I'm not at LILAC (the UK information literacy conference, 29-31 March) this year (actually I'm "on holiday" at the moment) - but you can follow some of what is going on, via Twitter http://twitter.com/search?q=%23lilac2010 and various bloggers e.g. http://library.hud.ac.uk/blogs/il/, http://thesheckspot.blogspot.com/
The INFORUM conference takes place 25-27 May 2010 in the beautiful city of Prague, Czech Republic. It is an established annual conference which "deals with professional electronic information resources for research, development, education and business purposes." I am one of the guest speakers, talking about information literacy in the 21st Century. Registration is open. http://www.inforum.cz/en/
Last thursday myPhD Student, Phussadee Dokphrom, successfully defended her thesis investigating the information literacy needs of undergraduate students in the humanities faculty at Silpakorn University, Thailand, and should shortly become Dr Dokphrom subject to completing minor amendments to her thesis. She is pictured here with her external examiner, Professor Dorothy Williams (left) and her internal examiner, Professor Sheila Corrall (right) after the viva.
There is an Australian Government inquiry into school libraries, as well as the English one I blogged a little while ago. You can find out about it via The Hub blog http://hubinfo.wordpress.com/ The Hub "is about improving the quality of education in Australia. It refers to the one thing that should be at the heart, the hub, of every school – the school library. We are a gathering of educators united by a common concern that too many Australian students no longer have regular access to a well resourced, adequately staffed library."
The IFLA Information Literacy Section is organising a satellite meeting at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden August 8-9, 2010 in collaboration with Gothenburg University, called Information literacy: context, community, culture. It will consist of a networking event on the evening of Sunday 8 August and a full day programme on 9 August. The morning will consist of formal presentations, and this call is for papers for this morning of formal presentations. Deadline for proposals is 21st April.
Key aims of the event are:
- To understand the different meanings that information literacy has in different cultures, contexts and communities
- To learn about some of the ways in which we can get to know, and meet, these different information literacy needs
- To give delegates opportunity to reflect on what matters about information literacy to them and think about they might apply what they have learnt to their own personal and work context
Note that the afternoon will consist of an “unconference” in which delegates will be able to propose and pursue themes of particular interest to them. More information about this part of the event will be released shortly.
What we are looking for now
We are seeking proposals for presentations from people who have:
1) Investigated information literacy in specific contexts, communities and cultures. This might have meant investigating what information literacy means for a specific group or community, or having explored what their information literacy needs were. Presenters should make it clear what the context and goals were, and how the investigation was carried out.(Examples: a) a public library working with a local business community, through consultation and focus groups, to find out what their information needs and behaviour are, to guide service policy and delivery; b) researching the conceptions of information literacy of schoolteachers, to support their development of information literacy teaching for their pupils; c) working with staff and students in a university class to find out their information literacy needs).
or / and
2) Developed interventions (activities, teaching, programmes etc.) based on their understanding of these contexts. Although the emphasis should be on the intervention, it should be clear how it is tailored to the needs of the specific group / community (e.g. based on previous investigations, or in enabling the group/community to collaborate in designing the intervention).
In both cases, 1) and 2), ideally, but not necessarily, we are looking for initiatives that were developed in a collaborative or participative way with the community or group in question. Incorporation of the “voices” of the community (e.g. through quotation, video) are welcomed.
Presentations will be no more than 30 minutes in duration
The language of the meeting is English.
Timetable for submissions
1) Proposals must be in by 21st April 2010, submitted via email to il.satellite2010@googlemail.com
Proposals for papers must include: Title; Abstract of 250 words; Author(s) contact information (name, full address, phone, fax, email, etc) and affiliation.
2) Successful presenters will be notified by 10th May 2010
3) Speakers will be asked to provide an extended abstract of circa 800 words, in English, and a short author biography by 6th June 2010, for inclusion on the event’s website.
4) Speakers will be asked to provide copies of their presentations by 31 July 2010
Please note
All expenses incurred for attending this event are the responsibility of the authors whose papers are accepted. Authors/presenters are expected to attend the event and present their papers in person. Reminder: proposals should be sent to: il.satellite2010@googlemail.com
Photo by Sheila Webber: Crow, March 2010
Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and eIFL.net (Electronic Information for Libraries) have developed and launched Copyright for Librarians, an Online Open Curriculum on Copyright Law. It "aims to inform librarians about copyright law in general, as well as the aspects of copyright law that most affect libraries, especially those in developing and transition countries." It has very detailed information and various exercises and case studies.
This paper by Xiao, presented at the Academic Librarian 2: Singing in the rain (held in Hong Kong 11-12 March), is available full text on the conference website. My Head of Department, Sheila Corrall, was an invited speaker ("Educating the Academic Librarian as a Blended Professional: a Review and Case Study") and her paper is on the website too, along with a good number of papers about academic libraries and librarians. Go to http://www.lib.polyu.edu.hk/ALSR2010/Programme.html
A PowerPoint from Karen Blakeman, presented at a recent event: Web 2 - the truth behind the hype. It is also worth checking out other presentations on her slideshare account, e.g. the 2 uploaded before that are "Buisness research: Web 2.0 is not an option but a necessity" and "Twitter for business: an essential marketing and research tool"
TASH is a new resource on the University of Sheffield website. It has sections on Being at University, Everyday Skills (which includes "Library and Information Literacy "), Learning skills, Writing skills, Communicating skills and Research skills. There are short texts and links to resources. http://www.tash.group.shef.ac.uk/ 
Today I attended a one day seminar which is part of the ESRC-sponsored research seminar series Children and young people's digital literacies. There is a web site where they are loading the presentations at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/events/digital-literacies/index.htm (as I mentioned in a previous post, I gave a talk about my experiences in Second Life at the first seminar in October).
1) Information Literacy Skills and the Primary School Library. Trainer: Geoff Dubber. Key Audience: Primary school staff with responsibility for the school library. This takes place in Winsford, Cheshire, UK on 20 May 2010. School Libraries Association members £115, others £160. http://www.sla.org.uk/regional-courses.php?i=3
On 29 June 2010, at the British Dental Association, London, UK, there is a joint UKeiG/ BDA Knowledge Management meeting: Tipping the scales: tackling information obesity to ensure productive and sustainable information resources. Sessions will include: Identifying information obesity: structural, individual and community-level explanations; How information literacy helps: and how it is limited; Cognitive biases, and why they matter; How organisations affect the way we think; The holistic approach to IL: subjective, objective and inter-subjective value; Problem-based learning; student- and community-led research projects. More information at http://www.ukeig.org.uk/training/index.html
Most presentations from the Libraries for Nursing study day (Nov 2009), Web 2.0 - What it can do for you, including presentations on wikis and podcasts, are online at http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/health/subject-groups/libraries-for-nursing/Pages/study-day-web2.aspx
This project finished in 2006, but I don't think I've blogged it, and there are a number of reports and papers that came out of it. There was work relevant to information literacy e.g. the conference paper by Adams and Blandford Digital libraries’ support for the user’s 'Information Journey', which identifies three stages on the information journey: Information Initiation; Information facilitation; Information Interpretation (the focus was mostly on health and clinical workers, although patient information was also considered). It was found that the interpretation phase was not so well supported by digital libraries.
Phil Bradley has updated his Squidoo page, Twitter for librarians. It reminded me about the uses of squidoo too, which I used to use for creating pages for workshops etc., but haven't used for a while. http://www.squidoo.com/twitter4librarians