Call for proposals extended: #CALC23

The 2nd call for papers for CALC (Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference) 2023 has been extended to 9 April 2023. The conference takes place online, 24-25 May 2023. You can propose any topic related to critical librarianship you can use this page as a prompt - https://sites.google.com/view/calcconference/about/what-is-critical-library-practice and if in doubt email the conference organisers calcconference@gmail.com who will give you some helpful feedback about whether your proposal fits the theme. The call for papers page is here: https://sites.google.com/view/calcconference/call-for-papers
Photo by Sheila Webber: heather outside the Sheffield UCU office - it is in UCU colours! March 2023

Maddie is Online showcase

There is an online showcase event on 27 March 2023 at 6pm (UK time): Maddie is Online': Ethics of Online Safety and Security Final Showcase. You will see the 5 short-listed video cartoon stories created by young people as part of the Maddie is Online projecton, on the ethics of online safety and security. The winner of this schools competition will be announced during the session. The project is funded by the Scottish Government, supported by Digital Xtra Fund.
"During the session we will play all the video stories, followed by the final announcement of the winning team that will be selected by an external panel. Our five stories are: 'Friend Finder', 'Lucy the Influencer', 'Violet', 'Yphone Scam' and 'Yolo Classroom'. They all have some important lessons for online safety by young people and their own scripts, characters and voice-overs. Several teachers/librarians also took part in the stories."
Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/maddie-is-online-ethics-of-online-safety-and-security-final-showcase-tickets-580172289937

Bradley's take on AI chat

Online expert Phil Bradley had stepped back profesionally, but happily he has now re-engaged, in particular in examining Chat AI tools. You can find some short videos on his Youtube channel - the latest is a short test of Bard
Image created by Sheila Webber with Midjourney: evidently it doesn't know what "Bard" is yet; prompt was Bard, Google’s alternative to ChatGPT, anime style, judgement, Phil Bradley  BTW I don't try and tweak the prompts much, I'm interested in what it comes up with when I feed in key words from my posts

Webinar: KeyWordPlay: #Playfulness in Information Literacy

LiLi (Lifelong Information Literacy) has organised a webinar KeyWordPlay: Playfulness in Information Literacy on 5 April 2023 at 10.00-11.00 US Pacific time (which is e.g. 18.00-19.00 UK time). It is led by Jay Edwards. "A library user takes an active role in searching. Their success not only depends on their knowledge of search strategies, but their tendency to persist and change their strategies on the fly. Successful searchers are those who experiment, explore, and even play. But how do we teach flexibility and creativity in a time-limited classroom setting? How do we teach someone to persist when they're on their own, or to navigate new information environments in the future? ... Learn how the language of play can reframe the vocabulary of the ACRL Framework. See how various librarians have integrated games into library instruction to teach a balance of strategy and flexibility in time-limited classroom settings."
Register here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/keywordplay-playfulness-in-information-literacy-tickets-596912490327
Fill in this form if you can't attend but would like the recording https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeLcOpXa_sqg2M0GicDcz3kh-623aLw921m1Q2714SF22mhVw/viewform

AI Tools to Create and Curate Content in Higher Education

A useful set of annotated links A Snapshot of AI Tools to Create and Curate Content in Higher Education has been assembed by Contact North | Contact Nord (a Canadian education site): it covers Text mining tools, Automated grammar and punctuation checkers, Sentiment analysis tools, Content curation tools, Plagiarism and originality checkers, Speech-to-text and Text-to-speech. Go to https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/snapshot-ai-tools-create-and-curate-content-higher-education
Photo by Sheila Webber: daisies, March 2023

ASIS&T 2023 Mid-Year Conference

The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) 2023 Mid-Year Conference takes place online 11-13 April 2023, with the three days timed to take place in 3 different time zones so there is something for everyone (though unless you like attending conferences in the middle of the night it is unlikely you will participate in all 3 days). The programme is here (scroll to the bottom to click to days 2 and 3). The theme is: Expanding Horizons of Information Science and Technology and Beyond. This is a priced conference, and the early bird raes end on 31 March - they are listed here
Full details at  https://www.asist.org/my23/

UX in Libraries: Connections and Collaborations

The in-person user experience conference UX in Libraries: Connections and Collaborations takes place 6-8 June 2023 in Brighton, UK. The keynote speakers are Marie Østergård (Library Director of Aarhus Public Libraries) and Dr Arun Verma ,there is a pre-conference workshop with Andy Priestner . More information at https://uxlib.org/uxlibs2023/ They offer sponsored places: 2 to staff from public libraries (or further education) and 1 to a BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) delegate, application deadline 31 March 2023

Call for proposals: WLIC poster session

There is a call for posters for the World Library and Information Congress, being held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, 21-25 August 2023. The application deadline is 1 April 2023. The conference theme is Let’s work together, Let’s Library with the sub-theme of Building a sustainable future through the Sustainable Development Goals (although I think these themes can be interpreted broadly) More information at https://2023.ifla.org/call-for-posters/ You have to attend the conference in person to present the poster. There are normally a great many posters at a WLIC poster session (well over 100) and also you get lots of visitors.
Photo by Sheila Webber: the poster area at the 2022 WLIC

