Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Digital Citizenship conversation & resources #digciz

DigCiz "is a conversation [carried out using the #digciz hashtag] centered around questions of persons, environments, and shared experience as they relate to ideas of Digital Citizenship". There are organised conversations going on throughout June, with a different focus every week. This week activities are making a #4wordstory about digital citizenship and posting to the #digciz hashtag on twitter and participating in a live Open Hangout on June 1st at 3pm US Eastern time, which is 8pm UK time. More info on this at http://worldliterate.miazamoraphd.com/digciz/digciz-summer-2017-conversations-starting-this-week-join-us/
It's also worth checking out the website for its list of digital citizenship resources etc.
The website is at http://digciz.org/
The programme for the conversations is at http://digciz.org/uncategorized/digciz-june-2017-is-here/
Photo by Sheila Webber: goose, Amsterdam, May 2017, captured by the digital

Libraries Transforming the Student Experience Through Service Learning

Registration is open for a conference: Bridging Campus and Community: Libraries Transforming the Student Experience Through Service Learning, to be held at
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, USA, August 7-8, 2017. There are interesting-looking sessions. The registration Cost is US$125. More information at http://scholarcommons.scu.edu/libraries-and-service-learning/2017/Sessions/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Rhododendron, May 2017

Beyond Worksheets

Beyond Worksheets: Using Instructional Technologies for Authentic Assessment of Student Learning is a priced webinar from ACRL on 1 June 2017 at 2pm US Eastern time (7pm UK time). Prices include: ACRL member: $50; Nonmember: $90. The presenter is Melissa Mallon, Director of Peabody Library/Director of Liaison and Instruction Services, Vanderbilt University. More info at http://www.ala.org/acrl/beyondworksheetswebcast

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Fake News Friday

I missed these whilst they were being broadcast ... but the Open University Library did a series of "Fake News Friday" live Facebook sessions, which are now available as videos. Lasting 3-5 minutes, they went out every Friday http://www.open.ac.uk/library/training-and-events/facebook-live-events. Each broadcast focused on two of the elements from the IFLA "How To Spot Fake News" infographic https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174, so all 8 arer covered in the end.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Information Literacy for Demographic Engagement

Reports are available for a project funded by the UK's Information Literacy Group: Information Literacy for Demographic Engagement (IL-DEM). "The project was completed by a team from the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. This comprised Professor Hazel Hall, Peter Cruickshank and Dr Bruce Ryan. The focus of the project was information literacy amongst those involved in hyperlocal democracy in Scotland as community councillors (the equivalent of parish councillors in England)." In order to carry out the research "In late 2016 the project team interviewed a sample of community councillors representing different types of communities (ranging from rural to urban, and from deprived to wealthy). Another set of community councillors completed an online survey, and some additional data was also obtained from public officials and librarians. Finally, desk research was undertaken into local authority policies about library support for community councils"
Conclusions include that "although community councillors are practised in obtaining and publishing information, the levels of information literacy that they exhibit indicate that their democratic roles could be strengthened with (further) training and development."
There is a stakeholder report here: https://communityknectdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/il-dem-stakeholder-report-january-2017.pdf
A summary of the findings is here: http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ILG-IL-DEM-website-summary.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Heron, Amsterdam, May 2017

Friday, May 26, 2017

Collaborative Instructional Design

A recording of the ACRL DLS Instruction Committee Spring Forum event Collaborative Instructional Design delivered by Joelle Pitts is available (embedded below).
There is also a recording of the ACRL Instruction Section Management & Leadership Committee's event Developing an Effective Mentoring Program at https://youtu.be/sK74pZpEJTk

