North American's internet access

The Pew Research Center's report on Americans’ Internet Access: 2000-2015 uses the data they have collected anually on the internet habits of people in the USA. Headlines include:
"Older adults have lagged behind younger adults in their adoption, but now a clear majority (58%) of senior citizens uses the internet" with seniors showing higher adoption rates than young people (because there are still more of them not using teh internet).
"While Less-Educated Adults Are Catching Up, Their Internet Adoption Rates Are Still Below Those of College Graduates"
"Those In Higher-Income Households Are Most Likely To Use Internet"
"English-speaking Asian-Americans Are the Most Likely To Report Internet Usage"
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/06/26/americans-internet-access-2000-2015/
Photo by Sheila Webber: bee, July 2015

My Senate Award for teaching

Some self-publicity! This shows me receiving my (framed) Senate award for sustained excellence in teaching from Sir Peter Middleton, our Chancellor, at the graduation ceremony last Friday. A short citation was read out beforehand to say why I'd got the award. Thanks to Christopher Webber for grabbing the screenshot from the livefeed. I also get some money to spend on education-related things (I will probably use it to do some educational research). There is more information about this year's Fellows here.

#wlic2015 preview: graphic novel for HIV/AIDS; geospatial literacy; digital inclusion; indigenous literacy

This is the 2nd batch of links to papers due to be given at the World Library and Information (IFLA) Conference which takes places 15-21 August 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa. There are obviously lots more on other library topics in the IFLA Library as the majority of people do submit their papers in advance. As I said in my last post, if all goes well I will be liveblogging the conference.

COX, Kiersten and GREGORY, Vicki and FLESCHNER, Julius (2015) No One Left-Behind! Teaching Information Literacy in a Different Way to an Urban Population. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 140 - Metropolitan Libraries. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1132
GAVIGAN, Karen W. and ALBRIGHT, Kendra S. (2015) A Culturally-Targeted HIV/AIDS Graphic Novel for Teen Well-Being. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 189 - School Libraries with Health and Biosciences. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1148
SALVATORE, Cecilia L. (2015) Indigenous Literacy through Indigenous Cultural Heritage Materials and Resources. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 168 - Indigenous Matters SIG. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1146
OJARANTA, Anu Helena (2015) A Phase between Two National Core Curricula in Finland – What Are the Implications to Information Literacy Instruction and Library Collaboration?. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 101 - School Libraries. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1116
REARDON, Siobhan A. and MCCLINTOCK, Autumn and MORAN, Sara S. and NICHOLS, Joel A. (2015) Health Strategies for Public Libraries: How the Free Library of Philadelphia addresses health barriers to literacies. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 140 - Metropolitan Libraries. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1131
PUN, Raymond (2015) Geospatial Literacy as Digital Literacy: Building GIS Program to Support and Engage with Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Research Communities. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 140 - Metropolitan Libraries. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1119
AHLQVIST, Elisabet (2015) Digital inclusion in Sweden done in the “Digidel way”. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 88 - Library Theory and Research with Statistics and Evaluation. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1236
WEBB, Damien (2015) Curating with Community. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 168 - Indigenous Matters SIG. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1143
Photo by Sheila Webber: honey bee, July 2015

#wlic2015 preview of papers on literacies

The World Library and Information (IFLA) Conference takes places 15-21 August in Cape Town, South Africa. I will be attending and aim to liveblog, but you can get a good taste of the conference in advance, since speakers are required to provide full text papers, preferably in advance. The papers are stored on the IFLA Library database: I regularly recommend the IFLA conference papers as an excellent international resource and the most recent years are on this database. I have picked out some of those being presented next month (focusing on literacies), and split them into two posts, one today and one tomorrow.

