Maand van het Vinden

Thanks to Shahd Salha for alerting me to this. There is a Dutch initiative inspired by Information Literacy Month in the USA. Maand van het Vinden (Month of Discoveries) starts on 7th April 2010. http://www.maandvanhetvinden.nl/
While looking at the links from this page, I noticed a site about media literacy (in Dutch): I only have sufficient fragments of Dutch to identify that it outlines 7 steps for being information wise, starting with formulating your question, selecting sources (etc.) http://www.zeeuwsebibliotheek.nl/onderwijs/mediawijsheid/
Photo by Sheila Webber: St Basil's cathedral, Moscow, December 2009

LILAC programme is online

The draft programme for LILAC (the UK's main information literacy conference) is now online. The conference takes place 29-31 March 2010 in Limerick, Ireland. Go to http://www.lilacconference.com/
dw/programme/index.html
Picture by Sheila Webber, taken in SL

Jings

A couple of examples of using Jing to produce short online tutorials from Spencer Jardine: http://spencerjardine.blogspot.com/
2010/01/jing-awesome-way-to-
promote-information.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Mosaic on the Moscow underground, December 2009.

Information Literacy Irish Award 2010

To mark the holding of the LILAC conference in Limerick in 2010, the Library Association of Ireland (LAI) and the Consortium of National and University Libraries (CONUL) are jointly offering an award of €500 for achievement in the field of Information Literacy (IL) in the Republic of Ireland. Nominations for this award to an individual or group working in the IL arena, and in any sector, in the Republic of Ireland, are now open. Closing date for receipt of nominations: Friday, 26 February, 2010. More information at http://www.library.ie/weblog/2010/01/18/information-literacy-irish-award-2010/

New England Library Instruction Group

The New England Library Instruction Group (NELIG), an interest group of ACRL New England, is requesting proposals for its annual program Meeting Digital Natives Where They Are: New Standards for the New Student, to be held at Yale University in Orange, CT, on Friday June 4, 2010.
Proposal topics could include topics such as: Using Twitter, Facebook, and social networks in library instruction; Using mobile devices for research education; Using ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards; Tapping into learning styles or searching behaviors of current students to better educate future students. For more info or to submit proposals contact Laura O'Neill (loneill@holycross.edu) or Elizabeth Dolinger (elizabethdolinger@landmark.edu) by February 19, 2010.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Moscow, December 2009.

JORUM opened up

JORUM, the respository for digital learning objects that was created for UK higher and further education, is now making some content available to people anywhere. Some materials are still only available to UK institutions, but "JorumOpen" "provides free access to a growing collection of open educational resources, for all to benefit worldwide, via Jorum's trusted source of designated learning and teaching resources" (using a Creative Commons licence). You still have to be a UK registered user to deposit material. http://www.jorum.ac.uk/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Work on the Arts Tower, University of Sheffield, Jan 2010

E-portfolios for information literacy

Thanks to Thomas Hapke, who identified (on his blog) a full text online Masters dissertation (in German):

Schmall, S. (2009) E-Portfolios als Element von Personal Learning Environments. Potentiale des E-Learning 2.0 im Kontext der Vermittlung von Informationskompetenz [E-portfolios as a part of personal learning environments: potential for E-learning 2.0 in the context of learning information literacy]. Koln: Fachhochschule Koln.
http://opus.bibl.fh-koeln.de/volltexte/2009/244/ From a quick scan of the abstract it looks an interesting work, which is identifying the value of e-portfolios in terms of developing skills in creating and communicating, and (if available to other students) peer-to-peer learning. Considering specifically the concept of "Rechercheportfolio 2.0" (search portfolios) the author considers "Welche Standards und Qualitätsmerkmale E-Rechercheportfolios aufweisen müssten, um als effektives Mittel zur Vermittlung von Informationskompetenz geeignet zu sein" [What standards and quality indicators e-search portfolios must adhere to, in order to be effective means for learning information literacy].
This is particularly interesting to me since I'm marking e-portfolios at the moment, and will be involved in another set this coming semester ... By the way, I couldn't quite decide how to translate "Vermittlung" here - I considered "teaching", "learning", "developing" and "facilitating" ("mediating" is definitely too passive), comments from German speakers welcome!
Photo by Sheila Webber: Partriach's Ponds (where the opening scene of "The Master and Margerita" takes place), Moscow, December 2009

E-books bibliography

Chris Armstrong maintains a very useful bibliography about e-books. The 2010 one is developing here http://www.i-a-l.co.uk/resource_ebook2010.html and this is the 2009 list http://www.i-a-l.co.uk/resource_ebook2009.html

