#LILAC25: I I can show you the (life)world: Qualitative techniques to examine women’s information experiences Laura Woods

 Pam McKinney here live-blogging from day one of the LILAC information literacy conference in Cardiff, and I'm excited to be blogging this presentation from Laura Woods (@woodsiegirl.bsky.social), who Sheila and I have the honour of supervising at the University of Sheffield Information School. The presentation focuses on the methodology and preliminary findings from Laura's PhD study. Laura worked as Engineering subject librarian at the University of Huddersfield and has for a long time been interested in how engineering students engage with information in their studies. The information behaviour of females has been an under-studied phenomenon generally, and hasn't been studied in the context of engineering students. Laura defined information experience as a bridging concept to look at the intersection between information literacy and information behaviour, with information literacy being an applied concept and information behaviour as a research concept. The lifeworld is a concept from phenomenology that encompasses how we interact with the world that we often don't always recognise. 

Laura had a qualitative research design and aimed to recruit 15-20 participants from four different universities who represent a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Participants were asked to create an information diary in any format they wanted (e.g. photos, text diary etc) and then they were invited to a semi-structured interview to discuss their diary. Participants were recruited through engineering departments at each of the four universities, this was deliberate because there can be backlash from research focusing on gender in engineering. Email invitations were sent to all female students in each department. Participants were offered £30 incentive to take part which represented 2.5 hours at the UK living wage. Students who were interested in taking part completed a demographic questionnaire, and this enabled Laura to recruit participants from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of characteristics. Diary periods ranged from 2-6 weeks, most people kept a text diary, some added photos, one person kept a voice note diary. Some diaries were very detailed, others were just a few bullet points for each entry.

Initial findings from the pilot study (4 participants) revealed that participants experienced sexism and sexist micro-aggressions, but these were often downplayed. Group work was a common site for sexist attitudes and behaviours e.g. participants were blocked from taking on more technical tasks, or being asked to make a presentation "pretty". Participants had a preference for video-based learning materials and didn't talk about academic literature. The library was mentioned but only as a place of study, not a source of information. There was a strong reliance on lecture notes. People emerged as an important source of information - this mirrors the information behaviour of practising engineers. Often the person approached for information or help was carefully selected because to ask for help or information made participants feel vulnerable and ill-informed.

There was a lot of use of shared documents by participants to lead or control a group project, to make sure that all group members were contributing, and stop information hoarding by other group members. The participants seemed to have devised this strategy independently. AI was brought up by every participant (unprompted). All were using AI, but probably not in ways that would be problematic from an academic integrity perspective.  They mostly used AI to help them understand a problem or a concept that they didn't really understand. They say ChatGPT is a conversational study partner, partly because they felt they couldn't approach other students on their course for this chat. They were aware of the limitations of AI in terms of information hallucination.

Some reflections: Laura found it very useful to keep her own information diary, this helped give her clarity about what she was asking her participants to do, and it also gave her examples of an information diary to share with her participants. It was really important to pay participants for their time. It was important to be led by participants' needs and preferences e.g. diary format and online or f2f interview. Laura prepared a distress protocol, and this was important as some of her participants became distressed, Laura was able to draw on this to protect both her participants and herself.

Photo: Dragon sculpture in Cardiff

Day 1, afternoon session #lilac25: The Role of Emotion in Access to Information on Reproductive Health, Illness, and Disability: Implications for Information Literacy Instruction

 Natalia Kapacinskas and Veronica Aellano Douglas from the University of Houston Libraries presented their work to explore the intersections between emotions, information access and information literacy and how that relates to information seeking for reproductive health. "emotion" is a complicated concept, it is an affective phenomenon which is discrete which suggest the existence of 6 or more basic emotions (e.g. sadness, happiness, surprise) or continuous as in they exist on a spectrum. Appraisal theory has become used to try to explain emotions as a functional state that prompts behaviours. This is related to information behaviour in that how does emotion support or prompt an information search. They take a social-constructivist perspective in their work.

Both authors are interested in disability, illness and reproductive health and the emotions associated with them, which seem to be inconsistent with traditional views presented in academic sources. For example, there is a narrative that disabled people should be "inspirational" to others, and families should be "disappointed" by disability and illness in their children. There is a narrative around "persistence" and "control" in relation to chronic illness. Reproductive health is associated with "determination" and a happy ending when challenges are overcome: there is always "hope". These narratives don't always reflect the reality of the emotional experiences of the people who have chronic illness, disability or reproductive health problems. There are "unacceptable" emotions such as frustration, violence, confusion, fear, shame anger and guilt. The prevailing narratives affect the information that is published, and therefore what information is available to be found.