- MORTENSEN, Helle (2015) Literacy Matters! The Literacy and Reading Needs of People with Special Needs. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 99 - Literacy and Reading. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1231
- VAN DER WALT, Flippie (2015) The reference librarian’s new approach to coach information literacy skills for children: a new approach in reference and information services in the City of Cape Town. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 190 - Reference and Information Services Section. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1081
- KATZ, Ari (2015) Libraries, literacy and technology: A new training module for public librarians in developing countries targeted at integrating libraries into literacy programs. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 118 - Literacy and Reading. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1205
- BON, Ingrid (2015) Literacy Matters! An integrated approach to literacy, reading and libraries in the Netherlands. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 99 - Literacy and Reading. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1178
- STOICA, Marius (2015) The App Library project: technology and media education for teens. Paper to be presented at: IFLA WLIC 2015 - Cape Town, South Africa in Session 102 - Information Technology Library and Research Services for Parliaments Public Libraries and Asia and Oceania. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/1245
Photo by Sheila Webber: daisy, July 2015

New articles: data information literacy, international students, first year experience, copyright, integration

The latest issue of the Journal of academic librarianship (volume 41 no. 4; this is a priced publication) includes
- “It's in the Syllabus”: Identifying Information Literacy and Data Information Literacy Opportunities Using a Grounded Theory Approach by Clarence Maybee, Jake Carlson, Maribeth Slebodnik, Bert Chapman
- Beyond Embedded: Creating an Online-Learning Community Integrating Information Literacy and Composition Courses by Mary Beth Burgoyne, Kim Chuppa-Cornell
- Creation and Use of Intellectual Works in the Academic Environment: Students' Knowledge About Copyright and Copyleft by Enrique Muriel-Torrado, Juan-Carlos Fernández-Molina
- Student, Librarian, and Instructor Perceptions of Information Literacy Instruction and Skills in a First Year Experience Program: A Case Study by Sung Un Kim, David Shumaker
- Demographic Differences in International Students' Information Source Uses and Everyday Information Seeking Challenges by Sei-Ching Joanna Sin
- Establishing a Participatory Library Model: A Grounded Theory Study by Linh Cuong Nguyen
- Foregrounding the Research Log in Information Literacy Instruction by Louise R. Fluk
The issue page is at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00991333/41/4
Photo by Sheila Webber: bee, July 2015

Research funds for practioners: call for bids

The CILIP Information Literacy Group (ILG) is offering up to £20,000 per year to fund practitioners (who are ILG members) through an annual bursary scheme. Bids of up to a £10,000 maximum are invited. Half the funding would be presented at the beginning of a project and the other half upon successful completion of measurable objectives. The principal investigator should be a practitioner ILG member, but the guidelines also suggest including an "experienced research" in the team (if the PI her/hiself is not already an experienced researcher.
Research should be (by implication) into information literacy and proposals are particularly welcomed which:
- demonstrate collaboration between sectors
- have tangible, practical benefits (i.e. produce a new process or product with potential application beyond education)
- address current issues affecting areas outside of librarianship
- show potential for further large-scale study, dissemination and exploitation
Projects can use any appropriate methodological approach.
There are more details of the bursaries at http://www.cilip.org.uk/information-literacy-group/sponsorship-and-bursaries
Deadline for the first round of bids is 1st December 2015. By the way, you don't have to be a member of CILIP (the UK's national library association) to be a member of ILG, separate membership is available.
Photo by Sheila Webber: pink rose, July 2015

Sustainable Development Goals: The Impact of Access to Information on our Societies: discussion

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations are organising an e-forum on Sustainable Development Goals: The Impact of Access to Information on our Societies 7-18 September 2015. "This online event has the objective of providing a forum for institutions and individuals to discuss how libraries and information centers can promote the adoption of access to information as part of the post-2015 agenda, in particular United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Lyon Declaration, an advocacy document being used to positively influence the content of the UN post-2015 development agenda, will play a key role in this discussion."
There will be webinars from experts to stimulate discussion. The first is on 6 September, Libraries, The Lyon Declaration, and the Road to 2030, by Stuart Hamilton, Deputy Secretary General, of IFLA (currently it says it is at "11" but it doesn't say which time zone that's in!)
The e-forum is open to anyone. To participate, use the form at https://dgroups.org/fao/ciard-econsultation/sdgs-impact-access-information-societies/join
Photo by Sheila Webber: convolvulus, July 2015 (thanks to JH for pointing out my naming error!)