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Statistics literacy

A short article on the Royal Statistical Society's Statslife site by Hetan Shah (RSS Executive Ditector) a few days ago asserts that: Critical thinking and stats literacy are the answers to a post-truth age. It finishes by saying that "We should explore new ways of promoting critical thinking, statistical literacy and a curious mindset among people young and old. As is so often the case, technical and policy fixes can only take us so far; education is the only sustainable answer to this major societal issue."
Shah, H. (2017, May 17). Critical thinking and stats literacy are the answers to a post-truth age https://www.statslife.org.uk/features/3460-critical-thinking-stats-literacy-are-the-answers-to-a-post-truth-age
The RSS site is worth exploring further, especially the Resources section, where the section "for journalists" could be equally useful for students: it includes exercises, presentations etc. https://www.statslife.org.uk/
Photo by Sheila Webber: rabbit and spotted creature enjoy a long weekend in Amsterdam, May 2017

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

WILU conference: keynotes streamed: Librarians, wâhkôhtowin, and information literacy instruction #wilu2017

The WILU (Canadian information literacy) conference is on now (23-25 May in Edmonton, Canada), and you can follow it at https://twitter.com/hashtag/WILU2017?src=hash
They streamed the opening keynote, and the closing keynote (from Jessie Loyer; Librarians, wâhkôhtowin, and information literacy instruction: building kinship in research relationships) will also be streamed on Thursday 25 - see https://wilu2017.library.ualberta.ca/program/keynote-speakers/

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

New articles: librarians and research/ publication; adult learners

Volume 78 issue 4 of the open access journal College and Research Libraries includes the following:
- Research in the Real World: Improving Adult Learners Web Search and Evaluation Skills through Motivational Design and Problem-Based Learning by Lindsay Roberts ("How can we better engage adult learners during information literacy sessions? How do we increase students’ perception of the relevance and importance of information literacy skills for academic work and life in the real world? To explore these questions, the ARCS Model of Motivational Design and Problem-Based Learning were used to develop activities for a library instruction workshop")
- Academic Librarians’ Changing Perceptions of Faculty Status and Tenure by Elise Silva, Quinn Galbraith, Michael Groesbeck
- Publication Patterns of U.S. Academic Librarians and Libraries from 2003 to 2012 by Deborah D. Blecic, Stephen E. Wiberley Jr., Sandra L. De Groote, John Cullars, Mary Shultz, Vivian Chan
- Journey Mapping the User Experience by Sue Samson, Kim Granath, Adrienne Alger ("Journey mapping plots a process or service to produce a visual representation of a library transaction—from the point at which the student accesses a service to its final resolution. Service scenarios are identified, and maps are produced that reflect the journey from the student’s point of view. The student map is then compared to an “ideal” journey, and the differences are used to explore changes that would improve the service experience.")
- Developing Online Communities for Librarian Researchers: A Case Study by Lili Luo, Marie Kennedy, Kristine Brancolini, Michael Stephens
The home page for this issue is at http://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/issue/view/1074/showToc
There seems to be a new publishing format for this publication: the archive list of copies is at http://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/issue/archive
Photo by Sheila Webber: Amsterdam, May 2017 (note the heron perched in the tree on the left)

Friday, May 19, 2017

New articles: transition, transfer students

Reference Services Review volume 45 issue 2 2017 (priced publication) includes:
- Thinking critically about information by Eleanor Mitchell , Sarah Barbara Watstein
- Getting Out the Truth: The Role of Libraries in the Fight against Fake News by Oliver Batchelor
- Exploring Motivation: Integrating the ARCS Model with Instruction by Krista M. Reynolds , Lindsay Michelle Roberts , Janet Hauck
- Using Information Literacy to Support Teaching Practicum Students by Sara Maurice Whitver
- Digital Research Notebook: A Simple Tool for Reflective Learning by Julia A Glassman, Douglas M Worsham
- Ready-to-Go Assessment: The Implementation and Design of a General Assessment Tool by Cara Berg
- Teaching Research Skills Through Embedded Librarianship by Nadine Hoffman , Susan Beatty , Patrick Feng , Jennifer Lee
- Adult Transitional Theory and Transfer Shock in Higher Education: Practices from the Literature by Tammy Ivins , Kimberly Copenhaver , Alyssa Koclanes
- International Students and Information Literacy: A Systematic Review by Meggan Houlihan , Claire Walker Wiley , Amanda B. Click
- Information Literacy Needs of Community College Students in Transition: a Literature Review by Elizabeth Nelson
- Are transfer students lagging behind in information literacy? by Min Tong , Carrie Moran
- Understanding the Transfer Student Experience Using Design Thinking by Linda Whang , Christine Tawatao , John Danneker , Jackie Belanger , Stephen Edward Weber , Linda Garcia , Amelia Klaus
- Agoge: An Information Literacy Game for Transfer Students by Andrew Kearns , Breanne A. Kirsch , Virginia Cononie

