TeachMeet 5 September, University of East Anglia

The Norfolk Teaching Librarians' Network is running a free TeachMeet on 5 September 2017 (1pm to 3:30pm) at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK. Presenters (10-minute presentations) are sought to share a teaching activity or idea. "The format is relaxed and friendly, and you can present in any way you like, with or without slides. At the end of the session we'll have a chance to reflect on the presentations as a group and how we might incorporate any new ideas into our own teaching practice." Book as presenter or spectator at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/norfolk-teaching-librarians-network-teachmeet-tickets-36778206606
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield Botanic Gardens, border, August 2017

Becoming blended

I recently noticed the tumblr of Melanie Parlette-Stewart (Blended Learning Librarian at the University of Guelph), who sketchnotes conferences etc. http://becomingblended.tumblr.com/ (I came across her account of the ECIL 2016 conference). In a recent post she talks about her approach to sketchnoting/visual note-taking http://becomingblended.tumblr.com/post/163585089146/toolsresources-for-visual-note-taking including some links at the end. Also interesting is her tumblr What the librarian wore
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield Botanic Gardens, border with bees, August 2017

Design for Learning

There is a free online self-paced course Design for Learning: 21st Century Online Teaching and Learning Skills for Library Workers (D4L) which is "designed to enable library workers to transfer their in-person teaching skills to the online environment. ...The program is comprised of 7 online self-paced modules: Orientation, Foundation, Diversity, Community, Content Creation, Course Management, and Capstone. ... D4L was developed as a partnership between the the South Central Regional Library Council, Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, and the Empire State Library Network. It is funded as a three-year grant, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)." Registering for Webjunction is straightforward (I tried it) and you get access to other courses too. http://learn.webjunction.org/course/index.php?categoryid=41
Photo by Sheila Webber: seagull, Inverness, June 2017

Predatory papers

I saw from the Improbable Research website** that an annotated collection of papers that aim to expose predatory journals has been published. This mainly consists of papers that are nonsense and were devised to show that predatory journals will accept anything. Each paper has a short introduction and links to news items etc. that reacted to the "sting".
Faulkes, Z. (2017). Stinging the Predators: A collection of papers that should never have been published. Figshare. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5248264
A useful collection if you are discussing this topic with students/researchers: my only caveat is that it does not state clearly that the permission of the copyright owners was sought.

**a long-standing website/magazine that takes a droll and sceptical perspective on scientific output and has presented the ig-noble prizes since 1991
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield Botanic Gardens, August 2017

Fake news, quality images

Browsing the Information Today site, two recent short articles that caught my eye:
Badke, W. (2017) Post-Truth, False News, and Information Literacy. Online Searcher, 31 (4). http://www.infotoday.com/OnlineSearcher/Articles/InfoLit-Land/PostTruth-False-News-and-Information-Literacy-119319.shtml
Burke, J. (2017). Finding Quality Free Images. Marketing Library Services, 31 (4). http://www.infotoday.com/mls/jul17/Burke--Finding-Quality-Free-Images.shtml
Photo by Sheila Webber: my camera is saying goodbye: those lines weren't added in photoshop! Time for a new one. Autumn anemones, August 2017

LIANZA conference #open17

This is mostly not about information literacy (just a couple of sessions), but I thought the programme of the LIANZA (Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) conference looked very diverse and interesting. It takes place September 24 - 27 2017 in Christchurch, New Zealand.One of the less usual sessions is "LIANZA Human Lending Library: The human lending library allows you to sit one on one with each of our human “books” and have a detailed conversation about an area of interest to you. You might drill down on an aspect of their keynote or professional expertise or pick their brain for suggestions towards your work." (The "books" are Bill Macnaught, Paul Stacey, Matt Finch, Laurinda Thomas, Lesley Acres, Donna Lanclos, Sue Sutherland) https://lianza.org.nz/conferences/lianza-conference-2017-addington-raceway-september-24-27
You also might like to check out their open access journal (Library Life). The latest (July 2017) issue is the "Te Rōpū Whakahau edition of Library Life. Te Rōpū Whakahau is the leading national body that represents Māori engaged in Libraries, Culture, Knowledge, Information, Communication and Systems Technology in Aotearoa New Zealand" https://lianza.org.nz/our-work/publications/library-life
Photo by Sheila Webber: wild oregano, July 2017

Listicles

McCrystal, E. and Migliaccio, C. (2017, 31 July). 10 Reasons the Listicle Is Effective for Digital Pedagogy. Educause review. http://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/7/10-reasons-the-listicle-is-effective-for-digital-pedagogy
The authors say "The listicle is a strong pedagogical method for faculty to communicate with students, either about the curriculum, through specific assignments/goals, or regarding technology use in the course. Furthermore, students can use the listicle to synthesize information, organize information, and prioritize course tasks. On the surface, the listicle may seem simplistic, but the broad pedagogical power of the listicle helps students by enhancing their reading, researching, writing, and digital-media skills. Thus, the listicle serves as an effective tool in any classroom."

