Workshop for Instruction in Library Use (WILU) 2011: Call for proposals

The Canadian Information Literacy conference, WILU, takes place June 1-3 2011 in Regina, Saskatchewan, with the theme. Learning Under Living Skies. This will be the 40th annual WILU!
Suggested Topics: Learning Spaces; Who Learns?; Today’s Tools; Why Teach?
Session Types: 45-minute sessions; Lightning Strike Session (with a Display Poster); Hands-on Tools (45-minute or 90-minute computer lab sessions).
Submit proposals by December 17, 2010 through the online submission form. The conference website is at http://www2.uregina.ca/wilu2011/ and the submission form at http://www2.uregina.ca/wilu2011/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/WILU2011_CFP_form1.pdf

Sustaining learning for library and information science through use of a virtual world

On Weds 3rd November at 12 noon SL time (which on that date is 7pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/37avuu2 for times elsewhere), in the virtual world, Second Life, Professor Diane Nahl (Adra Letov in SL, University of Hawaii) and Sheila Webber (Sheila Yoshikawa in SL, Sheffield University, i.e. me) will be giving the presentation that was previously delivered at the IFLA conference in August: Sustaining learning for library and information science through use of a virtual world. Only I was able to attend the IFLA conference in Gothenburg, so this is the first time we have actually presented it together!
The venue is Infolit iSchool, Second Life (you need the SL browser installed and a SL avatar to participate) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/126/239/21/
The full paper is at http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/123-webber-en.pdf and the original powerpoint at http://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/sustaining-learning-for-lis-through-use-of-a-virtual-world-4918718

Information Literacy Network of the Gulf Region annual conference

The Information Literacy Network of the Gulf Region (http://ilngulf.org/Default.aspx) is holding its annual conference this weekend, 30-31 October, at Dubai Women’s College (DWC). The keynote speaker is Debra Gilchrist and there are a number of workshops, with a particular focus on assessment.

Identifying the information Literacy needs of your diverse users

I gave a presentation on Identifying the information Literacy needs of your diverse users, on 5th October at the CILIP Libraries for Nursing study day, in York (UK). Below is the presentation from slideshare. The ideas contributed by participants during the exercise afterwards (and the other presentations) may be made available soon, so I may will add the link to those in due course. The leader of the main afternoon session was Susie Andretta, and I must give a link to her excellent Facilitating Information Literacy Education (FILE) website http://facilitatingileducation.blogspot.com/ Also, below the embedded presentation, I give the references which are at the end of my presentation.

Identifying the information Literacy needs of your diverse users

View more presentations from sheilawebber.

References in the presentation
- Barnard, A., Nash, R. and O’Brien, M. (2005) “Information Literacy: developing lifelong skills through nurse education.” Journal of nursing education, 44 (11), 505-510.
- Lloyd, A. (2009) “Informing practice: information experiences of ambulance officers in training and on-road practice.” Journal of documentation, 65(3), 396-419
- Lloyd, A. (2004) “Working (in)formation: conceptualizing information literacy in the workplace.” In: Danaher, P.A. et al (eds.) Lifelong learning: whose responsibility and what is your contribution? Refereed papers from the 3rd International Lifelong Learning Conference, Yeppoon, Australia: 13-16 June 2004. pp.218-224. Rockhampton: CQU.
- Johnston, C. and Mohide, A.A. (2009) “Addressing diversity in clinical nursing education: support for preceptors.” Nurse education in practice, 9(5), 340–347
- Smith, K. (2010) “Challenges posed by diversity: looking at language and assessment”. In Creating Knowledge VI, Bergen, Wednesday 8 September 2010. http://creatingknowledge.blip.tv/file/4124394/ [Video]

Other links/readings
- Bond, C. and Procter, P. (2009) "Prescription for nursing informatics in pre-registration nurse education." Health informatics journal, 15, 55-64.
- SCONUL (2008) Library services for international students. London: SCONUL. http://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/access/papers/international_students.pdf
- Sovic, S. (2008) Lost in Transition? The International Students’ Experience Project. London: University of the Arts. http://www.arts.ac.uk/docs/ISEP_-_Public_Report.pdf
- Student Diversity and Academic Writing project. (2008) International Students, Academic Writing & Plagiarism. London School of Economics and Lancaster University Management School. http://www.sdaw.info/index.htm
- University of Sheffield. (2008) Study Skills for Students with Dyslexia. Sheffield: UoS. http://dyslexstudyskills.group.shef.ac.uk/

