Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Information literacy advocates #lilac17

Here's the next report from Pam McKinney at the LILAC conference. Pam writes:
"Ruth Curtis from the University of Nottingham presented on Information literacy advocates; a peer support scheme. This is a ten credit module for the Nottingham Advantage Award. The aim of the module is to develop IL knowledge, skills and confidence through the provision of peer support. UG Students from Medicine and health sciences take part and are assessed through a reflective portfolio. Students are invited to an interactive induction workshop and have a mid module review meeting. The IL Advocates are responsible for promoting their role to their peers e.g. On noticeboards, through social media and through academic staff. They record the number and type of enquiries they field, and the most frequently asked for support was with structuring searches on databases.
"Feedback that the IL Advocates have received indicates that they have had a positive impact on confidence and ability to use library resources. The Advocates have supported library staff in information skills sessions, and offered one-to-one support to students. IL Advocates developed their own IL capabilities and also other transferable skills such as team work."
There has been an article on this work: Curtis, R. (2016). Information Literacy Advocates: developing student skills through a peer support approach. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 33(4), 334–339. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hir.12156/abstract (priced article)
Photo by Pam McKinney: Swansea, April 2017

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