Teaching Faculty Award for the Support of Information Literacy

The Augustana Campus Library (Camrose, Alberta, Canada) of the University of Alberta has announced the 2011 recipient of the Teaching Faculty Award for the Support of Information Literacy. The award, which started in 2005, is an annual award given to an Augustana Campus teaching faculty member who has contributed consistently and notably to the support and promotion of information literacy at the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta. Nominations are accepted from Augustana students, staff, faculty and administrators. The award is presented annually at the Information Literacy in Academic Libraries Workshop. (My photo shows Augustana librarian Nancy Goebel announcing the award at this event the week before last.)
The recipient of the 2011 Teaching Faculty Award for the Support of Information Literacy is Dr Neil Haave, Associate Dean of Teaching and Associate Professor of Biology on the Augustana Campus. The nomination indicates that "Neil has taken a leadership role in incorporating the information literacy skill requirement into Augustana's curriculum. He has worked closely with Augustana librarians on developing an information literacy model for biology. Neil promotes the broadening of and incorporation of information literacy skills as part of a liberal arts and sciences education".
I've mentioned this award before: I think it's a great idea, and they also have a similar award for a student. More information at http://www.library.ualberta.ca/augustana/infolit/awards/

Academic literacies videos

Norda Majekodunmi of York University, Canada, recently announced on the ili-l discussion list that ahe and her colleague Kent Murnaghan had a series of videos, based on student interviews, which are about academic literacies. There is a tutor guide to accompany each video which includes a summary & transcript and examples of discussion topics and lesson plans. The videos are:
1. University Life
2. Learning Skills
3. Doing Research
4. Choosing Sources
5. Google/Internet
6. Libraries
7. Writing + Citing
They are available on the York University Scott Library Learning Commons
website:
http://www.library.yorku.ca/learning_commons/posts/learning-video-series/501 and the guides at: http://www.library.yorku.ca/learning_commons/learning-in-our-own-words. Norda adds in her post "Although some videos are York specific (i.e. University Life, Libraries) most can be used at any institution, please feel free to use these videos in your teaching."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Information Literate cupcakes at the Augustana Information Literacy seminar at Alberta University, Canada.

LILAC awards: IL practitioner; Digital award; Student place

There are two awards open for nomination and an opportunity for students to attend the LILAC (information literacy) conference talking place in Glasgow, Scotland in April 2012.
Information Literacy Practitioner of the Year. "A long established award recognising an outstanding individual contribution to information literacy. The winner will receive £500 for personal use and £500 for their nominated charity. Closing date: February 29th 2012. (Sponsored by the CILIP CSG Information Literacy Group)."
Credo Reference Digital Award for Information Literacy. "An exciting new award recognising a digital resource, programme or service which has made a significant impact. The winning group or individual will receive £500 for personal use and £500 for their nominated charity. Closing date: February 29th 2012. (Sponsored by Credo Reference)."
Student Sponsored Place at LILAC. "The award consists of conference registration, travel and accommodation expenses for a student registered on a UK study programme. Closing date: January 31st 2012. (Sponsored by the CILIP CSG Information Literacy Group)."
Enquiries and nominations should to Nigel Morgan: LilacAwards@cardiff.ac.uk
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn rose, October 2011

Materials from Belarus conference

Information Literacy expert Esther Grassian delivered a good deal of material at the Belarusian Library Association Conference (12-14 October), attended by library Directors and Deputy Directors from libraries in Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland, among others. She has mounted her presentations and handouts, in English and in Russian, on her personal website. It is an interesting resource including, for example: Expected Learning Outcomes examples for undergraduate information literacy instruction, a presentation on Goals, Objectives and Expected Learning Outcomes (ELOs) for School and Public Library librarians in Belarus; a presentation on Librarians connecting and collaborating with teachers/faculty, for a Plenary session and a Bibliography for the Plenary Session; a sample workshop for graduate Teaching Assistants to help them learn how to incorporate information literacy instruction into their curricula and assignments; and a handout Esther Grassian's 'Thoughts on Transliteracy'.
Esther expressed her thanks to the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, who sponsored her visit and also to their librarians who took the photo here (which is copied with their permission).
https://sites.google.com/site/esthergrassian/

Sci Tech information literacy chat

On 30 November, 2011 (7pm UK time: 2PM US Eastern time; 11AM US Pacific Time) there will be the regular "Last Wednesday" Information Literacy virtual discussion, this time using tinychat. It is sponsored by the ACRL Science and Technology Section’s Information Literacy Committee. To join the discussion, go to http://tinychat.com/steminfolit at the appropriate time. "This month's discussion is on building and maintaining liaison relationships" (I think that means librarian-faculty professional relationships)
Photo by Sheila Webber: Mailboxes, Edmonton, Canada, November 2011

New articles on information literacy

Nazari, M. (2011) "A contextual model of information literacy." Journal of Information Science, 37(4): 345-359. This describes her model of IL for Geographic Information Science/Systems. An article from my former PhD student, Maryam Nazari, now teaching at the University of Malaya.