Information marginalisation is the systemic process that pushes people to the margins of society, where their needs are overlooked. The presenters propose that social expectations of emotion exemplify information marginalisation, and this affects how people search for information. Information behaviour models do encompass aspects of emotion, but they don't consider the emotions of the researcher towards the topic, only the information search process itself, and this contributes to information marginalisation. The literature on health information seeking is a little more connected to emotions, however, information literacy models are not based on this literature and tend to assume that successful research requires controlled emotions. Holocaust librarianship, Indigenous information literacy and emotionally engaged research are more aligned with looking at the whole person and acknowledging these unpleasant emotions that might be rooted in a person's history or cultural situation. We need to take emotions, and their social and cultural context into account when designing information literacy teaching. For example, librarians need to recognise that the way information is sought might be influenced by defensive behaviours e.g. selected disclosure to protect a child from scrutiny. Online communities can provide a way to seek and share information from outside the traditional medical establishment. 

It is also important that librarians recognise their own emotional reaction to these health and illness-related topics and look inward to consider how best to support a researcher. This was a really thought-provoking presentation, which encouraged me to reflect on the relationship between emotion and information literacy.

Photo: Tree in bloom in Cardiff city centre

#LILAC25 first keynote: Dr Stephen Thornton - Light at the end of the tunnel? Twenty Years of Information Literacy in the Politics Classroom

 The keynote focused on Stephen's 20-year journey investigating information literacy in the context of his teaching in politics. In the early 2000s, Stephen was working as a politics lecturer and noticed that students weren't just using material from the reading list but were going "off-piste" with their information sources. However often the sources used weren't very suitable, they were poor quality sources found on the internet. He was introduced to the concept of information literacy and recognised the value of this for both himself and his students. He started including some information literacy teaching in his modules, supported by the university librarians. This demonstrated the value of partnership working between academics and librarians to develop students' information literacy. The SCONUL Seven Pillars model informed the development of assessed tasks to support information literacy e.g. asking students to reflect on the process of writing their essays. However, some students had negative feedback about these assessments and found this aspect of their assessment tedious.

Stephen used a questionnaire with first-year students to try to evaluate their information literacy, including questions on how students assessed the quality of their sources. However, the students didn't really show any improvement between 2009 and 2017, which was disheartening, and brought into question some of the promises made about the value of information literacy development. The paradox is that the more complex and sophisticated information literacy becomes as a concept, the more unlikely it is to be used by academics in the classroom. Stephen was disheartened and was considering ceasing his information literacy work. 

Then he developed a partnership with a colleague, Doug Atkinson, who specialised in quantitative research and tried to establish a link between advanced levels of information literacy and better academic performance. They conducted a citation analysis of student work and established that more high-quality citations in an essay lead to higher grades, e,g. each high-quality journal article cited equalled 1 extra mark, if a government policy paper was cited, that led to a 2 mark increase. They distributed a questionnaire to politics lecturers and discovered that less than half of the respondents included and explicit information literacy education in their classrooms, and only 27% had invited a librarian to contribute. Research with postgraduate politics students has revealed that only a minority (36.1%) claimed that they had had any information literacy training, and emulation of "professors" is a successful information strategy. Wikipedia was a popular source for students, but they knew that their lecturers didn't like them to cite it as a source in their work.

There are signs from the political science pedagogical literature that there is increasing recognition of the value of information literacy development, some of it co-authored with librarians. Most of this literature is published in the United States. The rise of the use of Generative AI has scared academics, and perhaps provides a window of opportunity for librarians to promote information literacy teaching.

Photo: Exhibition banner at the Cardiff Museum

Live-blogging from #LILAC25! Darren Flynn: The information hinterland of UK academic librarians

 Pam McKinney here live blogging from the LILAC information literacy conference in Cardiff. Darren first gave an overview of the theoretical background to his research, specifically a sociocultural perspective that posits that IL is a socially situated practice that varies depending on context. It is based on discourse, information literacy is socially created based on interactions between people in social settings. Darren is aligned with the work of Annemaree Lloyd who defines information landscapes that are collaboratively created by the practices and interactions of the people that inhabit them. Darren then outlined the concept of the information hinterland, which again takes meaning from the geographical concept of the “hinterland” which is the land surrounding a particular place of interest. An information hinterland takes a rear-view focus, looking at what has come behind us, and the context that people apply to an information landscape, and how that might affect their engagement with an information landscape. Darren is interested in how background and previous experience – the hinterland. Darren draws on the work of Bourdieu, and the concept of social , economic and cultural capital and how these might influence information literacy. 

