New articles: research practices, assignments prompts, systematic review, faculty status

The latest issue (volume 42, no. 2) of The Journal of Academic Librarianship (priced publication) includes:
- Falciani-White, N. (2016). Understanding the “Complexity of Experience”: Modeling Faculty Research Practices. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42(2), 118-126
- Lowe, M.S. et al. (2016). Impact of Assignment Prompt on Information Literacy Performance in First-year Student Writing. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42(2), 127-134
- Mi, M. (2016). Leveraging Research Synthesis for Promoting and Expanding Library Services and Educational Programs. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42(2), 151-153
- Walters, W. (2016). Faculty status of librarians at U.S. research universities. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42(2), 161-171
The contents page is at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00991333/42/2
Photo by Sheila Webber: Carbonelle, Lady Dinah's cat cafe, March 2016

Pedagogy for Librarians course

The Pedagogy for Librarians course is running again, 13-17 June 2016 at Northern College, Stainborough, Barnsley, UK. It is organised and sponsored by the UK's CILIP Information Literacy Group. "Numbers are limited, so applications will be ranked and successful candidates contacted late April, including sorting out payment details, etc. All attendees must be members of the CILIP Information Literacy Group. CILIP members can select the group as one of their Special Interest Group memberships, and non-members of CILIP can join the group for a small fee." Deadline for applications is 17 April 2016. The application form is here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Y8ZkYLw8F7loEtcWwgaF9oU7NX0uskMtcKZUTMxVinM/viewform
Photo by Sheila Webber: Wookie sleeps, Lady Dinah's cat emporium, March 2016

UK public #libraries reports

The BBC today released a report on the state of the UK's public libraries, which identified the large number of closures (343 libraries and large numbers of professional posts) in the past 6 years. As well as releasing various stories (including this one which has quotes from my colleague Dr Briony Birdi, who teaches on our MA librarianship, rather than just having an MA, as quoted) they have made the data set available at https://github.com/BBC-Data-Unit/libraries
Although this isn't specifically about information literacy, the ongoing closure of profesionally-run UK public libraries and rise of volunteer libraries which are supposed to replace them has implications for IL. The volunteer libraries, however well meant, can not deliver the range of services to the whole community that you would expect from a professionally-run service, including development of information literacy for lifelong learning.
On 23 March the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport released a report for consultation: Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016-2021  The consultation is open until 3 June at https://docs.google.com/a/culture.gov.uk/forms/d/1lGZV1u3bctGL-OA9MgFJyCTGckLOuBZ_uIZr_IjMeC0/viewform
I haven't looked at this closely yet, but apparently all you need in terms of public library staff are "well-trained, friendly people to help users to find what they want either independently or with support" which seems to leave out quite a lot of what a public librarians do at the moment. Digital literacy is mentioned at length, but information literacy is not (not even in the form of health literacy, in the section about health). Information literacy and skills in facilitating learning are not mentioned specifically in the section about workforce development (whereas it does mention both "commercial skills" and entrepreneurship: as an LIS educator I will also register the usual irritation at the usual implication that the skills listed are not already covered in librarianship courses).
Photo by Sheila Webber: face at the window of James Joyce House, Dublin, March 2016

First year Experience: two events #FYHE

Firstly, the ACRL/New York First Year Experience Discussion Group is holding a discussion on Embedded Librarianship for the First Year Experience Librarian on April 15 2016, 9-10.45am US Eastern time. Topics are: Outreach and Team-teaching pedagogies; Information Literacy Instruction Resources; The ACRL Framework. RSVP by Wednesday April 13, 2016 at http://tinyurl.com/acrlny-fye-spr16 You have to be an ACRL/NY member to participate "Not an ACRL/NY member yet? Now is the time to join or renew Please visit http://www.acrlny.org/join-us/ To confirm the status of your membership, please contact Werner Sbaschnik, Membership Secretary, at sbaschnikw@oldwestbury.edu" The venue is Mercy College - Manhattan, 66 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA. Room #721 (All attendees must bring a photo ID)

Secondly, there is the Second National Personal Librarian & First Year Experience Library Conference, to be held on May 12-13 2016 at Kelvin Smith Library, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA. Registration costs US $200, deadline for registration 22 April. More information http://library.case.edu/plconference
Photo by Sheila Webber: Artemis asleep, Lady Dinah's cat cafe, March 2016

Using #wikipedia article writing for assessments and exercises in law, biology and more

A few articles on this theme: Firstly a short article in a university newsletter
Byatnal, A. (2016, March 22). Cornell takes big red pen to Wikipedia life sciences content. Cornell Chronicle. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/03/cornell-takes-big-red-pen-wikipedia-life-sciences-content This describes how Ashley Downs, food and agriculture librarian at Mann Library, Cornell University, and Kelee Pacion, undergraduate life sciences librarian, organised a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon for biology undergraduates as part of a biology class taught with faculty member Mark Sarvary. "The goal of the course, Sarvary said, is to use Wikipedia as a learning tool to develop stronger critical thinking and information literacy skills."

