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Friday, May 31, 2013

cfp #ifutures2013 conference

Sheffield University's Information School (i.e. my department!) has organised iFutures, a one-day conference on Thursday 25 July in Sheffield, UK, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Information School. Run by and for doctoral students in the Information Science community, and based on the theme of The Next 50 Years the aim is to create an event for IS researchers and practitioners of the future to explore the potential impact of our research, and determine how we can help shape our discipline, both in academia and beyond.
The call for papers is open, with abstracts to be submitted by the deadline of 16 June 2013.  
Submissions are welcomed from doctoral researchers working in any area of information science or in related fields, including information retrieval, knowledge management, informatics or library and information studies. It doesn't matter whether you are studying part-time or full-time, or where you are based, do consider participating. There are several options for presentation format (Paper, Poster, and Pecha Kucha) and a prize of £100 in Amazon vouchers for the best submission in each category.
Diane Sonnenwald, Chair of Information and Library Studies at the School of Information and Library Studies at UCD, Dublin, and Vanessa Murdock, Principal Applied Researcher at Bing (Microsoft) will give keynotes.
More information on the website at http://ifutures.group.shef.ac.uk; the twitter account is @ifutures2013 and hashtag is #ifutures2013

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Moving from ‘e’ to ‘d’ – what does a Digital University really look like?

This is a presentation being made tomorrow by Bill Johnston at Dundee University, looking at the place of information literacy within the "digital" university. It continues on from the framework proposed by him and Sheila MacNeill initially at http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/sheilamacneill/2012/01/26/a-converstaion-around-what-it-means-to-be-a-digital-university/

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Discussion of Barbara Fister's keynote paper on academic libraries/infolit in Second Life

When: Wednesday 29 May noon SL time (this is the same as US Pacific time, and is 8pm UK time), see http://tinyurl.com/nsyjruw for times elsewhere

Where: Infolit iSchool, in the virtual world Second Life, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/132/239/22 You need a Second Life avatar and the SL browser installed on your computer

What: I (Sheila Yoshikawa in SL) will lead a one-hour discussion about Barbara Fister's stimulating keynote paper, presented at the LOEX (information
literacy) conference earlier this month. What do you think about her ideas? Everyone welcome.
Fister, B. (2013) Decode academy. Paper presented at LOEX, 3 May 2013. http://homepages.gac.edu/~fister/loex13.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: our last SL meeting, in April 2013

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

London Libraries Learning Research Reading Group meets 5th June

The London Libraries Learning Research Reading Group is next meeting on 5th June - this is a face to face meeting (not virtual ;-) at the LSE in London, UK. They will be discussing Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy: Creating Strategic Collaborations for a Changing Academic Environment. More info at http://lllrrg.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/june-meeting/

Monday, May 27, 2013

Health Information and Libraries Journal 2013 Virtual Issue: Patient information

The virtual (free) issue of Health Information and Libraries Journal for 2013 has the theme Patient Information Comes of Age. Articles include:
The state of consumer health information: an overview by Sarah Smith, Mark Duman
Perceived Internet health literacy of HIV-positive people through the provision of a computer and Internet health education intervention by Christie Robinson, Joy Graham
‘Quality signposting’: the role of online information prescription in providing patient information by Liz Brewster, Barbara Sen
Use and value of information sources by parents of child psychiatric patients by Adrienne Turner, Arta Kabashi, Hannah Guthrie, Roger Burket, Philip Turner
Online health information search and evaluation: observations and semi-structured interviews with college students and maternal health experts by Hyojin Kim, Sun-Young Park, Ingrid Bozeman
Monitoring or avoiding health information – the relation to inner inclination and health status by Stefan Ek, Jannica Heinström
Evaluating the quality of websites relating to diet and eating disorders by Rocío Guardiola-Wanden-Berghe, Josefa D. Gil-Pérez, Javier Sanz-Valero, Carmina Wanden-Berghe
Assessing Internet access and use in a medically underserved population: implications for providing enhanced health information services by Lisl Zach, Prudence W. Dalrymple, Michelle L. Rogers, Heather Williver-Farr
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291471-1842/homepage/virtual_issue__patient_information_comes_of_age.htm
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bluebells, fern, Sussex, May 2013