Mansour, E. and Alkhurainej, N. (2011) "Information seeking behaviour of Members of the Kuwaiti Parliament." Library Review, 60(8), 671-684. This investigated things such as why they needed the information, what sources they used, and who supported them

Salisbury, F. and Sheridan, L. 2011 "Mapping the journey: Developing an information literacy strategy as part of curriculum reform." Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43 (3), 185-193. Describes initiatives at La Trobe University, in Australia.

Shenton, A. and Hay-Gibson, N. (2011) "Information behaviour and information literacy: The ultimate in transdisciplinary phenomena?" Journal of Librarianship and Information Science September, 43, 166-175.

Shoeb, Z.H. (2011) "Information literacy competency of freshman business students of a private university in Bangladesh." Library Review, 60(9), 762-772. A survey was conducted to identify students' current perceptions and competence, to help prepare an IL curriculum for the future.

These are all in priced journals.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn beech tree, Sheffield, November 2011

3Ts 2012: Engaging Students with Teaching, Technology, and Transliteracy

There is a call for proposals for the 3Ts 2012 conference, which will be held in Albany, New York, USA on March 16 2012. The deadline is December 1st. "Proposals should address the following questions: * How have you drawn upon metaliteracy or transliteracy to support student learning? * How have underlying principles and theories guided your inclusion of a specific technology or technologies in the classroom? * How did teaching and technology connect to improve both technological literacy and learning? * How has your teaching style or method changed as technology is now infused into your course?
"Proposals can include any meaningful integration of technology and teaching used to support the growing number of literacies students need for learning and succeeding in today's information-rich academic and professional worlds." Conference sessions are 45 minutes speaking/workshop time with 15 minutes allocated for Q and A, or a 2 hour workshop. Further info at http://threetees.weebly.com/call-for-proposals.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Snow in Camrose, Canada, last week.

Information handling in collaborative research

Information handling in collaborative research: an exploration of five case studies is a new report from the Research Information Network (RIN). "This study, commissioned by RIN and the British Library, comprising of a set of case studies looking at how researchers access, use and disseminate information in collaborations between higher education and business, public and third sector partners." The case studies concern:
- a large multinational collaboration involving pharmaceutical companies and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs);
- a large European co-ordinated action between HEIs and public bodies involved
with end-of-life care;
- a medium sized UK based project on material engineering involving HEIs and a
mix of commercial partners including large multinational industrial organisations,
Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) manufacturers and university spin-outs;
- a small knowledge transfer partnership, developing a software and hardware
package for use in residential care, involving one SME and one HEI;
- and a small exploratory collaboration involving a mix of commercial and third
sector organisations, and an HEI.
The report is available in full at: http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/using-and-accessing-information-resources/collaborative-research-case-studies
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn pathway, Sheffield, November, 2011

Curriculum for Information Literacy

On 10th November we (Sheffield University Information School) hosted a seminar on an Information Literacy Curriculum, run by Jane Secker (London School of Economics), Emma Coonan (Cambridge University Library), Helen Webster (learning developer at Cambridge University) and Katy Wrathall. I must also thank Lyn Parker, who did the organisation at this end. I have already blogged about this curriculum initiative, which arose from Jane and Emma's Arcadia Fellowship from Cambridge University. There is full documentation on their new blog at http://newcurriculum.wordpress.com/. This includes an explanation of the ideas behind the curriculum and recommendations on how it may be used and taught. There are 10 “strands” to the curriculum, and for each strand they propose learning outcomes, with example activities and assessments. The 10 strands are:
- Transition from school to higher education
- Becoming an independent learner
- Developing academic literacies
- Mapping and evaluating the information landscape
- Resource discovery in your discipline
- Managing information
- Ethical dimension of information
- Presenting and communicating knowledge
- Synthesising information and creating new knowledge
- Social dimension of information
At the workshop there were presentations from Emma and Jane about developing the curriculum and also from Helen and Katy about the next phase. This focuses (as the final Arcadia project) on ways of implementing the curriculum, through a teaching toolkit and institutional audit tool. The seminar at Sheffield also included a group discussion session (pictured), looking at things like barriers and enablers for developing information literscy in the curriculum.
Jane Secker has blogged about this workshop at http://newcurriculum.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/reflecting-on-our-sheffield-workshop/ and the powerpoint is also on their blog, under the Presentations tab.

