Hapori Community of Practice Award
As a passionate advocate for developing information literacy, library and legal research skills in students, she has designed and implemented a series of engaging and flexible learning experiences for students in these programmes. These online self-paced modules develop the critical information literacy skills students need to be successful in their studies. It is currently the only legal research skills programme of its kind across the six law schools in Aotearoa.
These resources have also had a positive impact on staff as well as students. Theresa has built relationships with the teaching staff in each LLB/BCJ course that the Library currently teaches into. This is a credit to her passion for the need for students to know how to find the legal information that will help them to understand the law within their LLB or BCJ papers. Colleagues in the library have noticed that as a result of Theresa’s teaching the type of law and criminal justice enquiries received have changed. Instead of questions around how to get started, students are asking more nuanced questions about finding specific sources. Students have also commented on the positive impact of her teaching: “The modules are extremely helpful. They build on the knowledge we gained in LAWS100 nicely. What is most useful is the fact we can refer back to them for a reminder if we need to throughout the year.” (Student)
Theresa is a clear leader, and her work is a role model for the mahi of a Kaitiaki Kaupapa | Subject Librarian in Aotearoa New Zealand. The library would like to emulate it in other degree programmes and Theresa has given her colleagues an outstanding example of what this might look like.