Contents page at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/rsr/45/2
Photo by Sheila Webber: white lilac, April 2017

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Technology use by older people

Another new report by the Pew Internet research centre investigates the use of technology by seniors in the USA. It identifies that use is increasing, including use of social media and of broadband at home, but there are variations by demographic, in particular better educated seniors with higher incomes have increased their use more, and younger seniors use technology more than older seniors.
Snippets from the news page about the report (which is available in complete text): "Four-in-ten seniors now own smartphones, more than double the share that did so in 2013" "Younger seniors use the internet and subscribe to home broadband at rates that are comparable to the overall population. Fully 82% of 65- to 69-year-olds are internet users, and two-thirds say they have broadband internet connections at home. (Internet use and broadband adoption rates for the overall population are 90% and 73%, respectively). On the other hand, fewer than half of seniors ages 80 and up (44%) report using the internet and just 28% say they have home broadband service. Adoption rates for seniors in their 70s fall in between these two groups. Internet and broadband adoption rates also differ considerably by household income and educational attainment. Around nine-in-ten seniors whose annual household income is $75,000 or more say they go online (94%) or have high-speed internet at home (87%). Those shares drop to 46% and 27%, respectively, among older adults living in households earning less than $30,000 a year. College graduates are far more likely than those with high school educations or less to say they use the internet (92% vs. 49%) or have home broadband service (82% vs. 30%)."
Go to http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/05/17/technology-use-among-seniors/
Photo by sheila Webber: my strawberry flowers, May 2017

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Academic Library Impact on Student Learning and Success #acrlaia

A new report has been published by ACRL: Academic Library Impact on Student Learning and Success: Findings from Assessment in Action Team Projects. "The report focuses on projects completed during the third and final year as part of the program Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success (AiA) from April 2015 to June 2016. Teams from more than 50 campuses completed assessment projects and reported on them individually (fully searchable online), and this synthesis builds on past findings from an additional 150 projects completed during the first and second years of the AiA program as context."
Info at http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/archives/13779?
Report at http://www.ala.org/acrl/files/issues/value/findings_y3.pdf
Project website at http://www.ala.org/acrl/AiA
Searchable project reports https://apply.ala.org/aia/public
Photo by Sheila Webber: icelandic poppies, May 2017

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

23 Framework Things #acrlframework

The latest 23 Things initiative covers 23 Things around the ACRL Information Literacy Framework! The Instruction Round Table of the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) "invites all interested librarians to delve deeper into the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education" by participating in 23 Framework Things online, which runs from now until October 5 2017.
They suggest" 1. Read through the 23 prompts (“things”) surrounding four varied aspects of the Framework (Pedagogy, Frame Focus, Assessment, At Your Institution); 2. Think about each prompt, doing additional reading and research as needed; 3. Act by posting your thoughts in the comments or completing the activity described in the prompt"
There are also prizes! (the physical ones are only for Minnesota librarians, which seems fair enough since they have organised it) "Earn badges, buttons, and get entered into a drawing to win prizes for reaching different milestones (e.g. 1st thing completed, 2 tracks completed, all things completed)."
Go here to start: https://23frameworkthings.wordpress.com/
Photo by Sheila Webber: bluebells, May 2017

Friday, May 12, 2017

Fake news: the role of libraries and staff in supporting information literacy #uklibchat

