Havana declaration on IL, and the Iberoamerican wiki

The Declaration of Havana has been published in English. This declaration (already published in Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese) proposes 15 actions for information literacy. Themes include recognising contextual differences and needs, collaboration, inclusion and a life-wide perspective. http://www.ifla.org/node/6964

It is also the 3rd anniversary of the project ALFIN [Information Literacy]/ Ibero-America, with the wiki-repository containing more than 1400 entries from 22 Iberoamerican countries at http://alfiniberoamerica.wikispaces.com/
Thanks to Alejandro Uribe Tirado for keeping me updated with this information.
Photo by Sheila Webber: fallen leaves, October 2012

Information practices of refugees

The online pre-publication issue of the Journal of documentation has an article:
Lloyd, A., Kennan, M., Thompson,K. and Qayyum, A. (2012). Connecting with new information landscapes: Information literacy practices of refugees, Journal of Documentation, 69(1).
Information literacy practice is defined as "a coconstruction brought about by those who are co-located and participating in the everyday life of a community". Interviews and focus groups were used with refugees and service providers in an Australian town. The researchers found that there were phases of settlement (during which time the refugees had to develop new information practices), that refugees need help to cope with the new information landscape, that compliance (e.g. knowing about relevant laws) and everyday focus are the information foci to start with, and that visual and social information are important (including using storytelling).
The journal home page is here http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=17062806
There is a related article: Lloyd, A., Qayyum, A. and Thompson,K. and (2011) Settling in: the relationship between information and social inclusion. Australian academic and research libraries, 42 (3),191-211.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn park, October 2012

cpf LOEX posters

For the LOEX (US Information Literacy conference) there is a call for posters (deadline January 25, 2013). It is open to "Students currently enrolled in a graduate program in library and information sciences along with librarians in resident or intern programs". The web page is here: http://www.loexconference.org/posterproposals.html

Research project into delivery of Information Literacy and Digital Scholarship

SCONUL (Society for College, National and University Libraries) and RIN (Research Information Network) are funding a year-long research project into delivery of Information Literacy and Digital Scholarship. There are two strands to the project. The first strand, co-ordinated by Research Information Network (RIN) on behalf of Research Information and Digital Literacies Coalition (RIDLs), aims to identify and promote "good practice in information handling and data management training and development across the (UK) Higher Education and research sectors."
The second strand, coordinated by SCONUL under the JISC Developing
Digital Literacies (DDL) programme, "aims to identify, harvest, and use materials to progress the development of digital professional expertise."
Stephane Goldstein (RIN) and Alison Mackenzie (SCONUL) are project leaders and Charlie Inskip is the project officer. More info at http://rilads.wordpress.com
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn branches, October 2012

Recent articles

Journal of academic librarianship (priced publication) http://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship/
- Greer, K. et al (2012) "Beyond the Web Tutorial: Development and Implementation of an Online, Self-Directed Academic Integrity Course at Oakland University." Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (5), 251-258
- Gibbs, D. et al (2012) "Assessing the Research Needs of Graduate Students at Georgetown University" Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (5), 268-276
- Weiner, S. (2012) "Institutionalizing Information Literacy" Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (5), 287-293. [This is a slideshare of the same name, by her http://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/weiner-13631500]
- Baro, E. and Keboh, T. (2012) "Teaching and Fostering Information Literacy Programmes: A Survey of Five University Libraries in Africa" Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (5), 311-315
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn anemones and foliage, October 2012

Survey for academic librarians

Laura Simmons (Assistant Professor, Simmons College) is conducting a survey of reference and instruction/ information literacy librarians' approach to teaching. This survey is a follow up to a study that was recently published in The Journal of Academic Librarianship, on academics' perspectives on information literacy. "The survey should only take about 15 minutes to complete and your participation is GREATLY appreciated" she says. The survey is at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RPGQ8WL
Photo by Sheila Webber: Prizewinning striped aubergines at Blackheath Framers' market