Scholarly communication: research report and handbook

Earlier in the year was published:
Harley, D. et al (2010) Final Report: Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication: An Exploration of Faculty Values and Needs in Seven Disciplines. Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
"The report is divided into eight chapters and can be read in its entirety online (733 pages) or can be downloaded in a PDF file, as can any individual chapter." It "brings together the responses of 160 interviewees across 45, mostly elite, research institutions to closely examine scholarly needs." The disciplines covered are: Archaeology; Astrophysics; Biology; Economics; History; Music; and Political Science. Assuming the search function is working properly, it manages to go 733 pages without mentioning information literacy, which is rather disappointing. http://escholarship.org/uc/cshe_fsc
Thanks to Richard Wakeford for pointing me to this resource.
Another, more recent, publication is the JISC Scholarly Communication Action Handbook. This "provides guidance and suggested actions that if undertaken will help to address researchers’ concerns with scholarly communications and improve current practices." This resource could be useful, also in raising awareness generally about issues to do with creating and publishing knowledge and information. It's available at http://misc.jisc.ac.uk/scholarly_communications_handbook/cms/
Photo by Sheila Webber: apple stall, plus organic quinces and medlars, October 2010

Information Literacy as a graduate attribute

There is a PowerPoint from Leslie May and Cathie Jackson on Information Literacy as a graduate attribute. This was part of a seminar on Graduate attributes in curriculum development through personal development planning held in September 2010. They mention some universities that have IL as an attribute, including Sheffield. The other powerpoints from the event are on the website too: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2010/academyevents/08_September_2010_PDP_Workshop
Photo by Sheila Webber: carrots and sweetcorn in the market, October 2010

Journal club: Erdelez article on information encountering

The next meeting of the Second Life journal club is at 12 noon Second Life time, which is 8pm UK time (see http://tinyurl.com/37mnx3n for times elsewhere)
It takes places in the virtual world, Second Life, on Infolit iSchool
http://slurl.com/secondlife/
Infolit%20iSchool/126/239/21/
You need the SL browser installed on your computer and to have a SL avatar (which is free).
We will be discussing:
Erdelez, S. (1999) "Information Encountering: It's More Than Just Bumping into Information". Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 25 (3). http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Feb-99/erdelez.html I will be introducing this paper. Questions for discussion will include: are you an information encounterer? How can you foster information literate information encountering?

A Planning Guide for Empowering Learners

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and Britannica Digital Learning have published an online module to help school librarians implement the AASL programme guidelines, A Planning Guide for Empowering Learners with School Library Assessment Rubric. "The assessment rubric reflects the current principles guiding school library programs outlined in Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs. The rubric is designed to assist school librarians in developing a program that achieves the mission to "empower students to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information."
Subscriptions are $40 for the first year; renewals are $20 per year. AASL members receive a 10% discount. There is more information at: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/planningguide/planningguide.cfm
Photo by Sheila Webber: windfall apples (what shall I do with them all), October 2010.

Plagiarism 2010

There are presentations and papers from the 4th Plagiarism conference (held in June 2010). Examples are "UCD Library’s Online Plagiarism Quiz - a new solution to an old problem" and "Turning Points: Building a framework for active student engagement and learning with Turnitin". http://www.plagiarismadvice.com/conference/previous-plagiarism-conferences/4th-plagiarism-conference-2010
Photo by Sheila Webber: copper beech leaves (photoshopped), October 2010

LOEX 2010 presentations

There are a very large number of presentations (mostly powerpoints, but some other material) from the main 2010 information literacy conference in the USA, LOEX. It took place 29 April - 1st May. Just picking out a few at random: there is a handout and prezi presentation on Universal Design for Information Literacy from Elizabeth Dolinger (Landmark College Library) and Ted Chodock (College of Southern Nevada), Replacing Old Bridges with New — Stepping Up Student Learning by Rebuilding the Foundation with Faculty-Librarian Collaboration from Kristen Motz and Helen Woodman (Ferris State University) (detailed powerpoint and handouts) and BiblioBouts: Online Social Gaming for Academic Research Skills Development from Karen Markey and Christopher Leeder (University of Michigan) (powerpoint, see also http://bibliobouts.si.umich.edu/). The LOEX 2010 presentations and abstracts page is at http://www.loexconference.org/2010/program/sessions.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn hydrangea, Sheffield, October 2010.