Research informed Teaching

There is a call for papers for the conference Research informed Teaching: Delivering participation, engagement and enquiry, which takes place on 14 July 2010, at Staffordshire University, UK. Keynote Speakers are Alan Jenkins, Oxford Brookes University and Stuart Hampton-Reeves, University of Central Lancashire. "The aim of the conference is to bring together practitioners, academics, researchers, students, policy makers and learning support staff to explore the pedagogic issues and policies surrounding the contested notions of Research informed Teaching and the research-teaching nexus in higher education." Themes for submitted papares are: Pedagogies for the research-teaching nexus for example, enquiry/inquiry-based learning; The student voice in Research informed Teaching; The role of technology in the research-teaching nexus; The role of information literacy in the research-teaching nexus; Reports from Research informed Teaching projects - design and impact; Fostering communities of practice in Research informed Teaching; Benchmarking Research informed Teaching. Deadline for abstracts is 28 February 2010. For more info
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/research/research_informed_teaching/events/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield, January 2010

iSkillzone

There is an interesting set of pages on information skills, iSkillzone, on the website of the University of the West of England e.g. the "evaluation" ones have sections on evaluating videos, podcasts, wikis etc.
http://iskillzone.uwe.ac.uk/
RenderPages/RenderHomePage.aspx
Photo by Sheila Webber: Assumption Cathdedral, Moscow, December 2009

In search of credibility

Article in the latest issue of Information Research (open access)
Sundin, O. & Francke, H. (2009). "In search of credibility: pupils' information practices in learning environments" Information Research, 14 (4) paper 418. http://InformationR.net/ir/14-4/paper418.html
"We aim to create an in-depth understanding of how pupils in [a Swedish] upper secondary school negotiate the credibility and authority of information as part of their practices of learning. Particular focus is on the use of user-created resources, such as Wikipedia, where authorship is collective and/or hard to determine. An ethnographic study was conducted ... The pupils make credibility assessments based on methods developed for traditional media where, for instance, origin and authorship are important. They employ some user-created sources, notably Wikipedia, because these are easily available, but they are uncertain about when these sources should be considered credible. "

Photo by Sheila Webber: Branches in snow, January 2010.

Teaching legal research skills

Teaching legal research skills, training course on 18 February 2010, London, UK. "More and more law librarians, both in universities and law firms, are being asked to devise, lead or contribute to sessions teaching the skill of legal research. This highly practical CILIP training course will help you plan, deliver, assess and evaluate how to teach legal research." http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/training/pages/teaching-legal-research-skills.aspx

Reference services review

The latest issue of Reference services review includes the following (at time of writing the issue was only in e-preview, so I can't provide page numbers)
- Klentzin, J. et al. (2010) "Pecha Kucha: Using "Lightening Talk" in University Instruction." Reference services review, 38 (1).
- Ismail, L. (2010) "What Net Generation students really want: determining library help-seeking preferences of undergraduates." Reference services review, 38 (1). (This study showed that young people did not necessarily prefer "net gen" options for help).
- Lym, B. et al (2010) "Assessing the assessment: how institutions administered, interpreted, and used SAILS" Reference services review, 38 (1).
("Results from this study suggest that SAILS can be most effective if there is statistical/institutional research support for data analysis, if the sampling method for selecting test takers is more rigorous, if SAILS is used in conjunction with other instruments, and if the SAILS data is correlated with other institutional data.")
Photo by Sheila Webber: Snowman in Regent Court, January 2010

CK6 call extended

The call for papers for the Creating Knowledge VI conference has been extended to 10 February 2010. The conference takes place 8-10 September in Bergen, Norway. You can submit proposals for papers, posters and workshops. The title is Information Literacy and diversity in Higher Education: mapping the learning environment. The four themes of the conference are: Diversity, Information Literacy and Assessment; Diversity, Information Literacy and Academic Writing Across the Curriculum; Diversity, Information Literacy and Educational Tools; Diversity, Information Literacy and Postgraduate Students. Go to https://ck-vi.uib.no/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hat stall in snow, Moscow, December 2009.