People from the Augustana seminar: Clarence Maybee

I am just about to fly back to the UK after delivering the Augustana Information Literacy seminar with Bill Johnston in in Canada (with the theme of The Information Literate University), and will try to catch up with my blogging over the next few days. To start with, this is one of the delegates at the seminar: Clarence Maybee (pictured right). He fairly recently started a very interesting job at Purdue University, USA, where they have a definite focus on information literacy. His post is "Information Literacy Specialist" as an Assistant Professor, with a coordinating role for information literacy. This is the page on his website that describes his research https://sites.google.com/site/clarencemaybee/Research and these are a couple of his publications:
Maybee, C. (2007) "Understanding our student learners: A phenomenographic study revealing the ways that undergraduate women at Mills College understand using information." Reference Services Review, 35(3), 452-462.
Maybee, C. (2006) "Undergraduate Perceptions of Information Use: the basis for creating User-Centered Student Information Literacy Instruction." Journal of Academic Librarianship, 32(1), 79-85.

Information Literacy in the snow

This is a cool photo that was produced by Nancy Goebel at the Augustana library, University of Alberta (where I am at the moment). She got student volunteers to spell out the words "information literacy" by lying in the snow. You can see that the letters are made of people more easily in the closeup of "info" at the bottom of the picture on the right.

LOEX of the West 2012 call for papers

The LOEX of the West 2012 Conference Committee calls for proposals to be considered for presentation at the LOEX of the West (LOTW) Conference, June 6-8, 2012 at Woodbury University, Burbank, California, USA. The theme for the conference is : Creative Landscapes: Designing Information Literacy for All Terrains. More info at http://woodbury.libguides.com/lotw2012

Sheffield University, Information Literacy and IBL

At the moment I am in Edmonton, Canada, preparing presentations for the Augustana Information Literacy workshop at the University of Alberta, Canada. This is why there has been a couple of days gap in my blogging. It is colder here than in the UK: here is a picture from today.
One of the things I will be doing is talking about Sheffield University as an example of information literacy being advanced through a university-wide initiative concerning a pedagogic approach (in this case, Inquiry Based Learning (IBL). I've blogged some of these items before, but here is a list of resources I'm mentioning
- There is an IBL website at http://www.shef.ac.uk/ibl/
- CILASS. (2008) Information Literacy. (CILASS Briefing Paper; 4) http://www.shef.ac.uk/content/1/c6/07/93/44/Information%20Literacy%20Briefing%20paper.pdf
- Case studies of IBL projects with an IL component:
- - English http://www.shef.ac.uk/ibl/resources/casestudies/english/historyof.html;
- - Human Communication Sciences http://www.shef.ac.uk/ibl/resources/casestudies/hcs/introweek.html;
- - Library http://www.shef.ac.uk/ibl/resources/casestudies/library/seil.html;
- - Psychology http:// www.shef.ac.uk/ibl/resources/casestudies/psychology/publicpres.html;
- - Law http://www.shef.ac.uk/ibl/resources/casestudies/law/ul1.html (see also an account by two faculty in the Law School: Semmens and Taylor, 2006)

- Corrall, S. (2009) Information Literacy: The Case for Strategic Engagement. http://www.slideshare.net/cilr/information-literacy-the-case-for-strategic-engagement (Professor Sheila Corrall outlines the case in general, and finishes by giving Sheffield University as an example)
- McKinney, P. (2010) Inquiry-based Learning and Information Literacy: a meta-analytical study. University of Sheffield. http://www.shef.ac.uk/content/1/c6/11/08/47/IL_meta-analysis_PM-FINAL.pdf
- Parker, L. (2009) Can't I just upload it to the VLE? Designing and embedding information literacy into online and blended learning. http//www.slideshare.net/LynParker/cant-i-just-upload-it-to-the-vle-designing-and-embedding-information-literacy-into-online-and-blended-learning (Lyn Parker is Head of Learning and Teaching at Sheffield University Library)

Infolit and ICT articles

A blog called International Schools and ICT has been regularly posting abstracts of research articles: an interesting mix. http://internationalschoolsandict.wordpress.com/. On the day I last looked, the item was:
Sharkey, J. and Brandt, D.S. (2008) Integrating Technology Literacy and Information Literacy. In: Rivoltella, P. (Ed) Digital literacy : tools and methodologies for information society. Hershey: IGI Publishing. pp85-97.
Photo by Sheila Webber: last windfalls, November 2011