The next #uklibchat takes place on 6 June 18.30-20.30 UK time (which is 1.30-3.30pm US Eastern time) and the topic is Fake news: the role of libraries and staff in supporting information literacy The open agenda is here https://docs.google.com/document/d/14kec5ncPNus4jOb37tpbsQvgFVXDVtoyYQvsKbfJBIU/edit?usp=sharing and you can add further questions
Otherwise just start tweeting using the hashtag #uklibchat at 18.30 on the 6th! The #uklibchat website is at https://uklibchat.wordpress.com/2017/05/10/uklibchat-6th-june-18-30-20-30-fake-news-the-role-of-libraries-and-staff-in-supporting-information-literacy/

Innovation in Science Literacy Award (ISLA) 2017

The Innovation in Science Literacy Award (ISLA 2017) has been launched. "As an outcome from the Landscape Survey in Science Literacy report, ISLA will reward creative ways in which international development programmes or individual projects have succeeded in addressing a local challenge in a disadvantaged community with a measurable and sustainable increase in science literacy. The recipient of ISLA 2017 will receive £5,000 (five thousand pounds sterling). Closing date: 30 June 2017"
More info: http://www.nida-net.org/en-gb/activities/connectwithscience/science-literacy/isla-2017

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Pew report "Americans’ Attitudes About the News Media Deeply Divided Along Partisan Lines" @pewresearch

A new report from the Pew Internet Center investigates Americans' (in the USA) attitudes to news media. "Democrats and Republicans, who already tend to place their trust in different news sources and rely on different outlets for political news, now disagree more than ever on a fundamental issue of the news media’s role in society: whether news organizations’ criticism of political leaders primarily keeps them from doing things they shouldn’t – or keeps them from doing their job." "Pew Research Center has asked this question since 1985. While Republicans have been more likely to support a watchdog role during Democratic presidencies and vice versa, the distance between the parties has never approached the 47-point gap that exists today. The widest gap up to now occurred during the George W. Bush administration, when Democrats were 28 points more likely than Republicans to support a watchdog role."
Other trends are increasing use of mobile for news and that "Fifteen percent of Americans have a lot of trust in news that comes to them from friends and family (slightly lower than the trust levels for local and national news organizations), and 16% of online news consumers often get news there from people close to them (about a third as many as do so from news organizations)."
There is also interesting data on what criteria people use to judge trustworthiness of news stories "About half of U.S. adults say the sources the story cites (51%) and the story’s publisher (48%) have “a large impact” on trust. Three-in-ten say their gut instinct about the story has a large impact, while about a quarter (26%) say they look to the person who shared the story as a major factor in determining whether they trust it."
Pew have a "nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults who participate via monthly self-administered web surveys" Data for this survey was gethered in March 2017 from 4,151 respondents. Information and the full report at
http://www.journalism.org/2017/05/10/americans-attitudes-about-the-news-media-deeply-divided-along-partisan-lines/
Photo by Sheila Webber: celemtis, may 2017

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Doctoral Summer School 2017

The Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Summer School 2017, taking place July 5-7 at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), is seeking proposals from doctoral students for articles and communications for roundtable sessions and workshops. Submission deadline is 20 May 2017, and only 20 places are available. "The main themes under which the topics fall are: reforming and transforming education; innovation in journalism; communication research; new competences and social media; and news literacy and political participation ... The goal of the MIL Summer School is to bring together researchers in academia and industry from all over the world attempting to address the important challenges in the evolving world of media and information literacy, while simultaneously bolstering the potential and talent of researchers in the first stage of their careers." You can present a poster or paper, or attend round tables and events. There is more information at https://doctoralsummerschool.wordpress.com/english-version/

Models for Copyright Education in Information Literacy Programs #wlic2017

Registration is open for the IFLA 2017 WLIC offsite session Models for Copyright Education in Information Literacy Programs, jointly organized by the IFLA Committee on Copyright and Other Legal Matters and the IFLA Information Literacy Section. The event is an offsite event for the World Library and Information Conference (WLIC, also known as the IFLA conference) and will be on 23 August 2017 8.30am-3.30pm. It will be at the University of Lower Silesia, Wrocław, Poland. "The purpose of this day-long event is to discuss models for education on copyright, licensing, and other legal matters within the scope of information literacy programs. This offsite session will be devoted to methodologies for providing a comprehensive knowledge of the legal landscape for copyright, licensing, and related legal and policy matters in libraries and universities." "Registration will be open on the session website until 15 July 2017, or until the session is full." You have to be already be a WLIC/ IFLA delegate to attend (you don't have to have registered for the main conference before registering for this, but you won't be able to get into the event without an IFLA delegate badge for that day). The programme and registration form (free to IFLA delegates) are at https://uwm.edu/informationstudies/research/partnerships/models-for-copyright-education/
Logo copyright IFLA 2017 http://2017.ifla.org/