The future of public libraries: some thoughts from a library user

I'd like to draw your attention to a post by my colleague Dr Briony Birdi, who is in fact not just a library user, but someone who researches and teaches public library issues. The title is The future of public libraries: some thoughts from a library user, and it is based on a presentation she gave recently: http://information-studies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/the-future-of-public-libraries-some.html

Wrapping up #i3rgu - plenary and links

A final report about the i3 conference held 23-26 June 2015 at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. I will say a few words about the plenary discussion sessions, and finish with some links.
One of the nice features of the i3 conference is plenary discussion programmed into the conference. As usual, session chairs were asked to identify important research themes from their sessions, and there was a plenary session earlier in the conference where (in groups) we identified some of the important themes and questions that had emerged so far. The final plenary session brought this previous work together and bringing together key themes, goals and questions to take from the conference. Unfortunately I had to leave before the end of the session, but, from early discussions, there was one strand emerging to do with research methods, one to do with topics or research questions, and one to do with communicating research and creating impact.
There was a very wide range of research approaches and methods used in different presentations at i3, from highly quantitative analysis of “big data” through experimental studies, mixed methods such as case study, to a whole variety of qualitative approaches (e.g. practice theory, phenomenography, ethnography). This generally was seen as a positive feature (both of the conference and the field!)

There was more debate about the output of research: Ross Todd had said at last year’s European Conference on Information Literacy that there were too many models, and we should concentrate on consolidating and testing the research models we already had. Whilst agreeing that large scale studies and metanalysis are valuable, I am one of the people who don’t see why producing new models should be a bad thing in itself. Information Literacy and Information Behvaiour are complex fields, and one of the major research themes emerging through the past decade has been the importance of examining IL and IB in context. This seems rather the opposite of trying to develop a grand theory of everything (though what Ross was saying was not quite that ;-)

In terms of research topics, it was agreed that the growing body of research from contexts outside the developed North/West was important and should be given attention. More generally, looking at research problems in different socio/culturalcontexts was still important. Talking with delegates afterwards, key points from the talks by Olof Sundin and Dorothy Williams resonated (e.g. thinking about how/whether we were addressing the “big questions”; being bold!)

I realise that one of the presentations I haven’t blogged in my own! It was on “Self-reported information behaviour in a MOOC”. I am giving another presentation on MOOCs in a few days time, which will be longer than my i3 talk, so I may just put that one on Slideshare, as I don’t think it’s very useful to have several presentation on Slideshare with only marginal differences.
Therefore I will also (rather belatedly) wrap up my i3 reporting at this point, with my usual links to other sources of information about the conference.

- Conference website http://www.rgu.ac.uk/research/conferences/i-2015
- My i3 blog posts: http://information-literacy.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/i3rgu
- Twitter stream: https://twitter.com/hashtag/i3rgu?src=hash - I'll particularly mention Hazel Hall's tweets, find them here https://twitter.com/search?q=%40hazelh%20%23i3rgu&src=typd&lang=en
- Blog post from Frances Ryan: http://www.justaphd.com/2015/06/presenting-a-paper-assessing-the-available-and-accessible-evidence/ and her powerpoint http://www.slideshare.net/justfrances/ryan-presentationi3online
- Hazel Hall provided links to six papers presented by Napier University students and staff: http://hazelhall.org/2015/05/11/six-papers-at-information-interactions-and-impact-i3-2015-and-a-preview-of-idocq-2015/ and a conference report at http://hazelhall.org/2015/07/20/a-week-in-aberdeen-at-idocq-and-i3-2015-idocq2015-i3rgu/
- A tweet showing me feeding back in one of the discussion sessions! https://twitter.com/IMRGU/status/614424588836052992
- Ethnographically-inspired usability testing Leah Rosenblum Emary http://www.slideshare.net/leahemary/ethnographicallyinspired-usability-testing
The first photo is by Peter Reid, showing the plenary session. The second shows me and the PhD students who presented at the conference: l to r, Joseph Essel, me, Syeda Shahid and Kondwani Wella.