Bilansky, A. (2016) Using Wikipedia to Teach Audience, Genre and Collaboration. Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, 16 (2). Preprint https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/88338
"This essay describes a sequence of assignments to guide students though an informed effort at making contributions to Wikipedia that persist, and suggests ways this set of exercises in social informatics may also serve a number of common goals in a variety of writing, literature, and other courses: analyzing and writing for explicit editorial guidelines (“standards” in information science; “house style” in editorial practice); understanding, conforming to, and even negotiating conventions of genres and subgenres; collaborating online; writing for an audience that is not only real but talks back; and developing deep understanding of revision and the writing, editorial, and publication processes. Students first learn Wikipedia policies and practices and analyze the historical development of articles before they make contributions. The pedagogical opportunities arguably outweigh the concerns of those who doubt the credibility of an open-authored encyclopedia."

Kleefeld, J. C. and Rattray, K. (2016) Write a Wikipedia Article for Law School Credit — Really? Journal of Legal Education, 65, 597- Open access version at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2729241
"Most law school assignments are produced and consumed in a dyadic relationship of student-writer and instructor-reader. But consider a different scenario, one in which the fate of the work is presumptive publication to the world; in which feedback from any interested reader is potentially instantaneous; in which the instructor’s role is that of coach or mentor through the writing and publishing process as well as assessor of the work; and in which the student’s work, in turn, contributes to providing worldwide access to free legal information. The world we are talking about is that of writing or editing Wikipedia articles for law school credit. In this Article, we describe that world and the small part we played in it as law professor and law student in editing a Wikipedia article as an optional component of an upper-year Canadian law school course."

Di Lauro, F. and Johinke, R. (2016). Employing Wikipedia for good not evil: innovative approaches to collaborative writing assessment. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. (Priced, early publication) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602938.2015.1127322
"Wikipedia is an open educational resource that connects writers and editors to diverse discourse communities around the world. Unwarranted stigma is attached to the use of Wikipedia in higher education due to fears that students will not pursue rigorous research practices because of the easy access to information that Wikipedia facilitates. In studies referred to in this paper, undergraduate writing students are taught about the need to interrogate any information they find on Wikipedia just as they would other online source material. They are inducted into fact checking, editing and creating Wikipedia articles as a means to analyse source material critically and to advance their research, writing and digital literacy. Meanwhile, in a postgraduate course in magazine studies, instead of writing essays, students are promoting Australian magazines and print culture by writing Wikipedia entries about Antipodean magazines and their editors. These courses experiment with new approaches to formative and summative assessment; promote group research, collaborative and participatory writing, writing across networks and negotiating discourse communities; and challenge students’ perceptions about peer review and the legitimacy of Wikipedia."

Finally, a bonus research study about students' Wikipedia use
Selwyn, N. and Gorard, S. (2016) Students' use of Wikipedia as an academic resource — Patterns of use and perceptions of usefulness. The Internet and Higher Education, 28, 28–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.08.004 (Priced article) "Draws on survey data examining 1658 undergraduate students' uses of digital technologies for academic purposes; 87.5% of students report using Wikipedia for their academic work, with 24.0% of these considering it ‘very useful’; Use and perceived usefulness of Wikipedia differs by students’ gender; year of study; cultural background and subject studied; Wikipedia mainly plays an introductory and/or clarificatory role in students information gathering and research." Open access version, embargoed til March 2017 http://dro.dur.ac.uk/16387/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Donnie, Lady Dinah's cat cafe, March 2016

LILAC IL winners

Information Literacy award winners were announced at the LILAC conference on Tuesday. The winners of the Credo Digital Award for Information Literacy 2016 were Sara Bird, Stephen Harding and Gillian Johnston (Newcastle University Library) for Study Skills for 6th Form. The Information Literacy Award 2016 (sponsored by the CILIP Information Literacy Group and Library Association of Ireland) was won by Yin Min Tun "Yin instigated and leads eTekkatho (eUniversity), a project that is building digital libraries in Myanmar. This project is a collaboration of UK and Burmese universities, run by Yin from the University of Manchester." The runner-up was Elizabeth Hutchinson (Head of Schools Library Service, Guille-Alles Library, St Peter Port). More information at http://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-2016/awards
Photo by Sheila Webber: Moscow, 2009