Dissertations on information literacy

There are a few online PhD dissertations relevant to information literacy that can be accessed via the British Library's ethos service. You have to register (free). If the thesis are not already digitised (the ones below are) then you can pay £49 to get it digitised. They include
-- What is 'digital literacy'? : a pragmatic investigation. Beshaw, Douglas A. J. Durham University, Awarded: 2012 (as a shortcut, the download is actually from http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3446/)
-- Information literacy instruction for Kuwaiti students and the role of cultural relevance. Lesher, Teresa M. Loughborough University, Awarded: 2002
-- Negotiating information literacy pathways : learner autonomy in higher education. McDowell, Liz. University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Awarded: 2004.
-- Conceptions of effective information use and learning in a tele-health organization : a phenomenographic study of information literacy and knowledge management at work. Toledano O'Farrill, Ruben. Robert Gordon University, Awarded: 2008
-- Developing a new blended approach to fostering information literacy. Walton, Geoffrey. Loughborough University, Awarded: 2009. (Again, as a shortcut, the thesis is also availabe here https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/8148)
Photo by Sheila Webber: Green and gold, October 2012

UK major report: Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes

There are some new reports from Ofcom (the UK "watchdog" for the communications sector). The main report, published today, is a substantial 200 page document, and the other 2 reports which I'll mention supplement that one.
Ofcom (2012) Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report Research Document. Ofcom. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/main.pdf
The report is "designed to give an accessible overview of media literacy among [British] children and young people aged 5-15 and their parents/carers, as well as an indicative view of media use by children aged 3-4." Key research was 1,717 in-home interviews.
The report is packed with statistics about what kinds of device children access, and where they do so. 91% of children have internet access at home (for the first time, this is not an increase compared with the last report) - some children still do not access the internet anywhere. Unsurprisingly, mobile devices feature heavily, with gender differences in how the devices are used. Also, just picking up on a personal interest, in 8-11 year olds the only "creative or civic" activity that has gone up every year is creating an avatar in an online world (this year 48% had).
For some of the conclusions, I will be lazy and copy from the Executive summary.
" Children are using a wide range of media devices, and internet access is not confined to the desktop PC, laptop or netbook. Those aged 12-15 in particular are spending more time online, are more likely to go online using their mobile phone and are more likely to say that their mobile phone is the device they would miss the most.

"For the first time this report contains indicative data on the media habits of 3-4 year olds. This indicates that many in this age group are using a range of different media devices, including over a third who are going online using a desktop PC, laptop or netbook and 6% who are going online via a tablet computer.
"These trends have implications for how we consider children’s media literacy, as the requirement for media literacy skills begins at a young age, and the types of devices children need to be proficient on, and the opportunities for them to encounter media content, increase.
"Children, particularly 12-15s, are prolific social networkers with large numbers of friends – an average of 92 friends for 8-11s and 286 for 12-15s. This has implications for how children protect and share personal information, given that personal data available to “friends” on social networking sites is likely to be shared with large numbers of people."

2. Ofcom (2012) Websites visited by children: Nielsen analysis. Ofcom. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/Annex_3.pdf

The data is "derived from Nielsen's UK panel of households, comprising 45,239 individuals". This is short, but interesting in listing top 25/50 sites for 3 age groups. As with the other reports, data was gathered in 2012.
- 5-7 years old: top ten (1 to 10): Google, Google Search, BBC, Facebook, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing, YouTube, BBC CBeebies, Yahoo!, eBay, Ask Search Network
- 8-11 years: top ten (1 to 10): Google, Google Search, YouTube, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing, Facebook, BBC, YouTube Homepage, Google Image search, Wikipedia, Windows Live Messenger
- 12-15 years: top ten (1 to 10): Google, Google Search, Facebook, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing ,YouTube,Google Image Search, YouTube Homepage, Yahoo!, Wikipedia

3. Jigsaw Research (2012) Parents’ views on parental controls: Findings of qualitative research. Ofcom. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/Annex_1.pdf

The research used a purposive sample of parents (in the UK), with qualitative methods including focus groups and journaling (it gives details of the questions etc., useful for other researchers). Parents were more concerned about issues like cyberbullying and "grooming" and the impact of internet use on other parts of the child's life (e.g. exercise, writing), rather than issues to do with access to inappropriate content (partly because they didn't perceive it as a particular problem). Some quotes from the executive summary are:
"Overall, ensuring balanced and safe use of the internet was seen as an important parenting challenge, but one where parents were not always clear on how to get it right. This was because they could not necessarily draw on their own experiences growing up, and also because they felt that the issues and risks were constantly developing and shifting".
"Overall, technical controls were viewed as a supplement to, rather than replacement for, hands-on parenting. Supervision and other forms of parental mediation were felt still to be needed to prevent all of the day-to-day issues as well as risks emanating from children’s internet usage."
Photos by Sheila Webber: Autumn chrysanthemum blooms, October 2012

Open Access Week - and - How Open Is It?