Augustana Information Literacy in Academic Libraries workshop

Registration for the 10th Annual Augustana Information Literacy in Academic Libraries Workshop is open, Dec 2nd 2010 (with optional consultations with the workshop leaders on 1st December). It takes place On the Augustana Campus, University of Alberta, Canada. The topic is Integrative Programmatic Assessment for Information Literacy. The presenters are Dr. Debra Gilchrist (Dean of Libraries and Institutional Effectiveness for Pierce College), Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe (Vice-President, Association of College and Research Libraries, Coordinator for Information Literacy Services and Instruction, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) and Dr. Megan Oakleaf (Assistant Professor, iSchool, Syracuse University)
For more information, go to http://www.library.ualberta.ca/augustana/infolit/workshop
Photo by Sheila Webber: Window, Prague, September 2010

Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award

This annual award recognizes an outstanding publication related to instruction in a library environment published in the preceding two years. The award honors Ilene F. Rockman's professional contributions to academic librarianship in the area of information literacy. This award is administered by the Accociation of College and Research Libraries Instruction Section. It includes a plaque and US$3,000 award, donated by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. It looks like nominations are welcome of authors from any country. Submission Deadline is December 3, 2010. More details at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/awards/publicationyear.cfm
Sheila Webber: Red devil apples, October 2010

Web 2.0 Untangled

Web 2.0 Untangled is a one day event organised by UC&R BBO and CoFHE Mid West Circle, Wolfson College, Oxford, UK, 24th November 2010. Speakers are:
Peter Godwin: Keynote speaker on Web 2.0 and information literacy
Eric Davies: Weaving ethics and law into the fabric of Web 2.0
Helen Clough (Open University): The Elluminate web conference technology
Lucy Power (Oxford Internet Institute): Scientific social networking and open notebook science.*
Artie Vossel-Newman (JISC): It feels good to be included
Philippa Levy and Sheila Webber (Information School, University of Sheffield): Starting as we mean to go on? Technology-rich, inquiry-based learning in the first undergraduate year
Richard Francis (Oxford Brookes University): The MobileBrookes project.
More information at http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/ucr/divisions/bbo/pages/events.aspx
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn bee (photoshopped), October 2010

Ideas for the Health Information Literacy corner

This is a meeting in the virtual world, Second Life. You need the SL browser on your computer, and to have a SL avatar, to participate.
When: Wednesday 20th October, 12 noon Second Life time, 8pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/3832may for other times around the world
Where: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit iSchool/46/28/21/
What: There is a new "Health Information Literacy corner" on Infolit iSchool in Second Life. It currently has a health literacy quiz by Brielle Coronet, an HIV/AIDS information literacy exhibit by Robin Mochi, and (in the sky) a "Bird Flu" exhibit on a model of the 7 Pillars of information literacy. We will look at these, and also discuss further ideas for the corner.

LILAC 2011 Call for papers

The call for papers for the LILAC (UK annual information literacy) 2011 conference closes on 1st November 2010. The themes this year are: New to teaching; Creativity in IL; Supporting excellence in the research community; IL in society: making a difference; IL in the future; Evidence based IL. The conference takes place 18-20 April in London. The options are: Short Papers (30 minutes); Long Papers (45 minutes); Workshops sessions (1 hour); Symposiums (1 hour); Pecha Kucha (6 mins 40 seconds);
Poster Presentations. The site is at http://lilacconference.com/WP/call-for-papers/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn colour, October 2010.

Communications in Information Literacy

The latest issue of Communications in Information Literacy (Vol 4, No 1 (2010) is out. The contents are as follows:
Zauha, J. Teaching matters: Developing as a Teacher/Librarian [Column]: Rules of Engagement: Best Practices for Connecting with Students
Meszaros, M. Who’s in Charge Here? Authority, Authoritativeness, and the Undergraduate Researcher
Hight, M. Unlearn What You Have Learned: Digital Disorganization and Information Literacy Instruction
Bowles-Terry, M., Hensley, M. and Hinchliffe, L. Best Practices for Online Video Tutorials: A Study of Student Preferences and Understanding
McLure, M. and Munro, K. Research for Design: Exploring Student and Instructor Attitudes toward Accessing Library Resources and Services from Course Management Systems (CMS)
Larsen, P., Izenstark, A and Burkhardt, J. Aiming for Assessment: Notes from the Start of an Information Literacy Course Assessment
Singh, N. User Education and Information Literacy in Agricultural Universities of India
Bobish, G. Instruction 2.0 - What are we actually doing?
CIL's homepage is here http://www.comminfolit.org/index.php/cil
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn reflections, Prague, September 2010