The central research question explored in this presentation is “what differences can be observed in the information literacy practices of academic librarians in the UK” A questionnaire was distributed to UK librarians, with 621 librarians respondents. Darren used latent class analysis, which is a multivariate technique which looks across variables in a data set to identify similarities between people and identify groups or sub-groups. The audience then took part in a short survey about holidays to provide data in order to illustrate the multivariate analysis. 

 Darren looked at social class and background of the respondents and identified four domains: the occupational background of the family when the respondent was a child aged 14; the education level of caregivers; the cultural consumption of the family e.g. family activities such as theatre trips and extra-curricular activities and lastly the social context e.g. what kind of people formed the social group of the family. The multivariate analysis identified three groups present in the data, and Darren was interested in discovering what differences there might be in their information hinterlands. 

In groups 2 and 3, the main earner in the household was in a professional occupation e.g. teacher, doctor, nurse, often working at a high skill level, with degree level qualification. In group 1, there were higher percentages of respondents from households where the parents worked in skilled trades, where they had a high level of training but did not hold a degree level qualification, and were more likely to only have GCSE level qualifications. In terms of cultural consumption, academic librarians tended not to be big consumers of sports, either participating or watching. In group 1, respondents did not engage much with the theatre or public arts, but respondents in groups 2 and 3 were high consumers of these types of activities, and also engaged with a lot of extracurricular activities – in sociological terms this engagement with extracurricular activities Is a means of gaining advantage. The most common newspaper read by households in groups 2 and 3 was the Guardian. Social context data revealed a split between groups: people in groups 2 and 3 knew more people who were working and higher skill level jobs, but people in group 1 did not know many people in high skill level jobs. Essentially, social groups corresponded to the skill-level of the family. The main differences between groups 2 and 3 was that people in group 2 had families that were more politically active than those in group 3, e.g. they were more likely to write to their MP, or sign a petition. These differences in background can affect the way that people engage with information landscapes. Darren questions whether traditional ways of thinking about IL which emphasise citizenship, privilege the kind of behaviours common in group 2. Darren argues that we need to understand this hinterland in order to inform information literacy teaching. It will be really interesting to see how Darren's research develops and how these categories inform the analysis going forward.

Photo: Daffodils in Cardiff 

Philosophy of information: articles and webinar on 17 April

Library Trends has published an issue (Volume 73, Numbers 1-2, 2024) of open access articles on the topic of Philosophy of Information. There is a webinar on 17 April 2025 at 10-11.00 (US Central time, so 16-17.00 BST) linked to this issue Design and the Philosophy of Information
More information about the webinar at https://ischool.illinois.edu/news-events/events/2025/04/17/webinar-design-and-philosophy-information 

The journal issue has the articles:
- Introduction: Design in the Philosophy of Information by Ken Herold
- Holistic Epistemology and Prospects for Design in the Philosophy of Information by Archie L. Dick
- A Reconsideration of Metatheories of Library and Information Science: A Chinese Information Philosophy Perspective by Lin Wang and Jiaxuan Duan
- The Fate of the Document in Library and Information Science by Steve Fuller - Truth and Agency: Rethinking the Definition of Information by Kathleen Lourdes B. Obille
- Re-Visiting the Revised Knowledge Pyramid by Aric Haas (the pyramid is the relationship between data, information, knowledge, and wisdom (DIKW)
Go to https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/54307
Photo by Sheila Webber: ribes sanguineum white icicle, in bloom, March 2025

Call for proposals: Information Science Trends (IST) 2025: Creativity, Transformation, Empowerment

