Coverage of Information Literacy Awareness Month

One of my students used a recent article as the subject for a review they submit (so thank you, Akanksha) and it is one of a number that shows that US librarians are taking advantage of US Information Literacy Awareness Month to get in the press. This article is
Small, R.V. and Arnone, M.P. (2009) Information literacy is essential for the 21st Century. Syracuse.com. 23 October. http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2009/10
/information_literacy_is_essent.html (this is the website of the local newspaper)
Doing a quick Google news search on "information literacy" obama I quickly found a number more e.g.
Bridges, F. (2009) Information literacy more than just Googling. jconline.com (Journal Courier online)13 October. http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009910120320 (interview with Sharon Weiner)
Westport news. (2009) Parsing information. Westport news. 23 October. http://www.westport-news.com/opinion/ci_13623497

Photo by Sheila Webber: in my garden, earlier in the month.

Social Media Seminar Series

There is a Social Media Seminar Series: Trends and Implications for Learning, with the next session tomorrow, Friday October 30 at 9pm Eastern time in the USA (1am in the UK at the moment - World Clock Calculator: http://url.aace.org/ft/200910302100) This is organised by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Its a series so if you miss this one there could be more: http://AACE.org/GlobalU/seminars/socialmedia/
Seminar Recordings: http://EdITLib.org/GlobalU/
Seminar Community: http://www.AACEConnect.org/group/socialmedia

Photo by Sheila Webber: statue of Elliot (a Sheffield worthy), Western Park, October 2009

SCIL Works 2010

SCIL (Southern California Instruction Librarians) Works 2010: Practice, Practice, Practice (P3): Reinvigorating ILI Pedagogy takes place at CSU Chancellor's Office, Long Beach, USA on February 5, 2010. There is a call for proposals on one of these themes: Reinventing "Sessions"; Rethinking Relationships; Reinterpreting/Reframing the Standards (plus, for poster sessions only: Really! Less is More) The submission deadline is November 20, 2009, email Marsha Schnirring at mschnirring@oxy.edu. For poster session guidelines, visit http://clics.ucsd.edu/scil/poster . There are some presentations from SCIL Works 2009 at http://carl-acrl.org/ig/scil/scilworks/index.html

Photo by Sheila Webber: Hathersage, September 2009

AASL conference

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) annual conference takes place in Charlotte, USA, November 5-8. Registration is on-site only at this point, but there are also some virtual options (see web addresses at the end). Information Literacy is always a key theme, especially as the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner put more emphasis on inquiry skills.
Some relevant sessions include:
Collaborating to Fuel Student Achievement (Joyce Needham, Springfield Public Schools)
Developing Discriminating Users of Information: 3 Unique Approaches to "The Real World" (Sheila Brennan, Library Media Specialist, Academy of Holy Angels, Richfield; Judith Roggow, Librarian, DeLaSalle High School, Minneapolis; Kathleen Roy, Library Media Specialist, Cretin-Derham Hall High School, St. Paul,)
Information Literacy: An Online Library Media Course for High School Students (Margaret Lincoln, School Library Media Specialist, Lakeview High School)
Learning Commons, Information Commons, Library Media Center - What's in a Name? (Alison Ernst, Northfield Mount Hermon School; David Loertscher, Professor, San Jose State University; Patt Moser, Sidwell Friends School)
Marketing Information Literacy (Paige Jaeger, Coordinator of School Library Services, WSWHE BOCES)
No Restrictor Plates: Speeding Toward Information Literacy (Marnie Utz, & Steven Yates, Librarians, Spain Park High School, Hoover)
Research Matters! Becoming the Key Component in Your School's Research Curriculum (Jana Brawner, Theresa Gosnell, Carrie Turner, Westside High School, Omaha)
The conference website is at
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/
conferencesandevents/national/charlotte2009.cfm
There are some virtual options to participate http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/
conferencesandevents/national/charlotte2009
/forattendees/bthere/bthere.cfm

Photo by Sheila Webber: Beech tree, Western Park, October 2009

Information Economy 2009

The Information Economy report 2009 has been published by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development). This focuses on the technology side of the information economy, but is very interesting in its global coverage e.g. the significant use of mobile communications in the developing world. This is an extract from the start of the Executive summary:

"In the context of analyzing ICTs for development, this report takes stock of recent trends with regard to extending connectivity worldwide (chapter I). Special attention is given to the challenge of providing broadband access to the Internet. Chapter II monitors developments in enhancing the use of ICTs among enterprises and chapter III looks at how international trade in ICT goods and in IT (information technology) and ICT-enabled services is evolving. As the report was prepared in the midst of the most turbulent economic times since the Great Depression, potential implications of the economic crisis are discussed in all chapters."
Go to http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=11915&intItemID=2068&lang=1 - for the full report free online click on Downloads