Guidelines on Information Literacy for Lifelong Learning in Italian

The Guidelines on Information Literacy for Lifelong Learning by by Jesús Lau (compiled for the Information Literacy Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) have now been translated into Italian. The publication was already available in English, German, Russian, Spanish, Catalan, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Korean, Malay and Romanian. All versions available from: http://www.ifla.org/publications/guidelines-on-information-literacy-for-lifelong-learning?og=81

#UNESCO Questionnaire on #MIL for people aged 14-25

UNESCO would like young people between the age of 14 and 25 to fill a series of questionnaires on media and information literacy. It is aimed at people who are not talking the MIL MOOC offered by Athabasca University. "Your participation is crucial and will help to inform UNESCO’s design and expansion of its media and information literacy programme globally". The three questionnaires are meant to be taken on three successive days.
Day 1: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Youth_Questionnaire_DAY1_media_information_literacy
Day 2: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Youth_Questionnaire_DAY2_media_information_literacy
Day 3: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Youth_Questionnaire_DAY3_media_information_literacy
"There will be a draw for two prizes in the form of a two-week fellowship to visit a university in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe or other region of the world to be announced. The prize will be offered, by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, to two young persons who fully complete all three parts of the questionnaire."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sweet William, July 2015

Es la información estúpido

A Spanish-language article from Felicidad Campal ("It's information, stupid": moulded after the saying "It's the economy, stupid") talks about different kinds of literacies (digital literacy, information literacy etc.) and identifies the need for learners to be able to engage critically with the web. It was just published on the internet project site, SCOPEO.
Campal, F. (2015). Es la información estúpido. Boletín SCOPEO, (104). http://scopeo.usal.es/es-la-informacion-estupido/
Photo by Sheila Webber: pink rose, July 2015

LIRG presentations; Academic librarians; home educating families; developing a research culture

The presentations from the LIRG (Library and Information Research Group) AGM and Members Day, held July 1st 2015, have been put online. They were:
- Teaching or training? Academic librarians’ conceptions of their IL activities by Emily Wheeler
- An exploration of the information literacy experiences of home educating families by Jess Elmore
- Developing a research culture in the workplace: top down and bottom up approaches by Miggie Pickton
Go to: https://sites.google.com/site/lirgweb/home/events/agm-2015
Photo by Sheila Webber: cape daisies, July 2015

Using Twitter as a data source

Wasim Ahmed, a PhD student here in the University of Sheffield Information School, published a post on the LSE Impact Blog last week on Using Twitter as a data source: An overview of current social media research tools. He lists and links some key tools, and also notes that, whilst some of the tools can be used to analyse other social media, on the whole social media other than Twitter have not been well served.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/07/10/social-media-research-tools-overview/
Twitter logo from: https://about.twitter.com/company/brand-assets