Open Access Week is 22-28 October 2012. The main website listing events, publicity etc. is at http://www.openaccessweek.org/
Another resource I just saw tweeted by Lyn Parker is How Open Is It , a guide (in several languages) to help judge the extent to which an item is "open access". The guide is short and has a spectrum of open-ness for key elements (e.g. reader rights, re-use rights). It can be downloaded at http://www.plos.org/about/open-access/howopenisit/
I might as well mention Lyn's Copyright Compliance Scoopit, too: http://www.scoop.it/t/copyright-compliance
Logo downloaded from http://www.openaccessweek.org/page/englishhigh-resolution-1

Digital and Information Literacies at Cardiff University

Earlier this month Cardiff University launched its Digital and Information Literacies Strategy: Embedding learning literacies at Cardiff University: INSRV's Digital and Information Literacies Strategy 2012-2014. This builds on their continued substantial developments in the area of information literacy, and also the JISC project they had on digital literacies.
The strategy is at http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/news/infolitstrategy.html and digital literacy project at Cardiff University has a blog here http://digidol.cf.ac.uk/ and this is the page on the JISC site, which has project documents right at the bottom of the page http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/developingdigitalliteracies/DigiDol.aspx
Photo by Sheila Webber: Today is Apple Day in the UK. This is part of my small crop of apples this year (bad weather has affected the British apple crops generally)

The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology 2012

The report of the 2012 study of (United States) students' use of technology was published recently. The ECAR (EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research) study has been carried out since 2004. This year they had responses from 106,000 students from 195 institutions and from these ECAR selected a stratified sample (using various demographics) of 10,000 students, and most of the results are based on that subset of responses. Obviously the main focus is on use and preferences in using technology, but it is also worth noting that the communication mode that students wanted more of, most, was face-to-face communication. More communication via Learning Management Systems (or Virtual Learning Environments as we say in the UK), email and text messaging came next after that. Communication modes where the number of people wanting less of it outnumbered the number wanting more included Facebook and Twitter. Nearly 60% preferred keeping academic and social lives separate.

The top 4 things that students wished that teachers used more were: Open Educational Resources; Simulations or educational games; Learning Management Systems and e-books. It seemed to me unlikely that everyone would know what OERs were, but when I checked the questionnaire, in fact that item was phrased as "Freely available course content beyond your campus (OpenCourseWare, Khan Academy, etc.)".

There was a majority agreeing that technology was important to achieve success in their studies and their future jobs. The top technology valued was the Learning management System, followed by the Library Website. A larger number of students (than in the last study) felt that their teachers were using technology effectively.

There is more on this and other questions in the full report, available at http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/ecar-study-undergraduate-students-and-information-technology-2012
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn colour, October 2012

International panel on information literacy associations, 21 November

An international panel talks about information literacy associations on 21st November at the first event to be jointly sponsored by the Sheffield iSchool Centre for Information Literacy Research and the the Association of College and Research Libraries Virtual World Interest Group.
When: Sunday 21 October 2012 noon SL time, 2012 (which is 8pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/9h2j3pe for times elsewhere)
Where: Farradane Centre, Infolit iSchool, in the virtual world Second Life, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/91/34/22
You need a Second Life avatar and the SL browser installed on your computer to attend. All welcome!
Panellists:
Sheila Webber (i.e. me, Sheila Yoshikawa in SL), Senior Lecturer, Information School, University of Sheffield – UK (British IL Associations)
Ewa Rozkosz – Saba Pearl in SL (Polish IL Association)
Elvira Saurina (Mariae Habana in SL) -, Sistema de Bibliotecas. Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile Santiago de Chile
Stylianos Mystakidis (Sylianos Ling in SL)- E-learning and Virtual Worlds Specialist at the Library and Information Center of the University of Patras, Greece
Valerie Hill – (Valibrarian Gregg in SL) LISD Library Media Specialist, Adjunct Instructor, TWU School of Library and Information Studies- USA (AASL 21st Century Standards Information Literacy)

RDMRose project develops learning materials

JISC have funded the White Rose Consortium of the libraries of the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York and the Sheffield iSchool to develop learning materials about Research Data Management tailored for the needs of LIS professionals.The project, RDMRose, will develop learning materials to be made available as Open Educational Resources (OERs). Learning materials should begin to be available from January 2013. RDM refers to “the organisation of data, from its entry to the research cycle through to the dissemination and archiving of valuable results”.Project web site is at http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Photo by Sheila Webber: White rose.