ACRL IL framework libguide

A Libguide created by librarians at Old Diminion University is focused on the ACRL IL Framework, including some material from their ongoing brown bag series http://guides.lib.odu.edu/infolit_framework
Photo by Sheila Webber, 2014

Follow #lilac16 and #iconf16

There are two good conferences on at the moment and lively Twitter streams from both. The first is the UK's premier Information Literacy conference, LILAC, which this year in fact takes place in Dublin, Ireland. The Twitter stream for that is at https://twitter.com/hashtag/lilac16
Meanwhile the annual iConference for those who are members of the iSchools association (wich includes my department, the Information School at Sheffield University) is taking place in Phildelphia, USA. Several colleagues are attending, and we just found out that we have been successful in our bid to host the conference in 2018!The Twitter stream for that is at https://twitter.com/hashtag/iconf16?src=hash
Both conferences go on til Wednesday.

IL activities

A useful post from Jennifer Jarson recently on the ACRL blog gives a detailed description of two interventions with students in the USA, both aiming to improve the students understanding of how authors use evidence, through closer examination of the texts (in one case looking at academic articles, in the the other a high-quality popular article).
Jarson, J. (2016, March 4). Information literacy strategies and student agency: Connecting the dots with “dissection” activities. http://acrlog.org/2016/03/04/information-literacy-strategies-and-student-agency-connecting-the-dots-with-dissection-activities/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Vote Boyle: another poster from the recent student union election, March 2016

Information needs and behaviour after university

Apologies for not mentioning the Project Information Literacy report -
Head, A. (2016). Staying Smart: How Today's Graduates Continue Learning Once They Complete College. Seattle, WA: Project Information Literacy. http://projectinfolit.org/component/k2/item/73-latest-research
- when it came out in January! They gathered data from 1,651 graduates from 10 universities in the USA (including 126 interviews). They asked about the graduates' learning needs for their peronal, workplace and community life, and explored how the graduates answered these information and learning needs. They also asked whether the graduates used information skills learnt at university.
There is a full report and a short video, and infographic.
Photo by Sheila Webber (photoshopped): Putting up the banners (for the student union election), March 2016

Information Literacy and chemistry: bumper issue! Wikipedia, critical thinking, embedding, peer-review and more....

The whole, open access, latest issue of the Journal of Chemical Education (vol. 93 issue 3) focuses on teaching information literacy to chemistry students: lots of useful articles here! The one that first caught my attention was the following, so I've included the abstract of that. The whole issue is at http://pubs.acs.org/toc/jceda8/93/3#Articles

- Walker, M. and Li, Y. (2016). Improving Information Literacy Skills through Learning To Use and Edit Wikipedia: A Chemistry Perspective. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 509–515. "Our students rely on Wikipedia on their mobile devices or laptops, since it is an extremely rich and broad resource. This article overviews the Chemistry content on Wikipedia and how students can learn to use it effectively as an information resource, critically evaluating content, and learning key information literacy skills. We also discuss how students’ information literacy skills can be improved through a class project where students edit Wikipedia articles. Through such projects, students may begin to appreciate where and how chemical information is generated, gathered, developed, and shared in the real world"