Older people and technology; infolit of teachers

Issue 45 (2015) of Comunicar focuses on Communicating in an Ageing World. It includes (in Spanish and English language)
- Use, Consumption and Knowledge of New Technologies by Elderly People in France, United Kingdom and Spain by Cristina González, Carlos Fanjul, Francisco Cabezuel
- Internet and the Elderly: Enhancing Active Ageing by Carmen Llorente, Mónica Viñarás, María Sánchez
- Active Ageing and Access to Technology: An Evolving Empirical Study by Raquel Casado Fernando Lezcano, María José Rodríguez
- From Digital Divide to Psycho-digital Divide: Elders and Online Social Networks by Begoña Peral, Jorge Arenas, Ángel Francisco Villarejo
- A Mobile Augmented Reality Assistive Technology for the Elderly by Rafael Saracchini, Carlos Catalina, Luca Bordoni
- Using Technology to Connect Generations: Some Considerations of Form and Function by Mariano Sánchez, Matthew Kaplan, Leah Bradley
and a number of others all at http://www.revistacomunicar.com/index.php?contenido=revista&numero=45
There are also some articles outside the main theme, notably:
Álvarez, J.F. and Cervera, M.G. (2015). Information Literacy Grade of Secondary School Teachers in Spain: Beliefs and Self-Perceptions. Comunicar, 23 (24), 187-194. http://dx.doi.org/10.3916/C45-2015-20 The abstract reads "Information Literacy is one of the dimensions of digital competence and, in today’s information and media-based society, it should be a skill that everyone develops, especially secondary school teachers due to their influence on this crucial stage of student development. In this investigation we aim to determine the current level of information literacy of secondary school teachers in Spain. For this purpose we have designed a questionnaire (n=2,656) which is divided into two parts: the first asks questions related to belief and self-perception of information literacy indicators, and the second presents practical cases in which the teachers have to demonstrate their skills in information literacy. The results confirm that secondary school teachers’ beliefs show rather high values but that, even if the level of information literacy that the teachers have is acceptable, there are certain aspects of the indicators related to assessment, management and transformation of information in which the teachers display serious shortcomings. This highlights the need to establish a training plan for information literacy for secondary school teachers in Spain."
Photo by Sheila Webber: pink dahlia, July 2015

Critical Information Literacy; Discovery layers; games based approach

A few unconnected catchup links for Friday:
- An interview with Troy Swanson conducted by Brian Mathews: Practicing Critical Information Literacy. (published June 10 2015) http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/theubiquitouslibrarian/2015/06/10/practicing-critical-information-literacy-interview-with-troy-swanson/
- Avery, S., and Hinchliffe, L. (2014). Hopes, impressions, and reality: Is a Discovery Layer the answer? Presentation presented at the annual LOEX meeting, Grand Rapids. http://www.loexconference.org/2014/presentations/'LOEX2014_'Hopes%20Impressions%20and%20Reality-AveryHinchliffe.pdf
- The Digilit Leicester project (in the UK) is spending £30,00 on a project to develop schoolchildren's ability to evaluate information as part of a "games based approach to information literacy". There is a local news report on it here: the deadline to apply for the tender to do the work is just past so the information seems to have disappeared off the Digilit site, but it is reproduced here.
Photo by Sheila Webber: celebration, July 2015

New articles in Reference Services Review

Volume 3 issue 3 of Reference Services Review (priced publication) includes:
- FYI for FYE: 20-minute Instruction for Library Orientation by Paul R Hottinger , Natalie M Zagami-Lopez , Alexandra S Bryndzia
- Q/A on Teaching Credit Classes for Entrepreneurship Research by Sarah Barbara Watstein
- Are you reaching your audience? The intersection between LibGuide authors and LibGuide users by Wendy Sue Wilcox , Gabriela Castro Gessner , Adam Chandler
Most of the issue focuses on libraries/information centres and entrepreneurship
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/rsr/43/3
Photo by Sheila Webber: Brachyglottis, July 2015

#MOOC articles and presentations

- Presentations from the MOOCs in Scandanavia conference, held in June 2015: http://ki.se/en/moocs-in-scandinavia-conference
- Issue of British Journal of Educational Technology (vol 46 no 3 - priced publication) focusing on MOOCs: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.2015.46.issue-3/issuetoc
- Proceedings Papers: European Stakeholder summit: on experiences and best practices in and around MOOCs: 18-20 May 2015: Université catholique de Louvain, Mons (Belgium)[EMOOCs conference]: http://www.emoocs2015.eu/sites/default/files/Papers.pdf
Photo by Sheila webber: orange dahlia, photoshopped, July 2015

Reports from the EAHIL+ICAHIS+ICLC 2015 Workshop and i3 conference: 8 July in Second Life

What: Reports from the EAHIL+ICAHIS+ICLC 2015 Workshop (Health librarians) (https://eahil2015.wordpress.com/) and the i3 conference (http://www.rgu.ac.uk/research/conferences/i-2015) both held in June 2015. This meeting is held in the 3D virtual world, Second Life.