Age of big access & Liberation bibliography

It's not specifically information literacy, but I just read a post on the ACRL blog by Iris Jastram, expressing deep concern about what she calls "The age of big access" (exploitation by big information providers/publishers like OCLC and EBSCO, rather than Google), which led me in turn to a column by Barbara Fister, in which she argues against the current focus on providing access to material (rather than pursuing other core goals and values), and argues that academic librarians should not "continue to pour our resources into renting access and into training students on how to pass courses using temporary access to information that will not be available to them when they graduate [...]".
Fister, B. (2010) "Liberation bibliography: trumping ownership with open access: a manifesto." Library Journal, (7) 1 April.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Trip on the Vltava, Prague, September 2010.

Library instruction assessment

In a special issue with some paper from the COLIS7 conference (it also includes Isto Huvila's paper on the information behaviour of wikipedia authors), is:
Staley, S.M., Branch, N.A. & Hewitt, T.L. (2010). "Standardised library instruction assessment: an institution-specific approach" Information Research, 15(3) paper 436.
http://informationr.net/ir/15-3/paper436.html "We explore the use of a psychometric model for locally-relevant, information literacy assessment, using an online tool for standardised assessment of student learning during discipline-based library instruction sessions." It takes as its starting point that "a uniform approach to assessment is critical to improving the instructional programme and providing a systematic basis for institutional support.", and I would argue with the first part of that premise (since that doesn't take account of issues such as the authenticity of assessment, and the learning context). However, it is an interesting article in approaching the investigation of this mode of assessment thoroughly, and they helpfully provide their survey instruments at the end.
Photo by Christopher Webber: me in Happy Valley, Llandudno, August 2010

Postgraduate information needs

A report published in June reports on findings from a study of taught & research postgraduates at the University of Cambridge (1400 people responded to an online survey, then they had a few focus groups and a follow-up survey), UK. It is a 70 page report which discusses the findings in some detail. I did find it a pity that the recommendations talk avout "support services" (rather than partnership of educators and professional staff) and also recommend a one off "information skills" introduction in induction week (sigh). However, once I got past that, there are some interesting findings and recommendations.
Dingley, E. (2010) Postgraduate information needs. Cambridge: Arcadia. http://arcadiaproject.lib.cam.ac.uk/docs/PINOTA-Report.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: apple picking this morning (red devils)

Strengthening Information Literacy Interventions: Using Creative Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Mostly for information, since this is by invitation only, a four day seminar in December 2010 at the University of Botswana, organised by Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK and Information Training & Outreach Centre for Africa (ITOCA). The aims are to strengthen participants’ knowledge of effective strategies, approaches, best practices and lessons learned in implementing IL programmes and; To develop guidelines focused on result-oriented best practices aimed at promoting advances in IL training for information managers, brokers and end-users.
Strengthening Information Literacy Interventions: Using Creative Approaches to Teaching and Learning http://www.scecsal.org/conferences/2010/itoca_ids_seminar_dec2010.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Windfall apples, September 2010.

Courses in London

Some forthcoming training courses from CILIP (in London, UK)
Information literacy skills for sixth formers: preparation for HE. 25 November 2010
Supporting the research student 6 December 2010
Teaching information literacy in HE: what, where and how? 9 December 2010
Go to: http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/training/pages/default.aspx for more information.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Prague, September 2010