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Teachmeet: Librarians Supporting the Research Lifecycle / Llyfrgellwyr yn Cefnogi'r Broses Ymchwil, 10 May

There is a Teachmeet (a WHELF Research Group event, sponsored by the Information Literacy Group) on 10 May 1-4pm at Bangor University, Wales: Librarians Supporting the Research Lifecycle / Llyfrgellwyr yn Cefnogi'r Broses Ymchwil "Please join us to hear researchers at Bangor University and Natural Resources Wales describe their research lifecycle, pressure points and support they find useful from the library service. We also have guest speaker Dr Penny Dowdney who will share her expertise on supporting researcher development at Bangor University and via Vitae, the UK organisation championing the personal and professional development of research students and staff in higher education institutions and research institutes. This will be a networking event for all librarians working in, or interested in, research support, where we will discuss our current support for researchers, and examine how we can raise awareness and market our services to researchers specifically." Contact Chris Roberts c.a.roberts@bangor.ac.uk if you wish to attend / Cysylltwch â Chris Roberts c.a.roberts@bangor.ac.uk i roi gwybod i ni os byddwch yn mynychu'r digwyddiad.
Photo by Sheila Webber: mist in Greenwich Park, December 2016

Information Literacy Group research day 5 June, London @infolitgroup

The UK's Information Literacy Group is holding an event on 5 June 2017 in London, UK. "This event will be led by Dr Emma Coonan (Editor Journal of information literacy) and Dr Geoff Walton (Chair of the Information Literacy Group's Research Bursaries Panel) and will offer accessible and practical advice on putting together a research bid, with time for you to work on developing your own research proposal and bid." This is free to CILIP ILG members and £40 for non-members. More info and registration at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ilgs-research-day-tickets-34314595880
Photo by Sheila Webber: more clemetis, May 2017

Monday, May 08, 2017

Online journal club discussion: 11 May: school libraries, political information and information literacy provision #ILread

Join us on 11 May 2017 at at 8pm UK time (3pm US EST) for a blog-post online discussion of:
Smith, L. (2016). School libraries, political information and information literacy provision: findings from a Scottish study. Journal of Information Literacy, 10(2), 3-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.11645/10.2.2097 (open access article)
It takes place as comments to this lead post from the author, Lauren Smith: http://infolitjournalclub.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/school-libraries-political-information.html
She provides an introduction to the article and poses some questions for discussion: she will be present during the discussion as well.
How does this discussion work?
Anyone can join in! Participants aim to read at least some of the article in advance, then come along at 8pm UK time and join in the discussion by adding comments to the blog post. You can see how this works by looking at previous discussions on http://infolitjournalclub.blogspot.co.uk/
Photo by Sheila Webber: clematis, May 2017

Friday, May 05, 2017

Using Interdisciplinary Faculty Learning Communities to Facilitate Real Talk about Information Literacy