To be honest, I'm not totally convinced (aren't these just ... short lists? does calling them listicles really have a magic motivating effect on students?) but at any rate it made me think about the place of lists in teaching, and what to call them. In fact it also made me think I might have the odd listicle on this blog, so watch this space.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Blackheath, the heath, August 2017

RUSA to become open access

Reference and User Services Quarterly, official journal of the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association, will go open access from its Autumn 2017 issue. It includes a regular infortmation literacy column, and one of the forthcoming issues is focusing on workplace information literacy. For those of you with subscriptions (or access as ALA members) the last issue (vol 56 no 4, 2017) included:
- Esther Grassian: Information Literacy and Instruction: Teaching and Learning Alternatives: A Global Overview (pages 232-239).
- Marc Vinyard, Colleen Mullally, Jaimie Beth Colvin: Why do Students Seek Help in an Age of DIY? Using a Qualitative Approach to Look Beyond Statistics (pages 257-268) (so this should complement the JAL article I blogged yesterday on "Academic Information-Seeking and Help-Seeking Practices")
The home page is at https://journals.ala.org/index.php/rusq
Photo by Sheila Webber: large daisies... July 2017

New articles: metacognitive strategies; mobile devices; help-seeking; student perceptions; social media use

The latest issue (volume 43, no. 3) of The Journal of Academic Librarianship (priced publication) includes:
- Catalano, A. Development and Validation of the Metacognitive Strategies for Library Research Skills Scale. Pages 178-183
- Lau, K.P. et al. Educational Usage of Mobile Devices: Differences Between Postgraduate and Undergraduate Students Pages 201-208
- Thomas, S., Tewell, E, and Willson, G. Where Students Start and What They Do When They Get Stuck: A Qualitative Inquiry into Academic Information-Seeking and Help-Seeking Practices Pages 224-231
- Attebury, R.I. Professional Development: A Qualitative Study of High Impact Characteristics Affecting Meaningful and Transformational Learning Pages 232-241
- McCartin, L.F., Iannacchione, B. and Evans, M.K. Student Perceptions of a Required Information Literacy Course on Their Success in Research & Writing Intensive Criminal Justice Courses Pages 242-247
- Harrison, A. et al. Social Media Use in Academic Libraries: A Phenomenological Study Pages 248-256
- Stvilia, B. and Gibradze, L. Examining Undergraduate Students' Priorities for Academic Library Services and Social Media Communication Pages 257-262
Contents page at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00991333/43/3?sdc=1
Photo by Sheila Webber: Inverness, June 2017

Presentations from #LILI2017 Learning Social Justice through Critical Information Literacy

A number of the presentations from the one day LILi Conference (Theme: Learning Social Justice through Critical Information Literacy), held on 31 July 2017 in Glendale, USA, are online. This includes: Teaching Authority Where Black Lives Matter Presented by Faith Bradham (Bakersfield College); Engage Your Cultural Side: Cultural Intelligence Presented by Dr. Michele Villagran (University of North Texas); Teaching Future Leaders about Authority Presented by Charissa Jefferson (California State University Northridge); Keepin’ It Real: Reflections on a Fake News Workshop Presented by Aisha Conner-Gaten, Jennifer Masunaga, and Desirae Zingarelli-Sweet (Loyola Marymount University). Further presentations will be added. Go to http://campusguides.glendale.edu/LILI2017
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea, July 2017

Calls for papers for iConference 2018 #iconf18

There is a call for papers for the 2018 iConference, which takes place March 25-28, 2018, at my own University, the University of Sheffield, in Sheffield, UK. This is the conference organised by the iSchools association (of which we are a member) but you don't have to be in an iSchool to submit a proposal. The call closes on September 18 2017. The scope of the conference is broadly the field of information science (and that includes information literacy. For papers they say that they are looking for research papers that "push the boundaries of information scholarship, explore core concepts and ideas, and help identify new technological and conceptual configurations."
- Papers: the submission needs to be written as a full paper (not abstract); either completed research or emerging findings.
- Posters: the submission is a long abstract (effectively, a mini paper)
- Workshops (half/full day): Submission is an abstract plus a 1000 word description
- Sessions for Interaction and Engagement (SIEs): which are interactive, but (basically) shorter than workshops: Submission is an abstract plus a 1000 word description
There are also calls for submission to the iSchool Best Practices and iSchools and Industry Partnership tracks, the Doctoral Student Colloquium and the Early Career Colloquium.
More information at http://ischools.org/the-iconference/call-for-participation/