ACRL awarded grant for project linking libraries and student success

The (US) Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has been awarded a (US) National Leadership Demonstration Grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for the project Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success. The grant funding of $249,330 will support ACRL, in partnership with the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). The funding is for development programmes (in each case a one year programme, over three years, involving teams from a total of 300 libraries). "Librarians who participate in the program, supported by a blended learning environment and a peer-to-peer network, will lead their campus teams in the development and implementation of an action learning project examining the impact of the library on student success and contributing to assessment activities on their campus." http://acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/archives/5817#more-5817
Photo by Sheila Webber: Pyracantha, Hailsham, October 2012

Badke's books: Research processes and Research Strategies

Badke, W. (2012) Teaching Research Processes: The Faculty Role in the Development of Skilled Student Researchers. Oxford: Chandos; New York: Neal-Schuman. ISBN: 9781843346746
The book "suggests a novel way in which information literacy can come within the remit of teaching faculty, supported by librarians, and reconceived as "research processes." The aim is to transform education from what some see as a primarily one-way knowledge communication practice, to an interactive practice involving the core research tasks of subject disciplines." Info here.
Also just a reminder that there is a free online abridged version of William Badke's Research strategies (updated March 2012). The full book is available in print and e-book versions:
Badke, W. (2011) Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog. 4th ed. iUniverse.com ISBN-13: 978-1462010172
The website with details of the publication and the abridged web version is at http://acts.twu.ca/library/textbook.htm

Information Literacies Track call for papers

There is an information literacies conference track for the eighth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS8). COLIS 2013 takes place at the Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen, Denmark, 19-22 August, 2013. The call is for short or long papers presenting empirical research within information literacies and/or discussjng methodological issues. The deadline for submissions is March 1st 2013. Among the accepted papers on information literacies, one paper will be awarded the inaugural iilresearch Best Information Literacies Paper Award. The call for papers is at http://www.iva.dk/english/colis8/call-for-information-literacies-track/ and the COLIS conference web site is at http://www.iva.dk/english/colis8/ Questions regarding the workshop should be directed to Camilla Moring, member of the iilresearch-network and Local chair (cm@iva.dk). General queries regarding submissions should be directed to Jeppe Nicolaisen (jni@iva.dk), Chair of Publications and Proceedings.
Photo by Sheila Webber: duck, Sheffield, October 2012

Open Education video winners

Creative Commons together with the U.S. Department of Education, and the Open Society Foundation had a competition to create short videos about open education, and these are worth a look (I liked the 3rd prize winner best). My only quibble would be that some of them seem to equate open education with Open Educational Resources (whereas I think there is more to education than providing resources!) http://whyopenedmatters.org/videos/
Photo by Sheila Webber:leaf on a chair, Turku, 2008

Imaginaires, représentations, pratiques formelles et non formelles de la recherche d'information sur Internet: PhD thesis

A French-language thesis on schoolchildren's concept of internet searching has just been put online.
Cordier, A. (2011) Imaginaires, représentations, pratiques formelles et non formelles de la recherche d'information sur Internet : Le cas d'élèves de 6ème et de professeurs documentalistes. UNIVERSITÉ CHARLES DE GAULLE – LILLE III. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00737637
I did not really spend enough time with it (considering my moderate French language skills) to give a good account of what it is about, but I think it is an investigation into 11-12 year old French schoolchildren's experiences of searching the internet, contrasting this experience with what the school librarians have as their goal for information literacy teaching. The latter are urged to pay more attention to the pupil's practice with information and technology.
This is the French abstract "L'objectif de ce travail est d'apporter une meilleure connaissance des imaginaires, représentations et pratiques non formelles développées par les élèves de 6ème sur la recherche d'information sur Internet, et d'effectuer un parallèle et une confrontation avec les pratiques de formation mises en oeuvre par les professeurs documentalistes. Pour ce faire, une étude qualitative, combinant entretiens semi-directifs et observation distanciée, a été menée au sein de trois établissements scolaires français. L'adoption d‟une éco-posture pour analyser la recherche d‟information sur Internet permet de considérer les pratiques de recherche et de formation de manière située, en tenant compte des contraintes opérées par les espaces d'action identifiés. Le sentiment d'expertise personnellement ressenti en matière de recherche sur Internet joue pour les deux types d'acteurs un rôle fondamental à la fois dans l'appropriation de l'outil et dans l'appréhension des séances de formation. L'étude révèle un écart important entre les pratiques de recherche ordinaires des élèves et les pratiques prescrites par les professionnels."
Photo by Sheila Webber: yet more anemones, October 2012