Photo by Sheila Webber: Western Park, Sheffield, October 2009

CILIP CoFHE and UC&R Joint Conference

The CILIP CoFHE and UC&R Joint Conference 2010 has the title: Futureproof: making libraries indispensible to learning, teaching and research. It will be held at Exeter University, 21-23 June 2010. There is a call for papers for conference workshop presentations and topics/themes include learning, research and information literacy (and a number of other themes). The deadline for proposals is 4th December 2009. For further info see http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/
bysubject/ucr/Conference
Photo by Sheila Webber: beech tree, Sheffield, October 2009

Transliteracy conference

There is a Call for Presentations for the Transliteracy Conference being held 9 Feb 2010in Leicester, UK. Themes include: transliteracy and libraries or the arts; transliteracy in education or the workplace or communications; transliteracy and trandisciplinarity; transliteracy in action e.g. digital fiction, networked arts projects, or library resources.
Deadline for 250 word abstracts is 1 December, 2009, emailed to transliteracy@googlemail.com For more info go to http://nlabnetworks.typepad.com/transliteracy/conference2010.html
see also http://transliteracy.ning.com/

Photo by Sheila Webber: transliterate writer's retreat, Second Life

PRIMO call

The Peer Reviewed Instructional Materials Online (PRIMO) Committee of the ACRL (American College and Research Libraries) Instruction Section invites you to submit your online information literacy tutorial, virtual tour, or other online library instruction project for review and possible inclusion in PRIMO: Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online. Deadline for autumn 2009 are: Nominations: October 31; Submissions: November 14. Additional information about PRIMO, as well as the submission and nomination forms, is at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/
divs/acrl/about/sections/is/projpubs/
primo/index.cfm
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn arrangement, October 2009

Canadian presentation at Sheffield, 27 October

If you live/work near Sheffield you may like to attend the following presentation at 3pm-4pm on Tuesday 27th October 2009. It will be in Room 204, 2nd Floor, Department of Information Studies, Sheffield University, Regent Court Building, 211 Portobello Street, Sheffield S1, UK. The Google Maps reference is at http://tinyurl.com/yg32ubp No need to book in advance. The nearest tram stop is West Street. Any questions email me (s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk) This is a Centre for Information Literacy Research event.

Sophie Bury, Business Librarian, York University, Canada, will present on An Investigation of the Information Literacy Instruction Practices, Attitudes and Knowledge of University Faculty: Results of a Web-based Survey at York University, Canada. "This presentation will provide an overview of key findings and recommendations of a survey of full-time faculty at York University, which investigated their information literacy instruction practices, attitudes, and knowledge. The session will also examine the extent to which the findings of this study either corroborate or differ from results of similar studies uncovered by a recent review of the LIS literature. Findings regarding faculty perceptions of the importance of information literacy instruction, and of information literacy competency levels among students will be discussed. Data regarding levels of faculty engagement in teaching information literacy competencies, either by themselves or in collaboration with a librarian, will also be shared. Findings will also be highlighted regarding the nature of information literacy instruction typically incorporated within the classroom by faculty, as well as their general experiences and estimation of it. Results regarding faculty awareness of, and support for different formats and methods of instruction delivery will also be summarised. Based on these survey results, the researcher’s summary of implications for practice and research will be shared."

Project Information Literacy

My first year students are currently picking information literacy websites, articles or books to review for a first formative assignment. One of them has chosen Project Information Literacy, so I looked to see whether there was anything new since they released their first report in February. They have in fact released a few videos since then: they are:
Frustrations (quotations from students about what they finding frustrating about looking for information
Wikipedia (what students say about it)
Procrastination (issues around why they procrastinate on working on assignments)
Understanding Information Literacy through the Lens of the Student Experience (introducing the project)
The project website is http://projectinfolit.org/ and their Youtube stream is at http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjInfoLit
Photo by Sheila Webber: Students flowing towards Sheffield University, walking to work, early October 2009

Horton award

Dr. Forest “Woody” Horton was presented with the first Patricia Senn Breivik award for information literacy at the National Forum on Information Literacy 20th Anniversary Celebration that took place last week: congratulations to him!

EDUCAUSE material

Recent material from Educause includes the following:
- In the latest 2 EDUCAUSE Now podcasts "campus experts discuss implementing social media in the classroom" http://www.educause.edu/blog/
gbayne/EDUCAUSENow19ImplicationsofSoc/
179382 (Sept) and in October's podcast they discuss cybersecurity.
- Creating Learning Environments is the final installment of the 2009 EDUCAUSE Solutions in Action webcast series (http://www.educause.edu/Resources/
CreatingLearningEnvironmentsth/169722)
- Deciphering Social Networks research brief from the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/
ecar_so/ers/ers0806/rs/ERS0806.pdf (this one is only available to subscribers)
Photo by Sheila Webber: My apples, October 2009