Extending media literacy

Thanks to Chris Armstrong for alerting me to this article (the journal is priced)
Nijboer, J. and Hammelburg, E. (2010) "Extending media literacy: a new direction for libraries." New library world, 111 (1/2), 36-45. The abstract is here.
Photo by Sheila Webber: 21st century Moscow: the Lubianka building next to a huge advert for Elle fashion magazine in knowing "revolutionary" style, December 2009 (click on photo to see larger version)

Discovering and building the knowledge base of Information Management through different roles and spaces

The main focus of this isn't information literacy - but I have put online the short paper I gave as part of a symposium on Inquiry Based Learning at the Society for Research in Higher Education conference in December 2009.
"This paper outlines approaches taken to increase student engagement in an undergraduate programme and highlights the way in which adopting an Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) approach and using virtual spaces has enabled us to extend the roles which students adopt. The context is a BSc Information Management (IM) programme"
Cite as: Webber, S. (2009) “Discovering and building the knowledge base of Information Management through different roles and spaces”. Paper presented at: Challenging higher education: knowledge, policy and practice: Society for Research in Higher Education conference 2009, 8-10 December 2009
http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/discovering-and-building-the-knowledge-base-of-information-management-through-different-roles-and-spaces
The other speakers in the symposium were, like me Academic Fellows in the Centre for Inquiry Based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS): Tim Herrick from the Institute of Lifelong Learning and Claire Rishbeth from the Department of Landscape (all of us teach at Sheffield University). There is a blog post from the three of us at http://cilass.group.shef.ac.uk/?p=320
Photo by Sheila Webber: Tree in grounds of Celtic Manor, where the conference was held, December 2009

Transliteracy conference

Registration has opened for the Transliteracy conference being held in Leicester, UK http://nlabnetworks.typepad.com/
transliteracy/2010abstracts.html and you can register (free) at http://nlabnetworks.typepad.com/
transliteracy/conference2010.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: View at dusk from the windows of the Novaya Theatre, Moscow, December 2009

Information literacy and web 2.0: a paradox?

There is a Call for Papers for a one-day seminar Information literacy and web 2.0: a paradox?, part of the ALIA Access 2010 conference 1-3 Sept 2010 in Brisbane, Australia.
"Web 2.0 is changing the way people live, work and play. It is changing the way people experience their information worlds. What impact is web 2.0 having on the people’s information needs and information practices? How does web 2.0 affect the way in which libraries support and deliver information literacy resources and programs? How does web 2.0 affect the way in which libraries support and deliver information literacy resources and programs? You are invited to make a submission to the Information literacy and web 2.0: a paradox? seminar being held as part of ALIA Access 2010 Conference." Submit your abstract by 11 February 2010 at http://conferences.alia.org.au/access2010/call.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Broomhill, Sheffield, January 2010

Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy

Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy is a conference to be held at The New School in New York City, USA, on 24-26 February 2010 This has an interesting lineup of speakers addressing questions such as "What limits are necessary to safe guard and protect a democratic polity? What limits undermine it?" It is modestly priced with US $35 the most a member of the general public pays for the whole conference, and there is an accompanying exhibition at the Metroploitan Museum of Art http://www.socres.org/limitingknowledge/

Training Course on Information Literacy and User Education

A Short-Term Training Course on Information Literacy and User Education has been organised by the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR), New Delhi, India, 24-26 March 2010.
The topics are: Information Literacy: Concepts and Standards; User Education: Overview; Digital Literacy: Concepts and Standards; Media Literacy: Concepts and Standards. There is a fee: those from India Rs. 1200/= (Without Accommodation); Rs. 1600/= (With Accommodation); SAARC/ Vietnam US$ 80 (With Accommodation); Other Countries US$ 110 (With Accommodation). There is more info at http://niscair.res.in/ActivitiesandServices/HRD/hrd.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Snowy view from my top window this morning: I'm getting good use out of the cold-weather clothes I bought for Moscow!

International Perspectives on IL

I have finally posted my presentation from the meeting on an Information Literacy Strategy for Wales. "This presentation was given by Sheila Webber at the meeting held to plan for an Information Literacy Strategy for Wales, on 30 November 2009 at Gregynogg Hall in Wales. In it she identifies point’s from Woody Horton’s Information Literacy “primer”, gives her own perspective on the 4 areas identified in the UNESCO-sponsored discussions (governance/ citizenship; Education; Health; Business) and talks about visions for information literacy."

International perspective on information literacy: national frameworks

View more documents from sheilawebber.

Children's searching

There has been quite a lot of coverage of research sponsored by Google and carried out at the University of Maryland which looked at children's use of search engines, for example in the Herald Tribune, and the Independent. The problems that children have are identified, and more use of, e.g., graphical search input, is suggested. Through, um, googling, I found out that the project is called When Children Search: Understanding What They Do and What They Could Do with Google Search and the principal investigator is Allison Druin and I found an interesting site about her research group , but not yet an academic report on the research. In the New York Times, a school librarian pointed out that information literacy should be an answer, not just making search intrfaces easier.
Photo by Sheila Webber: GUM shopping mall, Moscow, December 2009