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Jacqueline Geekie, Aberdeenshire Libraries, wins Phil Bradley video challenge

Phil Bradley, the President of CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, in the UK) set down a challenge in March, for people to produce a short video in which they showed their "information literacy work in action”. The winner is Jacqueline Geekie, the Information Literacy and Learning Librarian at Aberdeenshire Libraries (Scotland), and her video is embedded below; do take a look!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Recent articles - international students' information behaviour

- Alzougool, B. et al . (2013) "Finding Their Way around: International Students’ Use of Information Sources." Journal of Advanced Management Science, 1 (1), 43-49 doi: 10.12720/joams.1.1.43-49 (you have to register, but it is free. I got an error message in the middle, but found I had in fact been registered. This paper was written by academics in Australia: this and the third article do not come from library and information researchers, interestingly) "There has been some research on the information behaviour of international students that is related to their academic issues (e.g. coursework and patterns of library use). However, little research has explored other non-academic issues (e.g. access health services and accommodation) of international student everyday life. This paper therefore explores the sources of information that international students rely on for academic and everyday living as well as the patterns students use in accessing these information sources. By analyzing interview data from a series of 7 focus groups, this study shows that international students rely on a wide range of information sources and display different patterns in using these sources depending on the source type, origin and amount as well as the students’ education level. Some practical implications to effectively provide information to international students are suggested." http://www.joams.com/
- He, D. et al.(2012) "Undergraduate students’ interaction with online information resources in their academic tasks: A comparative study." Aslib proceedings, 64 (6), 615-640. (One of the co-authors is Anna Fu, who was a Masters student here is Sheffield last academic year. The paper compare behaviour of USA and Chinese students) "This paper aims to identify the opinions of undergraduate students on the importance of internet-based information sources when they undertake academic tasks. Based on a set of identified typical academic tasks for undergraduate students, three research questions were designed around the students’ usage and views of information resources for completing these tasks. Web-accessible questionnaires were used to collect data from participants in two universities in the USA and China, and the data were analyzed using quantitative methods, which included several statistic methods. The results confirm that undergraduate students use different information resources for various academic tasks. In their tasks, online electronic resources including search engines are the most commonly used resources, particularly for complex academic tasks. Social networking sites are not used for the students’ individual academic tasks, and traditional resources still play equal or more important roles in certain specific academic tasks. Students in collaborative tasks look for resources that make it easy to share documents. Participants from the two countries also exhibit interesting and important differences in their usage of information resources." http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0001-253X
- Thompson, C., Morton, J. and Storch, N. (2013) "Where from, who, why and how? A study of the use of sources by first year L2 university students." Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 12, 99-109. "Knowing how to use sources effectively often poses considerable challenges for first year undergraduate students for whom English is a second language (L2). In this longitudinal case study we investigated the selection and self-reported use of source materials by thirteen first year L2 undergraduate students from a range of disciplines enrolled at a major Australian university. Our findings show that students at the beginning of their studies selected material from a wide range of sources but relied predominantly on Internet sources using Google as a search engine. The main criteria guiding students’selection of sources were authoritativeness, ease of understanding and relevance. By the end of the first year, not all students (notably those from Engineering, Science and Music)were able to report further on their use of sources, as they had not undertaken any independent research in the second half of the year. In contrast, students from Arts, who also tended to be more proficient L2 learners, continued to undertake research-based assignments and demonstrated an awareness of the role played by task type, argumentation and writer authority in their selection and use of sources. We conclude this paper by considering the implications of these findings for EAP pedagogy and future research" This is one of a set of articles about "source use in academic writing" by 2nd language students, in this issue: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14751585/12/2
Photo by Sheila webber: Fern in the bluebell wood, Sussex, may 2013