Information literacy in our future careers: videos

The Information literacy in our future careers exhibition is something I've done several years running with a class that is core to three of our masters programmes, the MA Librarianship, MA Information Literacy and MSc Information Management. In the first week of the exercise teams of students start creating a poster to depict how information literacy will be relevant in their future careers, and in the second week they display the posters and explain them to each other.
This year there are 115 students, the majority international (over half the class is from China). They have a variety of career aspirations, particularly the largest cohort, the Information Managers. Careers that were addressed in the posters included headhunting, farming, and human resource management, as well as different kinds of information and library jobs. 30 posters were produced and you can see them all in this Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23396182@N00/sets/72157627880923331/
This is a short video that I made, asking some of the students to explain their posters.

In addition some of the teams give some very interesting accounts on their own team blogs. "Team I" did a video about their favourite poster which is embedded in this blog post (their own poster is one of the ones featured in my video, above): http://i23things.blogspot.com/2011/10/information-literacy-in-our-future.html "Team U" also provide a nice explanation of their poster here: http://ucanbloglikeme.blogspot.com/2011/10/il-poster-by-u-team.html
We ask people to evaluate the posters, and the two most popular posters were those from Team A (pictured at the start of this post) and Team N (pictured right)

Measuring the impact of information literacy training in Africa: questionnaire

Siobhán Duvigneau (Information Literacy Manager, BLDS - British Library for Development Studies) writes "BLDS has developed an information literacy programme over the past two years which includes course materials and an online network for trainers and practitioners to share best practice.
"As part of this programme BLDS and the Research Information Network (RIN) are working together to develop a monitoring and evaluation toolkit, including practical examples, to inform the development and impact measurement of information literacy training. Much of BLDS’ work has been within an African context and so the intention is to develop a toolkit for African trainers of information literacy which will be widely disseminated through Creative Commons. This toolkit will include practical tools such as pre and post-course questionnaires, as well as case studies illustrating how these tools can be used.
"In the first instance, we are disseminating a questionnaire to get a feel for current practice in the development of information literacy interventions. We invite IL practitioners to contribute to the questionnaire, run through Survey Monkey. The questionnaire is open during the period 4 November 2011 to 25 November 2011 and should take between 15-30 minutes to complete.
"Following analysis of the responses, there will be in-depth, qualitative consultations early in 2012 in Africa at a university yet to be confirmed. Please indicate whether you would like to join these workshops and/or focus groups in the questionnaire. The formulation of the toolkit itself will follow during the first quarter of next year." http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/monitoringimpact
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn canopy, Sheffield, November 2011.

Christine Bruce: presentation recording

Dr Christine Bruce gave an online keynote at the Library 2.011 conference today. I should have flagged this up in advance, but you can see the recording (audio, powerpoint and chat from the online audience). Her topic was The experience of information literacy and learning: reflections on social media. The link to the page where you can access the conference recordings is here: http://www.library20.com/page/general-session-room-links. A few others that caught my eye (but I haven't watched them: it's hectic at the moment and unfortunately I haven't been able to take any time to participate in the conference except for being at Christine's session)
Diane Fulkerson: Multiliteracy is the new Information Literacy
Thierry Robert: Presentation of a gamification project : an online serious game to learn information skills to 9-12 years old
Gabrielle Hayes: Tiers for Fears: QUT Library's learning and Study support service
Reneé Lyons: A Bird in the Bush: Pathfinders as a Tool for Developing Multiliteracies
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn leaves, Sheffield, November 2011

“Social Life” for Information Literacy Instruction

A presentation for an online ACRL course was uploaded to Youtube by Lynn Lampert a few days ago. It is entitled Creating a “Social Life” for Information Literacy Instruction in Libraries and starts off with reference to The social life of information, a book that I have used in teaching.

WILU host sought

The WILU (Workshop for Instruction in Library Use) 2012 Steering Committee invites proposals from Canadian libraries to host WILU 2013. If you are interested in this exciting opportunity please see this page for more information: http://sites.macewan.ca/wilu2012/hosting-wilu-2013/

Short article on "Information Literacy 2.0"

Farkas, M. (2011) "Information Literacy 2.0". American libraries. 1st November. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/columns/practice/information-literacy-20
Quote from the end: "it’s critical that we develop instruction that supports critical inquiry in this extremely complex information environment."
Picture is of me in Second Life with one of my 3D models of the SCONUL 7 pillars of information literacy.