Do submit proposals (400 -750 word abstracts) for the hybrid conference Information Science Trends (IST) theme Creativity, Transformation, Empowerment, taking place 11-12 June 2025 in Manchester, UK and on Zoom. It is organised by the European Chapter (EC) of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). Deadline for submissions is 17 April 2025.
You can submit for talks (15 minutes presentation + discussion time) and students may also submit proposals for posters.
They "invite submissions within information science/studies (broadly construed) covering research (completed or in progress), practical projects or examples, and conceptual work. The theme encourages an exploration of ongoing changes in digitality and digital environments, benefits and risks of emerging information technology and functionality, and information seeking and use as it can help (or hinder) people in meeting their information-related needs in the information society (including but not limited to the European region). We welcome broad interpretations on the conference theme"
More information at https://www.asist.org/2025/03/22/information-science-trends-ist-2025-creativity-transformation-empowerment/
Registration (possible without a submission) is very reasonably priced (ASIS&T members free for online and $20 US for in person attendance; non-member students $10 and $20; other non members $20 and $40): https://www2.asist.org/ap/Events/Register/WqFz3mmUaCJCE

A teaching librarian

Today I highlight a long, thoughtful blog post from Alice Cann reflecting on "teaching as a subject librarian, including why and what, organising and planning and learning and reflection."
Go to https://researcherlibrarian.wordpress.com/2025/01/26/teaching-librarian/
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry tree in the botanics, March 2025

GenderEd Coalition MOOC: Towards a gender sensitive Media and Information Literacy

The GenderEd Coalition has funding from the European Union to increase awareness of gender-sensitive Media and Information Literacy. They have a MOOC running between 1 April 2025 and 31 May 2025 Towards a gender sensitive Media and Information Literacy. It runs for 5 weeks, taking 10 hours a week of commitment and is in English
"This free online course is tailored for journalists, artists, media and information literacy (MIL) educators, activists, media professionals, gender experts, and researchers aiming to develop expertise in gender-sensitive practices, media analysis, and inclusive communication"
Presumably library and information professionals are also welcome!! There are four modules on topics such as "gender-sensitive communication, inclusive media practices, and combating gender bias."
Go to https://www.genderedcoalition.net/mooc
The main GenderEd website is at https://www.genderedcoalition.net/ and has some resources, and a Community of Practice that you can join.
Photo by Sheila Webber: yet more magnolia blossom, March 2025

Recent articles: media & digital literacy; podcasting

An open access journal I don't think I've covered before, Media and Communication. Each annual volume consists of a number of special issues, and this latest one (volume 13 issue 467 2025) is on Balancing Intimacy and Trust: Opportunities and Risks in Audio Journalism including, for example
- Trust in Pod: Listener Trust of News Content Heard on Different Genre Podcasts by Kristine Johnson and Michael McCall
- Intimacy in Podcast Journalism: Ethical Challenges and Opportunities in Daily News Podcasts and Documentaries by Elvira García de Torres, José M. Legorburu, David Parra-Valcarce, Concha Edo and Lilly Escobar-Artola
Go to https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/view/467 

Even more relevant to this blog is an issue of volume 13 (issue 466, January 2025) on Evaluating and Enhancing Media Literacy and Digital Skills including
- Fostering Media Literacy: A Systematic Evidence Review of Intervention Effectiveness for Diverse Target Groups by Leen d'Haenens et al. (I shall pause here just to sigh and point out that this is yet another sysytematic review that does not even notice - despite there being 23 authors involved - that they failed to search for INFORMATION literacy, although they searched for online, internet and media literacy and variations thereof. I assume that none of the 23 was a librarian, who might have pointed this out. It's a shame, as this is otherwise an OK review of quantitative studies)
- Effects of a News Literacy Video on News Literacy Perceptions and Misinformation Evaluation by Rita Tang, Melissa Tully, Leticia Bode and Emily K. Vraga
- Exploring Media Literacy Formation at the Intersection of Family, School, and Peers by Nika Šušterič, Katja Koren Ošljak and Veronika Tašner
- The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility by Eduard-Claudiu Gross and Delia Cristina Balaban
Go to https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/view/466
Photo by Sheila Webber: blossoms almost faded, April 2025

Survey for review of the ACRL Information Literacy Framework

The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Review and Revision Task Force has a survey open to consult on the Framework and consider revisions. It has been open for a few weeks (apologies!), so probably a good idea to respond promptly. It asks you about how you use different bits of the framework, whether you think anything is missing, whether you find it straightforward to understand etc. The survey is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PRT5FMX
Photo by Sheila Webber: more magnolia, March 2025