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Online courses on teaching, from Oxford Brookes University

These priced short courses are offered online, and Oxford Brookes has a good reputation in the area of teaching and learning
- Teaching online courses (26 June - 26 July 2013) "An intensive introduction to supporting student learning in online environments"
- Extending your learning environment (12 June - 12 July 2013) "A chance to experiment with a wide range of educational technologies and tools"
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/online/index.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bluebell wood, Sussex, may 2013

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Decode academy: Barbara Fister

Excellent full text keynote paper from Barbara Fister (given at the LOEX conference on 3 May) Decode academy - at http://homepages.gac.edu/~fister/loex13.pdf She discusses what she frames as "outrageous" (to some) ideas for changing the way librarians approach information literacy and teaching information literacy. Well worth reading and discussing (I think I will suggest this for a future blog-post Infolit Journal Club - BTW we had a good discussion on teachmeets last night: scroll down to see the 100+ threaded comments)
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bluebell wood, Sussex, May 2013

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Latest issue of College and Undergraduate Libraries

Volume 20, Issue 1, 2013 of College and Undergraduate Libraries has been published. This is a priced publication. Articles include:
- Contextualizing Information Literacy Enrichment Through a Common Reader in a First-Year Experience Seminar by Sarah Fay Philips & Emerson Case (pages 1-24)
- Adjunct Faculty and the Library: A Challenge for Change by Susan Avery (pages 25-39)
- Developing a Topic-Centered First-Year Seminar with an Emphasis on Information Literacy at a Large Regional University by Wendy L. Chambers, Lisa P. Smith, Jessica N. Orvis & Christopher Caplinger (pages 52-71)
- Health Literacy: A National Responsibility—Our Brothers’ Keeper by Lana W. Jackman (pages 95-106)
Details at http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wcul20/current#.UZZAyFLT7TQ
Photo by Sheila Webber: White blossom in the dusk, Lund, Sweden, May 2013

Friday, May 17, 2013

Infolit journal club: TeachMeets: discussion on 21st May #ilread

The next online blog-comments journal club will be on 8pm UK time (see here for times elsewhere in the world) on Tuesday 21 May. It will take place on the Infolit Journsal Club blog http://infolitjournalclub.blogspot.com/, as a discussion in blog comments.

The topic will be TeachMeets - originating in the schools sector, a TeachMeet is an ‘unconference’, organised by teachers for teachers. The TeachMeet has been adapted into the LibTeachMeet, with the first Library TeachMeet taking place in Cambridge in 2010.

The following article gives the background and provides the starting point for discussion:
Chapter:
Tumelty, N., Kuhn, I., and Birkwood, K. (2012). TeachMeet: Librarians, learning from each other. In P. Godwin and J. Parker (Eds.), Information,Literacy Beyond Library 2.0 (pp. 191-201). London: Facet Publishing. http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/244069

More information at http://infolitjournalclub.blogspot.com/2013/05/teachmeets-discussion-on-21st-may.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Dandelion clocks, Lund, May 2013

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Research Summer School (and my Twitter restored)

The University of Northampton Department of Library and Learning Services, UK, runs a Research Summer School 17 - 18 June 2013. "Designed to provide practitioners with the motivation, knowledge and tools to conduct effective research projects, the two day event is aimed at staff in libraries and learning services who are new to research or would like to brush up on their research skills. One day costs £50, two days cost £80. More information at http://www.northampton.ac.uk/info/20394/postgraduate-research-students/552/researchers-in-the-library/17

By the way, my Twitter account @sheilayoshikawa got suspended for a couple of days (I don't know why!) but it is now back to normal.
Photo by Sheila Webber: White blossoms in the dusk, Lund, May 2013