Webinar: AI-Driven Search Engines: A Comparative Study

There is a free webinar organised by the SLA on 5 April 2023, at 6pm BST (UK time): AI-Driven Search Engines: A Comparative Study, given by longtime search expert Marydee Ojala. She will "share a preview of her talk on AI search capabilities and results, which she'll also be giving at this year's MLA | SLA 2023 Conference in Detroit [USA]. ... Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have affected the search technologies that power search engines used for general as well as scholarly research. Google and Google Scholar remain a staple for free web searching, But newer entrants, such as Neeva and Consensus, change search behaviour and influence results. This study compares the search capabilities and results among several search engines used across multiple disciplines and considers the impact of the content base used by each."
Register at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwucu-rrTwvG9FqQeyyVAapXIDkW7fdRblw
Image by Sheila Webber and Midjourney with prompt marydee ojala, information today, head & shulders, anime style

New articles: Data cultures; Older adults' proxies; e-health literacy

There is is a new issue (volume 28 issue 1, 2023) of the open access journal Information Research. It includes:
- Data Cultures: a scoping literature review by Gillian Oliver, Jocelyn Cranefield, Spencer Lilley, Matthew Lewellen ("This paper reports the outcomes from a literature review of the concept of data cultures as the first step in extending the body of knowledge relating to information culture in the information science domain and raising awareness of the need for further research.")
- Internet use and e-health literacy among tuberculosis patients in the Directly Observed Therapy Centre, Lagos State, Nigeria by Olalekan Moses Olayemi, Timothy Shola Abolarinwa
- Social Media by Proxy: how older adults work within their ‘social networks’ to engage with social media by Gemma Webster, Frances VC Ryan
Go to https://informationr.net/infres/issue/view/28-1

New articles: SoTL; Communication skills; Learning outcome engagement; Reading; Health equity

The latest issue of Reference Services Review (priced journal) vol. 51 issue 1, 2023, includes
- “We turn the lens … on ourselves:” assessing digital primary source library instruction through the lens of scholarship of teaching and learning by Peggy Keeran
- Teaching undergraduates to develop concise and compelling scholarly communication through storytelling by Tiffanie Ford–Baxter, Kendall Faulkner - Tracking student learning outcome engagement at the reference desk to facilitate assessment by Michael D. Current
- The reader's way: student process guiding library practice by Annie R. Armstrong, Glenda M. Insua, Catherine Lantz
- Libraries advancing health equity:a literature review by Amanda J. Wilson, Catherine Staley, Brittney Davis, Blair Anton (this article is open access)
Go to: https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0090-7324/vol/51/iss/1Photo by Sheila Webber: dusk, February 2023

Center for Countering Digital Hate

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which produces material and runs campaigns to highlight misinformation and hate speech in social media, has recently produced a TikTok parents guide. After looking at their material and doing a little googling it seemed to me that their material was worth considering if you are putting together guides and teaching material, but they do seem to have an agenda (though a left rather than right wing one - and they certainly don't like TikTok!) that might influence some of their material.

Image by Sheila Webber and Midjourney, created with prompt tiktok, monster, hate, fantasy style, pastels (as you may gather I have run out of new pictures of flowers, vegetables and trees: as spring is coming I should have more nature photos soon, though)

#HILJclub discusses "Google is goodish"

HILJClub aims to encouraging engagement with articles published in HILJ (Health Information & Libraries Journal). Someone writes an introduction to their chosen article and sets articles for discussion in the comments. The latest contribution is by Rachel Holmes (Clinical Librarian, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, UK) who introduces:
Lacey, P. (2021) Google is goodish: An information literacy course designed to teach users why Google may not be the best place to search for evidence Health Information and Libraries Journal, 39 (1), 91-95. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12401
Holmes set the questions:
- Should health librarians accept that Google searching is here to stay and start to teach such sessions as these or should we still be trying to promote the more traditional use of the medical and nursing literature databases?
- What else can usefully be included in information literacy sessions taught by health librarians?
- Will you change your practice as a result of reading this article? If so, tell us how!
You will see some interesting responses in the comments, and you are free to add your own thoughts. https://hilj.club/2023/02/02/hilj-article-google-is-goodish-an-information-literacy-course-designed-to-teach-users-why-google-may-not-be-the-best-place-to-search-for-evidence/

Image by Sheila Webber & Midjourney: this rather odd image (perhaps in a doctor's waiting room in an outpost of some unknown country) was created with the prompt: google searching goodish clinical poster

Libraries and Sustainable Development

The Libraries for Sustainable Development (LSD) website "was created to feature and bring together information to act on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and sustainable development, in general". Created by the Mortenson Center, University of Illinois, USA, there are "Information Action Briefs" for libraries for each UN SDG. Go to https://sdglibact.web.illinois.edu/ or https://www.library.illinois.edu/mortenson/
I would also remind people about IFLA's extensive and sustained work around the SDGs and libraries: https://www.ifla.org/units/sustainable-development/