Esther Grassian keynote on collaboration

On Saturday, in the virtual world, Second Life, I was helping Esther Grassian (Alexandria Knight in SL) deliver a presentation (by forwarding her SL powerpoint). She was delivering a "Real Life" keynote at the 7th Annual Georgia Conference on Information Literacy, called Dream a Little Dream of US... United for Success!; urging people to form partnerships within, and outside, their institutions. Impressively, she presented in Georgia (USA) and in SL at the same time.
Esther, an adjunct lecturer at University of California, Los Angeles Dept. of Information Studies & Information Literacy Librarian at UCLA College Library, is well-known in the Information Literacy field. You can find her keynote powerpoint, on her Information Literacy LibGuide (lots of other things there too!) at http://guides.library.ucla.edu/content.php?pid=33500&sid=547559 The link to the keynote is on the left of the screen. Some of the PowerPoint slides are blank, but you will see that every slide has full information in the notes area, so pull that up when you look at the powerpoints. Esther also published an accompanying bibliography and the Information Literacy Partnership IQ (Institutional Quotient) self test.
Chris Smith (Shamblesguru Voom in SL) did a short video with his reflections of the SL event at http://www.youtube.com/Shamblesguru#p/a/u/0/OxLCsq6L2Q4

Affective information literacy; and; Calibrated peer Review

Two (moderately) recent articles from Portal. The first one advocates including emotional or attitudinal aspects in the ACRL standards (particularly interesting to me since my PhD student Phussadee Dokphrom identified attitudinal aspects as part of information literacy in her research) and another talking about an approach to teaching and assessment.
Schroeder, R. and Cahoy, E.S. (2010) "Valuing Information Literacy: Affective Learning and the ACRL Standards." portal: Libraries and the Academy, 10 (2), 127-146. "Higher education information literacy standards have readily addressed cognitive skills, although affective competencies—the emotional abilities that students must acquire in order to successfully navigate the research process—have not yet been incorporated into standards. This paper presents examples of current information literacy standards, integrating affective competencies or dispositions, including the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) 21st Century Learning Standards, and proposes a model for affective-focused higher education information literacy standards. "
Fosmire, M. (2010) "Calibrated Peer Review: A New Tool for Integrating Information Literacy Skills in Writing-Intensive Large Classroom Settings." portal: Libraries and the Academy, 10 (2), 147-163 . The steps in "Calibrated Peer Review" (CPR) as stated by Fosmire are (p148):
"Students are given a writing assignment"
"Students compose and submit their essay ... to the CPR software server."
"The CPR system then provides students with three instructor-created "calibration" essays to grade according to a provided rubric."
"After "passing" the calibration essays, to ensure they understand the grading criteria sufficiently, students receive three of their peers' essays to grade against the same rubric."
"Students then evaluate their own essays, and those scores are compared to a weighted average of peer evaluations to determine if the students accurately evaluated their own work."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Weston park, Sheffield, September 2010

#CKVI keynotes and final notes

Finally I will wrap up posts from the Creating Knowledge VI Conference held in Bergen, Norway, 8-10 September, https://ck-vi.uib.no/.
Firstly, all of the keynote talks (Johnston, Catts, Gynnild, Smith, Lapp, Whitworth, Mittelmark), plus the panel session, were videoed and can be viewed at http://creatingknowledge.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc

Secondly, I didn't say much about how the conference ran. A feature was that on the first day we were assigned to a group of about 8 people (named after a bird or animal, I was a Cormorant). Every day we had meetings, to reflect on what we had learnt from the proceedings. Our In the first session we had to agree what our key expectations were: most people mentioned discovering things through networking, and learning about new developments in other countries or institutions. Developing your ideas about information literacy was another common expectation, and a number of groups said they expected “inspiration” from the conference. The initial posters showing expectations are on the conference blog: here is the Cormorant's.
At the end of the first and second days we had to reflect on whether our expectations had been met, the things we felt we had learnt, and how we might use this in our practice. On the final day we had to produce a poster which illustrated the nature and challenge of diverse learners, and how we would meet the challenge. The winning poster is also on the conference blog. There were also a series of conference workshops, led by Susie Andretta, Sheila Corrall, Thomas Vibjerg Hansen and Nancy Goebel.

I have attended four Creating Knowledge conferences, and they have all been excellent: hopefully there will be another in 2012!
The picture shows three of the conference organisers contemplating the view from mount Fløyen, where we had our conference dinner (afterwards some of us walked down the mountain in the dark: it seemed like a good idea at the time).

Voices for the Library

This initiative is "Promoting the need for and value of trained librarians within a free and open-to-all UK public library service". People are encouraged to add their stories about the value of public libraries; how libraries and librarians have affected their lives. The team behind Voices for the Library come from different sectors and backgrounds in the library field. A worthwhile endeavour when some Government officials are saying that really all you need are some volunteers willing to mind the books. http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/
Photo by Sheila Webber: early autumn