The role of librarians in guided pathway reforms

In the book Redesigning America’s Community Colleges (Bailey, Jaggars, & Jenkins, 2015), the authors briefly noted the role that librarians might play in informing and supporting guided pathways reform. In this short essay, one of the book’s authors joins with a librarian to provide updated and revised thoughts on the role of librarians in guided pathways. First we discuss the importance of embedding critical thinking into guided pathways curricula and librarians’ unique position to support that goal; then we discuss various models by which colleges might leverage librarians’ expertise and which models seem more or less compatible with the guided pathways framework.