About the author
Claire McGuinness is a part-time lecturer in the School of Information & Library Studies at University College Dublin, and has been conducting research into Information Literacy since the late 1990s. After completing a BA in International Marketing and Languages in 1993, Claire moved into the field of Information & Library Studies, graduating with an MLIS degree in 1996, followed by 3 years in professional practice in the library of the Dublin Dental Hospital. Returning to academia in 1999, Claire’s PhD, which was funded by a scholarship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences and awarded in 2005, explored curriculum-integrated information literacy and barriers to faculty- librarian collaboration. Since then, Claire has remained in the School of Information & Library Studies, first as post-doctoral fellow in 20062007, and then as part-time lecturer. Over the years, she has published continuously in Information Literacy and learning, including book chapters and peer-reviewed articles based on her research, and has presented at several international conferences, including three times at LILAC (Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference). Claire is also module designer and coordinator of two Information Literacy modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the School of Information & Library Studies, in which she endeavours to combine theory with practice, and to use active and e-learning methods to engage her students and encourage them to learn. She is particularly interested in instructional training for librarians, and since 2004, her advanced “Teaching Librarian” module has aimed to prepare trainee professional librarians on the Masters and Diploma programmes for the teaching work that they are often expected to undertake in the professional workplace. Claire is often invited to give talks and seminars to professional librarian groups in Ireland, where Information Literacy has been high on the agenda for the past number of years. She was also the academic representative on the Working Group on Information Literacy in the Library Association of Ireland, which was convened in 2006 to advise on best practice for information literacy across all library sectors in Ireland.
Since completing her PhD, Claire’s research interests have expanded into other areas of Information Literacy and learning, including the use of reflective learning journals and portfolios to teach the research process to students, the development of reflective practice among teaching librarians, and exploring the concept of “teacher identity” as it applies to librarians. Recently, she has been a team member on a number of interesting teaching and learning projects in the School of Information & Library Studies, including the development, use, and evaluation of interactive e-practicums to teach information research concepts to undergraduate students.