Monday, May 13, 2013

New articles: Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning

There is a new issue of the open access journal Library and Information Research,(volume 37, no 114) focusing on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. It includes:
- Information literacy in adult returners to Higher Education: student experiences in a university pre-entry course in a UK university by Tony Anderson, Bill Johnston, Alexandra McDonald
- The learning continuum: economical best practices for implementing and achieving a community’s information literacy goals by Shiva Darbandi, Carolyn Waite, Rose Medlock
- Welsh Information Literacy Project by Andrew Eynon
- Dundee College’s Literacy Information Skills Project by Abigail Gourlay Mawhirt
- BILI: Building Information Literacy in Ireland by Amy Connolly, Lorraine Curran, Áine Lynch, Sile O’Shea
- What information competencies matter in today’s workplace? by Alison J. Head, Michele Van Hoeck, Jordan Eschler, Sean Fullerton
- iKnow: Information skills in the 21st Century workplace by Katharine Reedy, Elizabeth Mallett, Natasha Soma
http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/issue/view/65
Photo by Sheila Webber: Copper beech, Lund University, May 2013

Sunday, May 12, 2013

TeachMeet in Norwich, 15 June, Talking teaching: tips, tools and technology

There is a teachmeet in Norwich, UK, on 15 June, organised by ARLG Eastern Librarian TeachMeet - Talking teaching: tips, tools and technology. "Join us for this launch event of the Eastern Division of CILIP's Academic and Research Libraries Group. Bookings will go live at http://arlgeasternlibtm.eventbrite.co.uk/ at 9:00 on Monday 13 May. ... It's open to anyone interested in teaching and technology in libraries and is completely free, including light refreshments. You don't have to be a member of CILIP or ARLG to attend."

Friday, May 10, 2013

Information Literacy: the Teaching Takeaway: 7 & 21 June

CoLRiC (Council for Learning Resources in Colleges) is running two events on Information Literacy: in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, on 7 June 2013 (where I will be running a workshop on the 'Profile of the Information Professional') and on 21 June 2013 in Northampton, UK (where Chris Powis and Georgina Dimmock from the University of Northampton will talk about teaching skills for information literacy). At both events there will also be practical sessions with people from the Further Education sector. Further details and a booking form at: http://www.colric.org.uk/events.php.
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry blossom in the grass, Lund, May 2013

iDocQ 2013 Doctoral Colloquium #idocq2013

The iDocQ 2013 Information Science Doctoral Colloquium will be held on 24 June 2012 at the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science, Aberdeen, UK (this is immediately before the i3 conference). All doctoral students in the information and library field are welcome. Ther eis no fee for UK-based students, and a small fee for students outside the UK. More information and registration at http://idocq2013.eventbrite.co.uk/#
Photo by Sheila Webber: Lund University, a rabbit had just passed through, May 2013

Thursday, May 09, 2013

>Re-defining and Refining Information Literacy and Reference Services in the Digital Age

Registration is open for the Satellite Meeting – IFLA World Library and Information Congress Information Literacy Section and Reference and Information Services Section: Re-defining and Refining Information Literacy and Reference Services in the Digital Age: August 15-16, 2013, National Library Building, Singapore. I am giving a keynote: Question and enquire: taking a critical pathway to understand our users and the other keynote speaker is Ismail Serageldin. There are parallel sessions and an evening reception at Singapore Art Museum. More information at http://ifla2013satellite.nlb.sg/infolitref/

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Connecticut Information Literacy Conference, 7 June

The 3rd Annual Connecticut Information Literacy Conference, Enlightened Hunters and Gatherers: Teaching Information Literacy Skills for Life, will be held at Capital Community College in Hartford, CT on June 7, 2013. Registration is open. The keynote is Sharon Weiner. More information at http://ctinfolit.wix.com/conference#!2013-conference/cjg9

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Free Spanish-language webinar: Alfabetización Informacional y Bibliotecas