- Zane, M. and Tucci, V. (2016). Exploring the Information Literacy Needs and Values of High School Chemistry Teachers. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 406-412
- Shultz, G. and Li, Y. (2016). Student Development of Information Literacy Skills during Problem-Based Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiments. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 413-422
- Yeagley, A. et al. (2016). The Stepping Stone Approach to Teaching Chemical Information Skills. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 423-428
- Greco, G.(2016). Chemical Information Literacy at a Liberal Arts College. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 429-433
- Danowitz, A. et al. (2016). A Combination Course and Lab-Based Approach To Teaching Research Skills to Undergraduates. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 434-438
- Jacobs, D., Dalal, H. and and Dawson, P. (2016). Integrating Chemical Information Instruction into the Chemistry Curriculum on Borrowed Time: A Multiyear Case Study of a Capstone Research Report for Organic Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 444-451
- Jacobs, D., Dalal, H. and and Dawson, P. (2016). Integrating Chemical Information Instruction into the Chemistry Curriculum on Borrowed Time: The Multiyear Development and Evolution of a Virtual Instructional Tutorial. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 452-463
- Cowden, C. and Santiago, M. (2016). Interdisciplinary Explorations: Promoting Critical Thinking via Problem-Based Learning in an Advanced Biochemistry Class. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 464-469
- Baykoucheva, S., Houck, J. and White, N. (2016). Integration of EndNote Online in Information Literacy Instruction Designed for Small and Large Chemistry Courses. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 470-476
- Zwicky, D. and Hands, M. (2016). The Effect of Peer Review on Information Literacy Outcomes in a Chemical Literature Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 477-481
- Scalfani, V., Frantom, P. and Woski, S. (2016). Replacing the Traditional Graduate Chemistry Literature Seminar with a Chemical Research Literacy Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 482-487
- Currano, J. (2016). Introducing Graduate Students to the Chemical Information Landscape: The Ongoing Evolution of a Graduate-Level Chemical Information Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 488-495
- Kamijo, H. Creating an Adaptive Technology Using a Cheminformatics System To Read Aloud Chemical Compound Names for People with Visual Disabilities. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 496-503
- Pence, H. and Williams, A. (2016). Big Data and Chemical Education. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 , 504-508
- Stuart, R. and McEwen, L. (2016). The Safety “Use Case”: Co-Developing Chemical Information Management and Laboratory Safety Skills. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 516-526
- Tomaszewski, R. (2016). The Concept of the Imploded Boolean Search: A Case Study with Undergraduate Chemistry Students. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 527-533
- Härtinger, S. and Clarke, N. (2016). Using Patent Classification To Discover Chemical Information in a Free Patent Database: Challenges and Opportunities. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 534-541
- Glasser, L. (2016). Crystallographic Information Resources. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 542-549
- Rzepa, H. (2016). Discovering More Chemical Concepts from 3D Chemical Information Searches of Crystal Structure Databases. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 550-554
- Méndez, E. and Cerdá, M. (2016). Discovering Reliable Sources of Biochemical Thermodynamic Data To Aid Students’ Understanding. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 555-559
Photo by Sheila webber: blue sky, St Georges church, March 2016

Another example of a prize for information literacy

I like to highlight awards that universities give to students (and staff) for effective information literacy. I noticed this example from Morehead State University, USA, where they give a US $500 prize. "The award is given to students who exhibit exemplary information literacy skills (the ability to find, evaluate, and use information from a variety of sources with proper citation). Entries are judged on how well the student's research paper demonstrates appropriate and effective use of library resources, and on the accompanying essay about the research process." http://www.moreheadstate.edu/News/2016/March/Library_Prize_for_Undergraduate_Research_deadline_set_for_April_2/
Photo by Sheila webber: one of the many hand-made placards promoting candidates for the Student Union elections at Sheffield Uni: they usually attempt some kind of verbal or visual pun on the candidate's name, March 2016

Information Literacy and Scholarly Publishing

Kakatiya University Library and Information Science department, has organised a workshop on Information Literacy and Scholarly Publishing March 19-20 in Warangal, India. There is more information at http://lislinks.com/events/national-workshop-on-information-literacy-scholarly-publication

Web chat: Teaching Information Literacy in Mathematics and Statistics

On March 14 2-3 PM US Eastern time (which is 7-8pm UK time) the ACRL STS Information Literacy Chat sub-committee hosts a free discussion in WebEx, Teaching Information Literacy in Mathematics and Statistics. This month, Irina I. Holden (Information Literacy and Science Outreach Librarian, University at Albany, State University of New York) will lead the discussion, by talking about the class she created "Celebrate Pi Day with conversations around mathematics! When University at Albany decided to move general education competency requirements (information literacy among them) into the majors, Department of Mathematics and Statistics came up with their own unique model. Learn more how Irina Holden worked on creating and teaching an eight-week, one credit course, Information Literacy in Mathematics and Statistics. The course piloted in Spring 2015. Make sure to bring your own teaching experiences to the discussion!" The background "reading" is:
University at Albany – Information Literacy Courses: http://www.albany.edu/generaleducation/information-literacy.php
The discussion takes place at https://acrl.webex.com/acrl/onstage/g.php?MTID=ef735369ab49968868f94af383d229d72
You need a USB headset (and an Internet connection) and the most up-to-date version of Java. Webex resources: How do I join a meeting demo and System Requirements
Photo by Sheila Weber: spring by Hallamshire Hospital, March 2016

cfp 3rd Annual LILi Conference

The 3rd Annual LILi (Lifelong Information Literacy) Conference will be held on August 8 2016 at Pierce College, Woodland Hills, California, USA. It has the title What Would it Look Like If…?

