Information Literacy - From Preschool to High School

An article in School Library Journal publicises some online courses (using Moodle) for school librarians, provided by the Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC). They include Information Literacy - From Preschool to High School (6 weeks, from February 1—March 12, 2010) "Learn how to conduct information literacy instruction for all ages from preschool to elementary school to middle school and beyond". Cost is US $165, with discounts for members of ALSC and members of the American Library Association. The information page is at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/
divs/alsc/edcareeers/profdevelopment/
alscweb/Information_Literacy.cfm
Photo by Sheila Webber: St Basil's Cathedral, Moscow, Russia, December 2009

Ensuring Information Literacy at UNC Charlotte

Via the Literacy news blog I found a link to a video from last June "What they lack is discernment" Ensuring Information Literacy at UNC Charlotte which "Summarizes the Library's current information literacy programs at UNC Charlotte. In FY09, librarians taught 490 information literacy sessions and reached 10,800 students, approximately 45% of current enrollment. " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT9tpymNHgY
Photo by Sheila Webber: Kazan Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow, December 2009

An Information literate new year!

A belated Merry Christmas, and a happy new year to all readers of the information literacy weblog! I've been having a Christmas holiday, but normal blogging will resume shortly. This is me outside the Assumption Cathedral, in the Kremlin, Moscow just before Christmas.

Survey of Higher Education Faculty

There is a priced report about library use & training in US and Canadian universities. "The Survey of Higher Education Faculty: Use of Library Reference, Info Literacy and Subject Specialist Staff, ISBN 1-57440-138-6, presents data on how higher education faculty in the United States & Canada use the virtual reference services, subject specialists and info literacy staff of their academic library. It includes specific data on the percentage of faculty that use virtual reference, how often they use it, and similar data on awareness and use of library subject specialists, as well as data on contact with information literacy staff and tendency to incorporate info literacy concepts into teaching.The data is based on a survey of more than 550 higher education faculty in the United States and Canada. " There is some more information, and you can buy the report at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ced059/the_survey_of_high

Information literacy framework for Wales

Apologies for not posting for a few days: I'm in Moscow at the moment on a pre-Christmas break. I have been meaning to post about the meeting on an Information Literacy Framework for Wales that took place 30 Nov to 1st Dec at Gregynog Hall, but thought that I'd wait til I'd put my own powerpoint on Slideshare. I still haven't got round to doing that, so it is about time I said something on this excellent meeting (I will post the presentation when I get back to the UK). One of the good things about waiting is that other people do the blogging instead! Therefore I refer you to a very thorough post from Karl Drinkwater at the Regional Support Centre Wales at http://blogs.rsc-wales.ac.uk/lr/2009/12/01/an-information-literacy-framework-for-wales/ and one on the WHELF (Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum) blog at http://whelf.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/an-information-literacy-framework-for-wales-2/ They both feature the international information literacy logo, which I publicised as part of my presentation (I was talking about international perspectives). The meeting had representation from a variety of sectors (the workplace sector was the only one under-represented) and as well as presentations from each sector, there were productive group discussions (this shows one of the feedback sessions), and the outcome was a prioritised list of actions to work in a practical way towards a framework.

Overcoming barriers: access to research information

A new report from the Research Information Network is Overcoming barriers: access to research information. "Based on the findings of five studies, the report investigates the nature and scale of key restrictions on access to information resources of importance to researchers; the impact of these restrictions and the ways in which they might be alleviated or overcome."
http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/
using-and-accessing-information-resources/
overcoming-barriers-access-research-information
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield, November 2009

Workshops in Japan

I am consumed with envy for Lisa Hinchliffe and Beth Woodard who are doing training workshops on teaching information literacy, in Japan
http://japan.elsevier.com/news/
events/lc2009/index.html

Photo by Sheila Webber: Noren, Gion quarter, Kyoto, Japan, 2005

Making It Count: Social Science Data Literacy as an Information Fluency

The Social Science Libraries Section and the Information Literacy Section are seeking proposals for a program to be held at the IFLA conference in Gothenburg, Sweden in August 2010. "Statistical and information literacy provide the basis for comparison, understanding, and forecasting conditions for economic and social development. Access to this type of data exists in a variety of venues from governments to multi-national corporations to small non-governmental organizations. Through formal presentations, this program will explore the availability of this type of information and the skills needed to access, understand and use statistical information for development." Papers should focus on the relationship between statistical literacy and how this skill can be applied to access to knowledge for development. Case studies, theoretical applications, and translational research will all be considered for inclusion in this program.
Papers should be in one of the IFLA official languages. Proposals for papers must be submitted by December 31, 2009. Please include a title, and abstract of no more than 300 words as well as a brief biography for the speaker or speakers. Abstracts should only be submitted with the understanding that the expenses of attending the Gothenburg conference are the responsibility of the author(s)/presenter(s). Send your proposals via email to Lynne Rudasill, rudasill@Illinois.edu
Photo by Sheila Webber: Misty autumn, Nov 2009.