Marshall Dozier (Pancha Enzyme in SL, and President of EAHIL), Sheila Webber (Sheila Yoshikawa in SL, who presented at EAHIL+ICAHIS+ICLC and i3) and Vicki Cormie (Ishbel Hartman in SL, co-organiser of EAHIL+ICAHIS+ICLC) will give their impressions of the conferences. This will include session highlights, reflections on organising the conference and feedback from delegates at EAHIL+ICAHIS+ICLC.

When: July 8 at 12 noon Second Life time (8pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/nrytf2w for times elsewhere)

Where: Infolit iSchool, in the virtual world Second Life. You need a SL avatar and the Second Life browser installed on your computer. Go to http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/89/36/22

Everyone is welcome to join the one-hour discussion.

A Sheffield iSchool Centre for Information Literacy Research event.
Photo by Sheila Webber, taken in Second Life

EAHIL+ICAHIS+ICLC 2015 links #researchminded

Here are some useful links to material about the European health librarians conference (EAHIL+ICAHIS+ICLC) that I was at a couple of weeks ago.

- There are my own posts about it on my blog.
- Workshop website: https://eahil2015.wordpress.com
- Most presentations from the event are at https://eahil2015.wordpress.com/workshop-presentations-for-download/
- The twitter stream: https://twitter.com/hashtag/researchminded
- Storify by Victoria Cormie https://storify.com/viche/eahil-icahis-iclc-2015-workshop
- Blog post giving a lot of detail about the session on focus groups: https://benchmarkingthreehealthlibraries.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/focus-said-the-focus-group/
- Catherine Voutier blogged several sessions: here, here, here, and here
- Hazel Hall's blog on her keynote: http://hazelhall.org/2015/06/29/incorporating-a-research-minded-approach-to-professional-practice-opening-keynote-at-eahil-2015-researchminded/

- Isla Kuhn's blog posts: here , here , and here
- Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1014174828599539/
- Flickr pool: https://www.flickr.com/groups/eahil2015/pool/
- A blog post in Finnish reporting on the conference
- This paper got tweeted a lot: Anton, B., Woodson, S. M., Twose, C., and Roderer, N. K. (2014). The persistence of clinical questions across shifts on an intensive care unit: an observational pilot study. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 102(3), 201–205. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4076130/
Photos by Sheila Webber: the conference dinner at EAHIL+ICAHIS+ICLC, June 2015

Academic reading and writing

In a discussion post recently Emma Coonan mentioned her Research Central resource (produced for Cambridge University Library’s Research Skills Programme), which can be reused under a Creative Commons license. In particular the section on Academic Reading and Writing was mentioned: this includes a lesson plan, slides and handouts: https://researchcentral.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/academic-reading-and-writing/
Photo by Sheila Webber: pink dahlia, July 2015

Information and Digital Literacy for Online Collaborative Design: an online seminar

There is a recording of the webinar held on 11 May 2015 under the aegis of InformALL. This was: Information and Digital Literacy for Online Collaborative Design: led by Dr Mark Childs, Coventry University. It is at http://www.researchinfonet.org/infolit/ridls/informall-webinars/collab-design/

An introduction to phenomenographic research #researchminded

I've just put up that slides that Bill Johnston and I used in our workshop on phenomenography, that was part of the EAHIL+ICAHIS+ ICLC workshop in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. This is the pleasant seminar room we were in.
Since delegates were from the healthcare sector, and phenomenography is a research approach that has been used quite a lot in healthcare, we asked participants to read a paper describing phenomenographic research into nurses' conceptions of caring:
Andresson, E.K., Willman, A., Sjostrom-Strand, A. and Borglin, G. (2015). Registered nurses' descriptions of caring: a phenomenographic interview study. BMC Nursing, 14:16. DOI 10.1186/s12912-015-0067-9 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6955/14/16
The powerpoint provides a short introduction to the approach, and then says something about the part of analysis that is to do with identifying the categories describing each of the varied conceptions.