Interesting short paper about a successful initaitive to get faculty involved in ongoing discussion about information literacy, triggered by the new ACRL Framework for IL:
Vance, J., Lanfear, A.K. and Richey, P. (2017). Info Lit Squad Goals: Using Interdisciplinary Faculty Learning Communities to Facilitate Real Talk about Information Literacy. ACRL 2017 proceedings.
"This paper describes one institution’s efforts to create a forum for [...] faculty-librarian conversations about information literacy using a year-long topic-based Faculty Learning Community model. A Faculty Learning Community (FLC) is a “group of interdisciplinary faculty who engage in an active, collaborative, year-long program” in order to focus on “researching and testing a scholarly and pedagogical topic that is important to the larger academic community.” This newly created Information Literacy FLC discussed an early draft of the ACRL Framework, provided feedback to ACRL from a non-library perspective, and discussed other information literacy concepts and issues during its one year term. As a result, the FLC’s work continues to promote more broad-based campus conversations about how information literacy is integrated into the university’s curriculum." http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2017/InfoLitSquadGoals.pdf
Also I cannot resist mentioning first-author Jason Vance's wonderful blog about the lives and deaths of library staplers: http://deadstaplers.tumblr.com/

The ACRL 2017 conference proceedings (at http://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/acrl2017/papers) include numerous other information literacy papers (in pdf form) e.g.

- Information Literacy’s Influence on Undergraduates’ Learning and Development: Results from a Large Multi-institutional Study by Kevin Fosnacht

- What Counts as Knowledge? Concrete Examples of an Abstract Concept from the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy by Nancy E. Adams, Maureen A. Gaffney, and Valerie A. Lynn

- Shifting the Discourse: Information Literacy as an Opportunity to Address Intellectual Virtues by Andrea Brooks

- Show Me the Learning: Navigating Information Literacy through Multiple Life Perspectives by Alice B. Ruleman, Laura Horne-Popp, and Robert Hallis
Photo by Sheila Webber: yet more crab apple, April 2017

Thursday, May 04, 2017

Infolit tutorial of the month: Y Search

The latest PRIMO site of the month is Y Search, produced by Elise Silva and Leanna Fry-Balci. Y Search is "a website produced by library instructors at Brigham Young University for use in blended learning instruction with First-Year Writing (FYW) classes.... Y Search currently has four modules: background research, topic development, search strategies, and source evaluation. As the need for more instruction increases, librarians hope to expand Y Search to include other modules like critical reading strategies and synthesizing information." There is an interview with the authors at http://acrl.ala.org/IS/instruction-tools-resources-2/pedagogy/primo-peer-reviewed-instruction-materials-online/primo-site-of-the-month/may-2017-site-of-the-month/
Photo by Sheila Webber: crab apple blossom, April 2017

Wednesday, May 03, 2017

Webinar recording: Improve Your Instruction with Classroom Assessment Techniques

The recording is available of the ACRL IS Teaching Methods session held on 25 April 2017, Improve Your Instruction with Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Conversation with Melissa Bowles-Terry and Cassandra Kvenild. "Melissa and Cassandra discussed how they integrate assessment into their instruction and gave practical tips on how to adjust and customize assessment for specific situations." The recording is at https://youtu.be/UCUH7wGPLoc and the slides and chat transcript are at http://acrl.ala.org/IS/acrl-istm-virtual-event/
Photo by Sheila Webber: my apple blossom, April 2017

Tuesday, May 02, 2017

Presentations from #LILAC17

The very efficient LILAC people have links to presentations and posters from LILAC (The UK's information literacy conference held in April) all on one page - something there for everyone! There are also videos of the three keynote talks from Barbara Allan, Josie Fraser and Alan Carbery. Go to
http://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-archive/lilac-2017-1
Photo by Sheila Webber: crab apple, April 2017 (PS poster edges effect)

Monday, May 01, 2017

Webinar: Critical Reflection to Improve and Grow As Librarians Who Teach

Another free webinar from the ACRL IS Management & Leadership Committee is on June 2 2017, 11am-12 noon US Central time (which is 5-6pm UK time): Critical Reflection to Improve and Grow As Librarians Who Teach. "Reflection is a practice that helps instruction librarians and coordinators focus on various aspects of their teaching in order to grow and improve as teachers. This presentation will begin by defining reflection and reflexivity while describing when, how and why it is used, as well as outlining benefits, challenges and examples of the practice." Presenters are Maria Accardi (Coordinator of Instruction at Indiana University Southeast) and Michelle Reale (Faculty Librarian for English and Music at Arcadia University). Register on this page
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hawthorn blossom, April 2017