"Imagine having unlimited resources for developing information literacy and lifelong learning opportunities in your library or in partnership with others. That’s right…just imagine! Oftentimes, librarians protest that the primary obstacle to developing that great idea, program, or service is a lack of funding, staff or some other needed resource. While this is certainly a genuine concern, what if those barriers were removed and the only things required for success were a bit of ingenuity, motivation, and collaboration? The purpose of this year’s conference is to encourage librarians to explore innovative ideas, creative solutions, and imaginative applications for cultivating information literacy competencies across a lifetime. How can libraries of all types join forces to better share resources, produce engaging programming, foster skill development and support student success? Is there something you have always wanted to do, but simply didn’t have the means to make it a reality? Bring your ideas to share as there may be a future partnership just waiting to be discovered. Let’s have fun and pretend the sky is the limit!" The keynote is Dr. Lesley Farmer, Librarianship Program & Department Chair of Advanced Studies in Education & Counseling at CSU, Long Beach.

Proposals are solicited for 20 or 10 minute presentations. Deadline for submissions is May 1, 2016. There is more conference info here http://libguides.sandiego.edu/LILI2016/CFP the proposal form is here http://goo.gl/forms/kmyuVuf1DR and there is more information on LILi here https://sites.google.com/site/lifelonginformationliteracy/

#openeducationwk webinar on OER Libguides

SUNY (State University of New York) Centre for Online Teaching Excellence is hosting free webinars this week for Open Education Week. Today (March 9, 2016) at 12:00pm – 12:30pm US Eastern time (5-5.30pm UK time) there is a session OER Lib Guides from Marcia Spiegleman*, Nassau Community College. The session can be accessed through the following Collaborate link: http://bit.ly/COTEbytes
* That's what it says on the SUNY webinar website. However, it looks more likely to me (after some quick googling) that the presenter will be Marsha Spiegelman.
Photo by Sheila Webber: daffodils and dead leaves, March 2016

Building Collaborations for Library Instruction

There is (what sounds to me like) a teachmeet in New York, USA, on 14 April 2016, with 5-10 minute lightning talks. The theme is Building Collaborations for Library Instruction. "We want to hear from you! Share your successes and tactics in partnering your library instruction program across departments, across institutions, or even beyond academia. Whether it was through – outreach and training for classroom faculty; partnerships with centers for excellence in teaching; writing centers and other academic support services; external collaborations with public libraries, community agencies, and non-profit groups – tell us what worked and why. We envision a few quick presentations and small and whole-group discussion." To sign up go to: https://junior2349.wufoo.com/forms/building-collaborations-for-library-instruction/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Daffodils, March 2016

Celebrating open access and women #OpenEducationWk #IWD2016

Still Open Education week, and today I will highlight the PRIMO resource, which documents and links to tutorials, many of which are open access.

Also today is International Women's day http://www.internationalwomensday.com/ There are many great women engaged in information literacy research and practice, and one thing to celebrate is this achievement: thinking of founders of the field, I would mention names like Christine Bruce, Patricia Senn Breivik, Esther Grassian and Louise Limberg.

#OpenEducationWk

This week (7-11 March) is Open Education week, and I'll have some posts on that theme. The website is here http://www.openeducationweek.org/ and it includes a list of some online (and I presume, open) events at http://www.openeducationweek.org/schedule/online
The hashtage is #OpenEducationWk
I'll start by celebrating some open access journals that are important for supporting open education in this field:
Journal of information literacy: http://jil.lboro.ac.uk/
Communications in information literacy: http://www.comminfolit.org/
Information research: http://www.informationr.net/ir/
Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education: https://noril.uib.no/

Recent articles: participatory; experience framework; information worlds

- Spiranec, S., Banek Zorica, M. and Kos, D. (2016). Information Literacy in participatory environments: The turn towards a critical literacy perspective. Journal of Documentation, 72(2), 247 - 264.
- Foster, M. (2016). Developing an “experience framework” for an evidence-based information literacy educational intervention. Journal of Documentation, 72(2), 306 - 320
- Känsäkoski, H. and Huotari, M-L. (2016). Applying the theory of information worlds within a health care practise in Finland. Journal of Documentation, 72(2), 321 - 341
Priced publication: abstracts at: http://emeraldinsight.com/toc/jd/72/2
Photo by Sheila Webber: Blue sky and blossom, March 2016