An introduction to phenomenographic research from Sheila Webber

Developing a Blended Learning Skills Programme workshop

On 28 August 2015, the CILIP Information Literacy group are running the Developing a Blended Learning Skills Programme workshop, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event will be delivered by Jennie Blake and Jade Kelsall. "In the morning, participants will explore best practices in the overall design of blended learning support programmes. Using examples from the University of Manchester's My Learning Essentials programme, we will examine the underlying development processes that enable the development a flexible, coherent and complementary suite of face-to-face and online support opportunities. The afternoon will focus on the development of workshops and online resources. Participants will come away with the beginnings of a workshop plan and an online resource storyboard, as well as having a structured process they can use to transform successful face-to-face sessions into interactive online resources."
The event is free for CILIP Information Literacy Group members. Priority booking is available now for group members via Eventbrite: http://bit.ly/1Jzj2Dt You must include your CILIP membership number on the booking form, or indicate if you are a group-only member. Tickets for non-members will be available from 15 July 2015 and will cost £25.
Photo by Sheila Webber, white rose, July 2015

Teachers' Conceptions of Student Information Literacy Learning

A dissertation I'd missed: Mertes, N. (2014). Teachers' Conceptions of Student Information Literacy Learning and Teachers' Practices of Information Literacy Teaching and Collaboration with the School library. PhD thesis. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/binary/JGHE2Z42FZSPJ5YR5ZFTYXEENP4PDYJM/full/1.pdf
I saw this mentioned in a German language blog post which describes the research, at https://basedow1764.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/informationskompetenz-und-schule-sehr-komplex/

The relationship between ESOL learning and information literacy

One of my PhD students, Jessica Elmore, has put the presentation she did for her first year confirmation report on Slideshare: it gives the context and methods and thoughts from her pilot study. It is entitled An exploration of the relationship between English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learning, the information literacy of participants, and its impact on their everyday lives
 

PhD Confirmation Review: Information literacy experiences of ESOL Learners from elmorejelmore

The conference season

My twitterstream is filled with conference hashtags at the moment. Some which are current, or just past, and you might want to check up on are:
- Centre for Study of Literacies 2015 conference: https://twitter.com/hashtag/15csl?src=hash
- ISHIMR (health informatics) conference https://twitter.com/hashtag/ISHIMR2015?src=hash
- International Conference on Informetrics and Scientometrics see https://twitter.com/hashtag/issi2015?src=hash
- America Library Association annual conference see https://twitter.com/hashtag/alaac15?src=hash
- Eurovariety in Chemistry Education (some interesting stuff about learning and teaching that might apply to other disciplines, too) see https://twitter.com/hashtag/eurovariety15?src=hash
- CILIP conference see https://twitter.com/hashtag/cilip2015?src=hash&lang=en-gb
I also have some last posts about the 2 conferences I attended: my hayfever is slowing me down at the moment ;-(
Picture is a tagxedo of the ALA conference page

New Issue: Information Research: Buddhism, workplace competencies, blogging, cancer patients

The open access journal Information Research (volume 20 no 2) has been published. Articles include:
- Marta Zárraga-Rodríguez and Maria Jesús Álvarez Information practices and competences that evidence information capability in a company
- Nicole M. Gaston, Dan G. Dorner and David Johnstone Spirituality and everyday information behaviour in a non-Western context: sense-making in Buddhist Laos
- Kalyani Ankem Assessing cancer patients' health information needs: a standardized approach
- Jenny Bronstein and Maria Knoll Blogging motivations of women suffering from infertility
- Polona Vilar, Primoz Juznic and Tomaz Bartol Information behaviour of Slovenian researchers: investigation of activities, preferences and characteristics
- Meng-Hsiang Hsu, Chun-Ming Chang, Hsien-Cheng Lin and Yi-Wan Lin Determinants of continued use of social media: the perspectives of uses and gratifications theory and perceived interactivity.
- M. Asim Qayyum and David Smith Learning from student experiences for online assessment tasks.
http://www.informationr.net/ir/20-2/infres202.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: wild strawberries in my garden, June 2015