IATUL papers

The proceedings of the 2009 IATUL conference (June 2009: IATUL = International Association of Technological University Libraries) are on the web, with full text papers and presentations. This includes a couple of papers particularly relevant to information literacy:
- Elvira Basibas Lapuz: Teaching Web 2.0 applications in the planning and development of information literacy programs: reaching out to librarians and information professionals
- Tom Cochrane: High order literacy for the 21st century – improving the quality of library engagement
http://www.iatul.org/conferences/
pastconferences/2009proceedings.asp

Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn mist, Nov 2009

Journal of Information Literacy

The Winter issue 2009 of the Journal of Information Literacy has been published.
Susie Andretta: The multifaceted nature of information literacy: solving the Rubik cube puzzle.
K. Stuart Ferguson: Information literacy and its relationship to knowledge management: A theoretical study
Andrew Whitworth: Teaching information literacy within a relational frame: the Media and Information Literacy course at Manchester
Audrey Marshall et al.: Information to fight the flab: findings from the Net.Weight Study
Christopher Guy Walker: Seeking Information: A study of the use and understanding of information by parents of young children
Jenny Foreman, Lesley Thomson: Government Information Literacy in the "century of information"
Nora Hegarty, Alan Carbery, Tina Hurley: Learning by Doing - Reactivating the Learning Support Programme at WIT Libraries
Peter Godwin: Information Literacy gets mobile in Vancouver
http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/index

Picture by Sheila Webber: part of my installation of research quotations in Second Life

A Guide to Using Web 2.0 in Libraries

The Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) launched two new guidance toolkits at the annual SLIC Further Education Conference, on 3 December. One of them was A Guide to Using Web 2.0 in Libraries. It is at http://www.slainte.org.uk/
files/pdf/web2/
Web2GuidelinesFinal.pdf

Photo by Sheila Webber: Frosty leaf, Gregynog

Information Literacy Practitioner of the Year 2010

There is a call for nominations for Information Literacy Practitioner of the Year 2010 (A Joint CSG IL, CONUL and LAI Award). Individuals or groups may self nominate or may be nominated by a colleague. The award is open to all working within the UK or Ireland. The closing date for nominations is the 31st January 2010.
Further information http://www.lilacconference.com/
dw/awards/index.html

From Library 2.0 to Library 3D – Participatory Libraries of Today

Event in the virtual world, Second Life.
When: Monday 14 December 2009, 8am-9am SL time (for times elsewhere see http://tinyurl.com/yff6e96 )
Where: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/127/244/21/
You need a SL avatar and the SL browser to participate

Kim Zwiers (Kim Holmberg in RL) "Researcher, lecturer, entrepreneur" from Abo Akademi, Finland will give a presentation (in voice) and lead a discussion (in text chat).
See http://kimholmberg.fi/tag/library-2-0/
http://www.slideshare.net/kholmber/library-20-199312
and: Holmberg, K. (2009) "What is Library 2.0?" Journal of Documentation, 65 (4), 668-681.

Information Services for learners in Second Life

Information Services for learners in Second Life was an event held on December 7th. The presenters were all from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland: Pancha Enzyme, Lulu Quinnell, Frank Lassard and Clint Carpaccio (and featuring the IS [Information Services] Cream van). The session was introduced by Sheila Yoshikawa (me), owner of Infolit iSchool. It was part of the Centre for Information Literacy Research series. The transcript (chatlog) of this 7 Dec event is at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=2119

SUILCoP

The next Staffordshire University Information literacy Community of Practice
(SUILCoP) event is on 3 February 2010, starting at 1.30pm. Professor Philippa Levy will present an interactive workshop focusing on inquiry based learning. The event takes place at Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, UK. There is a booking form at http://www.staffs.ac.uk/suilcop/
bookingform/index.php

Photo by Sheila Webber: Statue, Gregynog

ANTS

I think I have mentioned ANTS (Animated Tutorial Sharing Project) before. "The goal of the project is to create a shared repository of library, research, and information literacy tutorials created using screencast software such as Adobe Captivate, Qarbon Viewlet Builder, Techsmith's Camtasia Studio , or similar products." They recently announced that they have hit 99 tutorials and the tutorials can be accessed through various routes, including downloading the files and viewing them via http://liontv.blip.tv/ They are also starting to syndicate them via high definition on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/1LIONTV
The ANTS website is at http://ants.wetpaint.com/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Frosty Hedges, Gregynog Hall, Wales (sorry, I didn't get to write up the Welsh Information Literacy meeting yet...)

Last issue of Internet Resources Newsletter

Roddy MacLeod has been masterminding the Internet Resources Newsletter for about 15 years, but he is now taking early retirement and the newsletter is retiring with him. The last issue is at
http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn178/irn178.html

Project Information Literacy update

The USA's Project Information Literacy has published its latest research report Lessons Learned: How College Students Find Information in the Digital Age, which describes results from a survey of 2,318 students carried out last Spring at six U.S. universities. There were also some follow-up interviews.
From a superficial skim I would say that in general the findings tally with those that have emerged from UK studies of student use of resources, e.g. the findings of the excellent JUSTEIS studies (see e.g. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june03/urquhart/06urquhart.html or http://www.dil.aber.ac.uk/dils/Research/Justeis/JISCTop.htm ) and the report on the information behaviour of the researcher of the future (http://www.publishing.ucl.ac.uk/behaviour.html ) e.g. a reasonably narrow range of resources often used, use of search engines, lack of use of librarians, the importance of the lecturer in guiding behaviour, continued use of "traditional resources". I will certainly have a longer look, especially as it teases out some of these issues in more depth. Project homepage at http://projectinfolit.org/ and project report:
Head, A. and Eisenberg, M. (2009) Lessons Learned: How College Students Find Information in the Digital Age. Seatttle: University of Washington. http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Fall2009_Year1Report_12_2009.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Library, Gregynog Hall, December 2009: I was there on Monday and Tuesday for a meeting about developing an Information Literacy Strategy for Wales: I will blog about that tomorrow!