Assessment in Action: special issue

The latest issue of open-access journal College and Research Libraries (volume 77, issue 2, 2016 http://crl.acrl.org/content/vol77/issue2/index.dtl) features reports from the Assessment in Action project. The articles include:
- Veronica Arellano Douglas and Celia E. Rabinowitz: Examining the Relationship between Faculty-Librarian Collaboration and First-Year Students’ Information Literacy Abilities
- Sara Davidson Squibb and Susan Mikkelsen: Assessing the Value of Course-Embedded Information Literacy on Student Learning and Achievement
- Jérôme Melançon and Nancy Goebel: Personal Librarian for Aboriginal Students: A Programmatic Assessment
- Kacy Lundstrom, Pamela Martin, and Dory Cochran: Making Strategic Decisions: Conducting and Using Research on the Impact of Sequenced Library Instruction
- Lisa Massengale, Pattie Piotrowski, and Devin Savage: Identifying and Articulating Library Connections to Student Success
- Brandy Whitlock and Nassim Ebrahimi: Beyond the Library: Using Multiple, Mixed Measures Simultaneously in a College-Wide Assessment of Information Literacy
Photo by Sheila Webber: blossom, sunny weather, March 2016

Webinar: Assessment in Action

There is a free one hour web forum on 24 March 2016 at 12 noon US Pacific time, which is 8pm UK time: College & Research Libraries Forum on Assessment in Action Special Issue. This ties in with the special issue of College and Research Libraries, which focuses on reports from the major Assessment in Action (academic libraries) programme. "AiA lead co-facilitator and issue co-editor Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe will introduce the Forum. Brandy Whitlock and Nassim Ebrahimi will speak about their study: Beyond the Library: Using Multiple, Mixed Measures Simultaneously in a College-Wide Assessment of Information Literacy, and Phil Jones, Julia Bauder, and Kevin Engel will speak about their research: Mixed or Complementary Messages: Making the Most of Unexpected Assessment Results." For registration go to https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jon_4L-e1e2AxGAUazm-JQB6jJ3Ww_8lYDJcWaAm88o/viewform?usp=3Dsend_form to receive reminders and information and/or view the forum live on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/crlacrl
Photo by Sheila Webber: blossom on the grass, March 2016

#WorldBookDay

Not quite too late to mention that it is World Book Day today (in the UK and Ireland, anyway!) http://www.worldbookday.com/
An associated story I'll pick out is Young readers protest proposed Barnet library cuts on World Book Day

Recent articles: first year experience; IL of sponsored content

Dempsey, P. and Jagman, H. (2016) “I Felt Like Such a Freshman”: First-Year Students Crossing the Library Threshold. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 16(1) (2016), 89–107. Open access version http://works.bepress.com/heather_jagman/

Kinga, R.P. (2016). Popular Sources, Advertising, and Information Literacy: What Librarians Need to Know. The Reference Librarian, 57(1), 1-12. "Sponsored content, also known as native advertising, is a relatively new form of advertising in which corporate sponsors fund articles in periodicals and often exert significant control over the editorial process. This model is a dramatic reversal from past practice; throughout the 20th century, allowing advertisers and sales departments to dictate editorial content was considered unethical by most observers both inside and outside of journalism. Because the information literate student is one who can navigate both library databases and the open web, this article urges academic reference and instruction librarians to gain a deeper understanding of how advertising impacts the popular sources their patrons use." Proced publication at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02763877.2015.1077772
Photo by Sheila Webber: yummy turnips, Farmers market, February 2016

Media lives 2015 #ofcom

An interesting report has just been published by Ofcom (which is a watchdog for the communications industry in the UK) which draws on qualitative research into how UK citizens experience media in their lives. There are views on what types of media they consume (including social media), what types of devices they use etc. The researchers note "further evolution in participants’ social media use": for example, discerning use of a range of social media, and greater awareness of privacy issues (especially amongst young people). As with other recent studies, there is a trend towards discovering other information and channels (youtube videos, news etc.) via links on social media. Another thing which caught my eye was a disenchantment with tablets (finding smart phones more convenient for recreational use, and laptops more practical and efficient for homework etc.)
Ofcom. (2016). Media lives 2015: a qualitative study. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/medialives11/media_lives_2015_summary.pdf
Photo by Sheila webber: marsh marigolds, February 2016