Student Success: open access journal

An Australian open access education journal worth monitoring if you work in Higher Education is: Student Success: A journal exploring the experiences of students in tertiary education. "This journal provides the opportunity to disseminate current research and innovative good practice about students’ tertiary learning experiences, which are supported by evidence. Researchers, tertiary and university teachers and educators and professional staff who are advancing student learning, success and retention are encouraged to submit." It was formerly the International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education and the current issue (volume 8, no 2, 2017) has something of a FYHE focus. It starts with an article by the well-respected Professor Vince Tinto: Reflections on Student Persistence and other articles includ: First year student conceptions of success: What really matters? (Ryan Naylor); Transition pedagogies and the neoliberal episteme: What do academics think? (Kate Hughes); The flipped classroom: A learning model to increase student engagement not academic achievement (Masha Smallhorn). Content page at https://studentsuccessjournal.org/issue/view/18
Photo by Sheila Webber: Canary Wharf, London, July 2017

#Dissertations: academic libraries and social media

In the #uklibchat session on library/information student research last night, one thing that was mentioned was repositories for Masters dissertations. The Sheffield iSchool (i.e. my department) has one http://dagda.shef.ac.uk/dispub/ (it's a bit clunky, you can only search on words in the title, not in full text, but there are lots of interesting dissertations!) and it was mentioned that City University use Humanities Commons, you search https://hcommons.org/deposits/?facets[group_facet][]=CityLIS
One recent dissertation from City University, based on desk research is:
Rippon, A. (2017) An examination into the ways that academic libraries can use social media to support information literacy teaching http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6TT30 "This research provides an evaluation into the relevance of social media tools as a means of supporting the provision of information literacy in academic libraries. It uses the information literacy framework A New Curriculum for Information Literacy (ANCIL) developed by Secker and Coonan in 2011 as the basis for examination and draws upon examples and studies from academic research, higher education institutions, and social media platforms. Social media is prevalent within many areas of modern life, particularly amongst younger generations. Therefore, it is important to consider whether it can be an active element to the development of information literacy skills. Typically academic libraries have used social media for marketing purposes rather than to provide study support or as information resources in their own right. This research seeks to highlight that social media platforms can be a valuable tool in developing information literacy skills in university level students. The conclusions drawn from the research provide clear recommendations for academic libraries to utilise social media to further their delivery of information literacy."
Photo by Sheila Webber: waiting for lunch at Liberty's, London, July 2017

#wlic2017 papers: media literacy; open publishing

I will be attending the World Library and Information Conference (the IFLA conference) in Wroclaw later this month, and intend to be liveblogging from there. As usual, some full-text papers are already uploaded to the IFLA repository. These are a few of them:
- PLANK, Margret and MOLNÁR, Attila Dávid and MARÍN-ARRAIZA, Paloma (2017) Extending Media Literacy Education: The Popular Science Video Workshop. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2017 – Wrocław, Poland – Libraries. Solidarity. Society. in Session 242 - Audiovisual and Multimedia, Information Literacy and School Libraries. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1776
- HE, Jian-hao and HORNG, Shih-chang (2017) Watching movies through listening at any place in any time- a special event for visually impaired people. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2017 – Wrocław, Poland – Libraries. Solidarity. Society. in Session 242 - Audiovisual and Multimedia, Information Literacy and School Libraries. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1771
- MENDINHOS, Isabel (2017) Advocacy through videos: Short movies on school libraries. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2017 – Wrocław, Poland – Libraries. Solidarity. Society. in Session 242 - Audiovisual and Multimedia, Information Literacy and School Libraries. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1772 ("The Portuguese School Libraries Network Program (SLNP) has commemorated its 20th anniversary in 2016. Several initiatives were prepared to mark this event, some of them involving students, the main patrons of school libraries. “Short movies on school libraries” was a challenge presented to students. They would have to prove that their school library was the best through the production of a short movie, according to given rules...")
- RAJU, Reggie (2017) Altruism as the founding pillar for open monograph publishing in the Global South. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2017 – Wrocław, Poland – Libraries. Solidarity. Society. in Session 232 - Academic and Research libraries, FAIFE and Copyright and Other Legal Matters. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1703
- HARTGERINK, Chris H.J. (2017) Re-envisioning a future in scholarly communication. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2017 – Wrocław, Poland – Libraries. Solidarity. Society. in Session 232 - Academic and Research libraries, FAIFE and Copyright and Other Legal Matters. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1631
Photo by Sheila Webber: tower, Canary Wharf, July 2017

Recent articles: information literacy everyday and in academia

A few articles from the latest issue of the priced publication Journal of documentation
- Martzoukou, K. and Abdi, E.S. (2017). Towards an everyday life information literacy mind-set: a review of literature. Journal of documentation, 73(4), 634 - 665. Open access version at https://openair.rgu.ac.uk/handle/10059/2105
- Walton, G. and Cleland, J. (2017). Information literacy: Empowerment or reproduction in practice? A discourse analysis approach. Journal of documentation, 73(4), 582 - 594. Open access version at http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/26272/
Koltay, T. (2017). The bright side of information: ways of mitigating information overload. Journal of documentation, 73(4), 767 - 775.
The JDoc contents page is at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/jd/73/4
Photo by Sheila Webber: hydrangea, July 2017