George Kuh article for discussion in October

The article which the ACRL Student Retention Discussion Group has chosen for October is:
Kuh, G. and Gonyea, R.M. (2003) The Role of the Academic Library in Promoting Student Engagement in Learning. College and Research Libraries, 64(4), 256-282. http://crl.acrl.org/content/64/4/256.abstract
To join the discussion, go to http://connect.ala.org/node/189260
George Kuh is an influential figure in US Higher Education, and I think that this article is still worth reading (whether or not you decide to join in the debate!) The authors took data from the College Student Experiences Questionnaire and compared various sets of questions including the set of questions relating to library use, some key questions to do with satisfaction, and a set of questions which they selected as being a (sort of) match with ACRL standards.
The authors make some pertinent remarks about how important variables to do with previous academic achievement, ethnicity etc. are, when trying to link library use with academic success, something which some other studies gloss over.
The evidence does not support an easy correlation between academic excellence and library use, or library use and (the authors' measure of) information literacy. The final paragraph reads:
"The findings of this study indicate that it takes a whole campus to produce an information-literate college graduate. For this reason, librarians would do well to redouble their efforts to collaborate with faculty members, instructional development staff, and student affairs professionals in promoting the value of information literacy in various in-class and out-of-class activities and to provide students with as many opportunities as possible to evaluate the quality of the information they encounter, on and off the campus."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn arriving, Sheffield, October 2012

Information Literacy petition

There is an online information literacy petition from Easybib - the implication is that it is for librarians in the USA, but it doesn't actually say that, so.... This is what it is about
"In celebration of Information Literacy Awareness Month, we have set up an online pledge for librarians to sign and show their commitment to teaching these imperative skills. For each signature acquired on the pledge, EasyBib will donate $1 to the American Library Association... If you are dedicated to teaching IL skills and would like to sign our pledge, please following this URL: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/pledge-to-promote-information-literacy-awareness/ (You do not need to register for an account in order to sign.) The free service used for this campaign, iPetitions, may ask you after you have signed our pledge to provide an optional donation to them. If you see this, just close out of your browser window--your name has been recorded and you are in no way obligated to donate any money"
Photo by Sheila Webber: Autumn leaf (photoshopped) October 2012

WILU 2013: call for papers

There is a call for papers for the Canadian Information Literacy conference: WILU. The Conference will be held at The University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, May 8-10, 2013. The theme for WILU 2013 is Synchronicity: The Time is Now which "reflects the increasing need for Instruction Librarians to balance a myriad of seemingly competing demands. We invite proposals that consider what it means to provide timely information literacy programs in a world of synched devices, decentralized instruction, and information overload, all while serving institutions in flux." Possible topics include: Merging tradition with innovation; Balancing educational theory with pedagogical practice; Providing instruction for interdisciplinary programs; Theorizing instructional technology; Distributed instruction; Information ethics; Open access resources for instruction; Literacies: information and beyond. The deadline for proposal submissions is December 3rd, 2012. More info at http://lib.unb.ca/WILU/program/call-for-proposals/
Photo by Sheila Webber: yet more autumn anemones, October 2013

Just give me 10 minutes… online talk at 3pm UK time today

At 3pm today (UK time) there is a free online talk "Just give me 10 minutes…” Information Literacy in the Age of Web-Scale Discovery from Alison Sharman at the University of Huddersfield, UK. This is part of a webinar series from Serials Solutions, a ProQuest company. There are further talks with a searching/ information literacy theme; e.g. on The Impact of Serial Solutions’ Summon on Information Literacy Instruction: Librarian Perceptions from Stefanie Buck and Margaret Mellinger of Oregon State University Libraries on 11 October 2012 at 6pm UK time (1pm Eastern time USA). For information about the whole series http://www.serialssolutions.com/en/webinars/upcoming/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Coffee morning in the iSchool on behalf of Macmillan Cancer Care last week

Intergenerational Literacies: call for papers

The IFLA Literacy and Reading and Information Literacy Sections are seeking proposals for a joint programme to be held at the IFLA Conference in Singapore in August 2013: Intergenerational Literacies: texto / techno. The closing date is November 30 2012.