Today (7 May) at 8pm Argentinian time (see here for times elsewhere) a free webinar Alfabetización Informacional y Bibliotecas [Information Literacy and Libraries] from Ana Povolo. More info (in Spanish) http://www.socialbiblio.com/alfabetizacion-informacional-y-bibliotecas/ and joining instructions here http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1221319-alfabetizaci%C3%B3n-informacional-y-bibliotecas (where it says the date is 8th May, but that is because it IS 8th May in some countries, e.g. Spain, by then (for people in Spain, France etc. the seminar is at 1am)
Photo by Sheila Webber: This ginger cat likes this tree in May (see here in 2011): May 2013

Monday, May 06, 2013

Webinars on digital literacy etc.

Jisc Advance and the Jisc e-Learning programme have been running webinars on topics such as assessment, digital literacies etc. The webinars are free (so check for anything upcoming), but the main point was to highlight the fact that there are recordings and material from previous ones e.g.from Supporting the development of staff digital literacies; Changing student practices and digital literacies
Go to http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/page/55268839/e-Learning%20Webinars
Photo by Sheila Webber: Pink cherry blossom in a natural bouquet, Blckheath, May 2013

Saturday, May 04, 2013

Lire et écrire la littérature scientifique

A new book (in French) about finding and using information, with advice on academic writing for publication.
Pochet, B. (2012) Lire et écrire la littérature scientifique. Presses agronomiques de Gembloux. ISBN : 978-2-87016-118-0
"Basé sur plus de vingt ans d'expérience et rédigé dans un style simple et direct, cet ouvrage aborde les différents aspects de la recherche d'informations scientifiques et de l'utilisation de cette information ainsi que ceux de la production d'articles publiés dans des revues à comité de lecture." http://orbi.ulg.ac.be/handle/2268/109540
Photo by Sheila Webber: Showing off, Thessaloniki, April 2013

Friday, May 03, 2013

Exploring the Educational Potential of Open Educational Resources

The journal E-Learning and Digital Media (Vol 10, no. 2) has Open Educational Resources as its theme. The articles look thoughtful and interesting, but unfortunately it's a priced publication that my university doesn't subscribe to. The introduction (by Markus Deimann and Norm Friesen, giving a preview of the articles) is free, though, and worth reading.
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/elea/content/maincontents.asp
Photo by Sheila Webber: Wood anemone, April 2013

Thursday, May 02, 2013

New articles in: International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education

This open access journal has a new issue, including:
- Yager, Z., Salisbury, F., and Kirkman, L. (2013) "Assessment of information literacy skills among first year students." The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(1). 59-71. The authors are from La Trobe University, Australia "The development of research and information literacy skills in first year students is essential, but challenging. Approaches to developing these skills that are embedded within subject design, and use a blended approach between online and face-to-face delivery are considered best practice in this area. However research has yet to identify the most appropriate form of assessment of these skills. We used constructive alignment to embed research skills in a first year subject. Students were assessed on their research skills using a diagnostic online quiz in week one, and then in week six, their application of their skills in their assignment was assessed using a rubric. We created a matched sample of the results on these two forms of assessment that included 227 students. Our main aim was to determine whether there was a relationship between quiz and rubric scores, and to assess the practical relevance of the quiz in terms of identifying students who might be in need of additional support. We found a small, but significant, positive correlation between quiz and rubric results and conclude that both the quiz and the rubric are useful forms of assessment, and that there are benefits to using both within an embedded curriculum."

