HCL's Mission to Support Teaching & Learning

The Harvard College Library Teaching and Learning Program seeks to enrich, deepen, and inspire undergraduate and graduate learning by supporting students in developing the research and critical thinking skills necessary for discovering and creating knowledge. We foster students' intellectual curiosity and connect students and faculty meaningfully with Harvard's vast library collections as well as resources beyond Harvard. We collaborate with other colleagues who provide academic support and with faculty to integrate into the curriculum opportunities for students to discover, evaluate, organize, synthesize and ethically use information in diverse formats, promoting lifelong habits of inquiry.

 

We endeavor to realize this mission through the following practices:

  • Learn from all of our interactions with faculty, staff and students; use these as teaching opportunities.

  • Engage faculty members in discussion regarding ways to help students research more effectively and learn more actively.

  • Align our teaching goals with the learning goals articulated by students and faculty.

  • Develop expertise in pedagogical theory and scholarship through HCL programming and services.

  • Employ creative and engaging teaching strategies, in collaboration with university colleagues.

  • Regularly assess our students' learning and improve our own teaching practices.