To do this efficiently, they need to possess good IL skills. This article postulates that students’ IL skills can be successfully fostered and enhanced if academics and academic librarians enter into a partnership to collaboratively develop students’ IL skills. The article discusses an intervention at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa that entailed embedding IL skills in an academic literacies (AL) course offered to first-year students in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences. This intervention involved a partnership between academic librarians and an AL lecturer in adopting a team-teaching approach to collaboratively develop students’ IL skills. Overall, students showed great enthusiasm for the IL sessions, and their responses to the different tasks given to them were positive. The partnership between the team members was found to be successful. Although the researchers concluded that a collaborative partnership between academics and academic librarians was feasible and sustainable, they acknowledged that the available resources within an institution, for example, library computer laboratories, might well impact on the decision to pursue such an initiative.