The following aren't specifically about information literacy, but caught my eye.
- Willis, E., Abery, E. and Leiman, T. (2013). "Interrogating education of the heart." The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(1). 21-32. (Developing alternative assessments for health students, focusing on creative responses to the lived experience of patients etc.)
- Bone, E., and Reid, R. (2013). "First course at university: Assessing the impact of student age, nationality and learning style." The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(1). 95 - 107. (In fact they were looking at students' approach to learning, rather than learning style, and found that students with a surface approach to learning were still getting good marks: they note this as a stimulus to changing how they teach "... the general finding that most students were using reproducing strategies in MGC [the module] suggests that learning activities within the course may not encourage independent learning." (p105).
Go to https://fyhejournal.com/issue/view/7/showToc

Also there is a new issue of open-access journal Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, including:
- Murtagh, P., Morris, K., and Thorpe, P. (2013) "'A fish in water’ - Supporting transition to Higher Education and Initial Teacher Training." Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 8(1). (Describes and evaluates a pre-entry module for part time trainee teachers: it doesn't mention IL as such, but problems with citation and synthesis are mentioned).
- Cunningham, S. (2013) "Teaching a diverse student body – a proposed tool for lecturers to self-evaluate their approach to inclusive teaching." Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 8(1). (Includes "a Self Reflective Tool which ... is mapped with the UK Professional Standards for teaching and supporting learning dimensions and encourages consideration of the context, preparation, evaluation, strategies for promoting learning and affective and sensory elements of learning.")
Go to:  http://www.pestlhe.org.uk/index.php/pestlhe/issue/view/23
Photo by Sheila Webber: budding bluebells, April 2013

Plagiarism Education Week webcasts

There are webcasts from Turnitin's Plagiarism Education week, including:
- Students and Plagiarism: Exploring the Disconnect Between Morals and Behavior (Jason Stephens, Educational Psychologist at University of Connecticut)
- Responding to Plagiarism: Lesson Plans and Strategies (Lynn Lampert, Chair of Reference & Instructional Services and Coordinator of Information Literacy & Instruction at California State University Northridge)
- Teaching Originality, Creativity, and Critical Thinking (Kelly McBride, Senior Faculty, Ethics, Reporting and Writing, Poynter)
There are also the winning student entries for an anti-plagiarism poster competition.
http://turnitin.com/en_us/resources/plagiarism-education-week
Photo by Sheila Webber: Woods, Hellingly, April 2013

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Recent articles in Journal of Academic Librarianship

Catching up with the last three issues of this priced publication, they include:

- Bandyopadhyay, A. (2013) "Measuring the Disparities between Biology Undergraduates' Perceptions and Their Actual Knowledge of Scientific Literature with Clickers." Journal of academic librarianship, 39 (2), 194-201
- Colón-Aguirre, M. and Fleming-May, R (2012) “'You Just Type in What You Are Looking For': Undergraduates' Use of Library Resources vs. Wikipedia." Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (6), 391-399.
- Costella, T. et al. (2013) "Undergraduate Program Review Processes: A Case Study in Opportunity for Academic Libraries." Journal of academic librarianship, 39 (2), 169-174.
- Denison, D. and Montgomery, D. (2012) "Annoyance or Delight? College Students' Perspectives on Looking for Information." Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (6), 380-390.
- Finch, J. and Jefferson, R. (2013) "Designing Authentic Learning Tasks for Online Library Instruction." Journal of academic librarianship, 39 (2), 181-188
- Gitari Mbabu, L., Bertram, A. and Varnum, K. (2013) "Patterns of Undergraduates' Use of Scholarly Databases in a Large Research University." Journal of academic librarianship, 39 (2), 189-193
- Harris, B. (2013) "Subversive Infusions: Strategies for the Integration of Information Literacy Across the Curriculum." Journal of academic librarianship, 39 (2), 175-180
- Solomon, D. (2013) "Digital Distribution of Academic Journals and its Impact on Scholarly Communication: Looking Back After 20 Years." Journal of academic librarianship, 39 (1), 23-28
- Tomaszewski, R., Poulin, S. and MacDonald, K. (2013) "Publishing in Discipline-Specific Open Access Journals: Opportunities and Outreach for Librarians." Journal of academic librarianship, 39 (1), 61-66.

Journal home page: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00991333
Photo by Sheila Webber: Wood anemones, Hellingly, April 2013