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare

The Center for Social Media has published the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare. "This document is a code of best practices designed to help those preparing OpenCourseWare (OCW) to interpret and apply fair use under United States copyright law." Obviously that means it can't be applied internationally, but it at least highlights issues of concern and in practice there is international harmonisation of a number of elements of copyright law. The code is at: http://tinyurl.com/ylzeg9p
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn oak leaves, Sheffield, October 2009

cfp Teaching Information Literacy Online

Thomas P. Mackey, Associate Dean at the Center for Distance Learning at SUNY Empire State College and Trudi E. Jacobson,Head of User Education Programs, University Libraries at the University at Albany, SUNY (USA) are soliciting chapter proposals for a book entitled Teaching Information Literacy Online, to be published in 2010 by Neal-Schuman Publishers. This book will include chapters co-authored by librarian and faculty teams about successful information literacy initiatives in online learning environments. They are especially interested in information literacy collaborations in fully online modes through distance and open learning as well as blended or hybrid endeavors. Chapters need to be co-authored by a librarian and a faculty member. Please contact Tom Mackey at Tom.Mackey@esc.edu for more information; proposals should be submitted by November 20, 2009.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Car ferry, Cadennabia, Italy, August 2009

Plagiarism items

The Plagiarism Advice Agency in the UK is at http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/ They provide advice, training and resources for those in the education sector, schools as well as further and higher education. The focus has been more on higher education, but apparently they will also be publishing guides for those in secondary schools (I couldn't see them there yet).
The 4th International Plagiarism Conference will be held at Northumbria University, 21-23 June 2010, papers to be submitted by 29 January 2010. http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/conference.html

Another useful site is Plagiarism today, http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/ , which is run by Jonathan Bailey (based in the USA) who says "am not a lawyer. I am just a legally-minded Webmaster/Writer frustrated with the plague of plagiarism online and doing something about it." However, he posts interesting commentary and news, though obviously with a US perspective on the legal situation.
Photo by Sheila Webber: metro, Milan, Italy, August 2009

Beyond Current Horizons project

"Beyond Current Horizons explores the future for education, beyond 2025. The aim is to help our education system prepare for and develop an ongoing and sustainable response to the challenges it faces as society and technology rapidly evolve." This is a project from Futurelab, for the Departments of Schools, Education and Families, which was completed in June 2009. It contains six scenarios exploring the future of education (which start by mapping the social context, and therefore could be very useful for exploring other issues, e.g. the role of libraries!), plus; "a searchable database containing all of the research papers that informed the development of the six future scenarios"; a "Long-term planning toolkit"; and the final report plus other research papers. These include:
Carrington, V. and Marsh, J. (2008) Forms of literacy. http://www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/forms-of-literacy/
"In this review, we outline ways in which literacy is changing due to developments in technology, and review the implications for educational institutions in the future."

Photo by Sheila Webber: Bellagio, Italy, August 2009

LOEX of the West 2010

The LOEX of the West conference 2010 has opened its call for papers for the LOEX of the West Conference, to be held June 10-12, 2010, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. More info at http://library.mtroyal.ca/lotw/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Trilium flowers, Canada, May 2005

Seminar series on literacies

There are two research seminar series to do with literacies starting this month, both funded by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council). The first is one that I am contributing to next Monday October 12, is Children's and young people's digital literacies in virtual online spaces. There is a website which gives information about the seminar leaders (who include Dr Julia Davies and Professor Jackie Marsh from Sheffield University's school of Education) and the programme of events: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/events/digital-literacies/index.htm The seminar on the 12th has the theme The nature of virtuality and I will be presenting on: Adventures in Second Life: a personal history.
The second seminar series is called Literacy in the Digital University. They have a blog at: http://literacyinthedigitaluniversity.blogspot.com/ The main blogger is Robin Goodfellow, Senior Lecturer in New Technology in Teaching in the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University. The first seminar in this series is at Edinburgh University on October 16 2009. The overall theme is The relation of new media practices to traditional literacy practice in the academy and the professions. See the blog for more details.

Information Literacy Awareness Month in USA

The campaign to have an Information Literacy Awareness month in the USA has been successful: President Barack Obama yesterday signed the official proclamation declaring October as Information Literacy Awareness Month! There is more information at http://www.whitehouse.gov/
the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-
National-Information-Literacy-Awareness-Month/

Workshop in Mumbai

The TISS-IFLA Collaborative Workshops 2009 on Information Literacy Skills have been announced. TISS is Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai, India) and IFLA is the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. This is a 2-day workshop with the theme Capacity Building in the Knowledge Environment- Workshops to Train Library and Information professionals in Information Literacy Skills. It takes place 18-19 December 2009 in TISS, Mumbai. Registration, Boarding and Lodging for this Two Day Workshop is FREE and is limited to only 50 participants.More info at http://sites.google.com/site/iflatiss/home

Photo by Sheila Webber: Berlin Zoo, August 2009

Scottish presentations & restructured Framework

Presentations from the Scottish Information Literacy Project Open Meeting 2009 are now on the project website http://www.caledonian.ac.uk/
ils/events.html
The restructured National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland) is now available as a weblog at http://caledonianblogs.net/nilfs/ with exemplars of good practice / case studies added

Photo by Sheila Webber: Como, August 2009