The challenge of new information and learning landscape can lead to all sorts of information gaps. One of them is a gap between texto and techno generations which can cause intergenerational isolation and separation. The program will showcase innovative and effective library programmes that intend to bridge this gap.
Proposals are requested for as many as ten tabletop presentations which will be given simultaneously. After an opening plenary keynote address, audience members will rotate to three different fifteen-minute presentations of their choice. Presenters will therefore be asked to repeat their presentation three times for three different sets of people.

Proposals chosen for presentation will be specific about how libraries and/or associations have tackled issues related to texto and techno literacies in their particular setting, thus developing intergenerational literacies, dialogue, digital inclusion and social cohesion. They should be grounded in theory, research, and/or practical applications. Because these projects will be presented in an informal, small group setting, speakers should plan some visual accompaniment such as a poster that can be set up on the table. Presenters may also want to bring brochures or flyers to hand out. People submitting successful proposals will be asked to write a brief paper summarizing their library programme or project for publication in the IFLA Proceedings. All chosen presenters will be listed in the official Conference programme.

Proposals in English are required, and should provide the following information: Name and institution of speaker(s); Brief biographical information; Proposal title; Brief (300 to 500 word) description of project and presentation format; Language of presentation. Proposals should be sent to Elena Corradini (Secretary of the Literacy and Reading Section) at ecorradini67@gmail.com by November 30, 2012. Please indicate "IFLA Proposal WLIC 2013" on the subject line. Finalists will be notified by December 15, 2012, and will be expected to submit final versions of their papers in one of the official IFLA languages by May 15, 2013.

For more information, please contact Leikny Haga Indergaard (Chair of Literacy and Reading Section) at: Leikny.Indergaard@bergen.kommune.no Please note that it is the speakers’ responsibility to find funding for their participation.
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn anemones, September 2012

This is Information Literacy month!

In the USA it is National Information Literacy Awareness Month. You can get the code to embed the badge on the right from here: http://www.librariesthriving.org/partnerships/2012-information-literacy-campaign If you are in the USA in one of the 13 states that has signed up to the National IL awareness Proclamation you can customise the badge to advertise that your state supports IL.
On Tuesday, 16 October 16, 2012, 10:30am – 12:00pm EST (that's starting at 3.30pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/9c3pmbj for times elsewhere), the National Forum for Information Literacy and Credo Reference/Libraries Thriving will host a webinar From School to Workforce: Information Literacy, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills, "focusing on the 21st century skills that all learners will need to compete effectively in today’s dynamic global economy". Panelists include: Jennifer Homer, ABC – Vice President of Communications and Career Development for the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD); William Badke, Associate Librarian, Trinity Western University, Canada; Lana W. Jackman, President, National Forum on Information Literacy. There is free registration: go to http://infolit.org/celebrating-national-information-literacy-awareness-month/

LILAC 2013 call for papers

There's a call for papers for the LILAC (Information literacy) conference (being held at Manchester University, UK, 25-27 March 2013). They can take the form of: Short papers; Long papers; Workshop sessions; Symposia; Teachmeet presentations; or posters. The closing date for submissions is 16 November 2012. More information at http://lilacconference.com/WP/call-for-papers/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Lilac, 2008.

Banned Books Week

30 Sept - 6 Oct is Banned Books Week, which is obviously AGAINST banning books. There is a home page at http://bannedbooksweek.org/ and a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/bannedbooksweek This is a US (particularly American Library Association) organised event, but e.g. you can post your favourite "Banned" title on the Facebook page.

I am part of a Banned Books Week panel Free to read, taking place in the virtual world Second Life on 1 October at 5pm Second Life Time = US Pacific Time (1am Tuesday in the UK! see http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20121001T17&p1=234 for times elsewhere) on Community Virtual Library Exhibition Area http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/61/94/24/. Other panel speakers on intellectual freedom are Pat Franks, Valerie Hill, Jane Bering, and Monika Talaroc.