Registration open for #WILU2025

Canada's information literacy conference, WILU, takes place in person in Hamilton, ON, Canada, 9-12 June 2025, and registration is now open. I would recommend this conference:  I really enjoyed attending WILU last year.
More information at https://macblog.mcmaster.ca/wilu2025/

Information Literacy cakes

An information literacy cake-baking competition was organised by the Australian organisation CAVAL in October 2024, to celebrate 50 years of Information Literacy, and coinciding with the CAVAL Research and Information Group's (CRIG) annual event. You can find pictures and information about all the inventive cakes here https://www.caval.edu.au/activity/crig-seminar-2024-cake-competition/
If you are not interested in cakes, there are pdfs of some presentations from the actual event (Information Literacy is Turning 50: Advocacy, Inclusion, Empowerment) here and here
Winning cake: The Lighthouse, created by Sarah Charing, Sophie Kollo, and Jane Jilbert (The University of Melbourne)

Generative Artificial Intelligence Skills in Schools

On 18 June 2025 at 13.30-15.30 BST there is a free in-person workshop Generative Artificial Intelligence Skills in Schools (GenAISiS) in Glasgow, Scotland. "The workshop will report on the results of GenAISiS, a project funded by Responsible AI and delivered by a team of researchers at Robert Gordon University in partnership with CILIPS (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland) and school library professionals across Scotland." 
More information at https://www.cilips.org.uk/events/genaisis/
Photo by Sheila Webber: narcissi, April 2025

Webinar: Think like a teacher: pedagogical skills for librarians

This webinar, free to CILIP members and £22.38 to non-members, is on 24 April 2025 at 12noon-13.00 BST: Think like a teacher: pedagogical skills for librarians.
"Does your job involve teaching? Is that not part of what you imagined librarianship to be? Do you ever feel under skilled and overwhelmed by this aspect of your role? Then this session is for you. In this webinar, Neena Shukla Morris, Information Resources Librarian for University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust, uses her knowledge and experience of working in a variety of roles within education to provide you with pragmatic, easily-implementable, no-cost tips and tricks to elevate your taught sessions."
Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/think-like-a-teacher-pedagogical-skills-for-librarians-tickets-1295578432969
Photo by Sheila Webber: lost item series: lost dog plushie, March 2025

Call for proposals: Inclusive Digital Literacy for All

The IFLA Information Literacy Section has a call for proposals for a satellite (to the WLIC) meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, to be held in person on 15 August 2025. The theme is: Inclusive Digital Literacy for All: Bridging Communities for a United Future. Deadline for proposals is 24 April 2025.
"This topic highlights inclusive digital literacy strategies that bridge the digital divide and promote equitable access. Aligned with WLIC 2025’s theme, it shows how digital empowerment fosters a more connected, fair, and knowledge-driven world. We welcome submissions from educators, librarians, and researchers advancing inclusive digital literacy and innovative technologies, such as AI, within the library and information field. Your insights can help shape a more equitable, connected, and knowledge-driven global society."
More information at: https://www.ifla.org/news/information-literacy-section-call-for-papers-wlic-2025-satellite-meeting-inclusive-digital-literacy-for-all-bridging-communities-for-a-united-future/.
Photo by Sheila Webber: a host of dancing daffodils, March 2025

April Fool's adjacent

Here are some links to posts with April Fool's day as an inspiration:
- Cox, S. (2016, April 2). April Fool's! https://librarydisplays.org/2016/04/01/april-fools/ (April Fool pranks done by, and to, a school library)
- Flanagan, E. (2023, February 13). Teaching Information Literacy in the Classroom. https://www.erintegration.com/2023/02/13/teaching-information-literacy-in-the-classroom/ (nb it is selling priced items "The posters are included in both color and blackline and can be used in an April Fool’s Day theme or as a digital citizenship bulletin board all year round.")
- geoztinker. (2024, December 14). infuriating ai generated “bird” calendar i found… they’re all horribly wrong…which one is your favorite. https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/1hdsorz/infuriating_ai_generated_bird_calendar_i_found/ You can do a "how many mistakes can I spot" exercise.
- Winick, S. (2026, March 28). April Fools: The Roots of an International Tradition. https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/03/april-fools/ (Detailed history about April Fool's Day, from the Library of Congress)
Photo by Sheila Webber: All the blossoms fell off this tree into a circle below! (No, April Fool, it's yet another photo of crocuses)