Webinars: The grounded instruction librarian

There is a webinar series starting on 11 July 2019 at 2pm to 3pm US EST which is 7 to 8pm UK time: Grounded Instruction Librarian: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Webcast Series. "Corresponding to the ACRL publication, The Grounded Instruction Librarian: Participating in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (July 2019), this series of webinars offers instruction librarians an introduction to key theories, research, and practices that underpin the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), as well as case studies of how these theories are being used in library instruction."
The first webinar on July 11th is called The Grounded Instruction Librarian: An Introduction to SoTL and Signature Pedagogies "In this first session, attendees will be introduced to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and the concept of signature pedagogies. Discussion will focus on the implications of signature pedagogies for information literacy instruction."
For information on the whole series go to http://www.ala.org/acrl/onlinelearning/sotl

A community of practice for staff development in information literacy

The next webinar in the Mindsets series, from Robert Gordon University, is on 4 July 2019 at 4pm UK time (which is, e.g. 11am US EST): A community of practice for staff development in information literacy in a university. "This webinar will offer an overview of a project at York St John University. Based on interviews and a survey carried out for doctoral research, a community of practice in information literacy was discovered, covering academic and professional staff across the institution. ... through the design and use of an online community of practice, staff are now able to share ideas, lesson plans and concerns, and ask questions, which is enabling the further embedding of information literacy in curriculum design. This is especially true of the emerging forms of information literacy, developing from traditional library skills, to a much more pedagogically-driven, critical approach. You will get an overview of the online community of practice, how it was developed, and key examples of how it has impacted on curriculum design in terms of information literacy, such as projects to review the curriculum and reading lists for representation of women, people of colour, and LGBTQI+."
Go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-community-of-practice-for-staff-development-in-information-literacy-tickets-64238842106 for more details and for registration. You can also look at the CoP website at https://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/infoincurriculum/
Photo by Sheila webber: hydrangea in bud, June 2019

Experiential Learning Toolkit

Just launched, an interesting new open access resource is the Experiential Learning Toolkit. It has 16 online learning modules (with videos, slides, activities, examples, links etc.) covering various aspects of experiential learning: from basic learning design issues, to risks and evaluation. It was Produced by Niagara College, Canada, in collaboration with Brock University and Georgian College, with funding from the Province of Ontario’s Career Ready Fund. "The toolkit is intended to support faculty, staff, administrators, and community partners in designing, implementing and evaluating quality experiential learning activities, such as field placements, co-ops, and service learning."
The toolkit is here: https://www.eltoolkit.ca/
"For more information on the toolkit as well as some frequently asked questions, please visit http://www.niagaracollege.ca/cae/experiential-learning-toolkit/. If you have additional questions or want to provide feedback, please contact Dr. Jenn Martin directly at jemartin@niagaracollege.ca "
Photo by Sheila webber, taken in Second Life (TM Linden Lab)

Citizens’ approaches to evaluating political ‘facts’ in the fake news era

The slides from the webinar held on 19 June 2019: Citizens’ approaches to evaluating political ‘facts’ in the fake news era (presented by Professor Rita Marcella and Dr Graeme Baxter, Robert Gordon University) are available at https://www.slideshare.net/martzoukou/onehe-mindsets-webinar-fake-news-june-2019
Relevant publications by Marcella and Baxter include:
- Baxter, G. & Marcella, R. (2013). Online parliamentary election campaigns in Scotland: a decade of research. eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government, 5(2), 107-127. https://jedem.org/index.php/jedem/article/view/210
- Baxter, G. & Marcella, R. (2017). Voters’ online information behaviour and response to campaign content during the Scottish referendum on independence. International Journal of Information Management, 37(6), 539-546. https://openair.rgu.ac.uk/handle/10059/2408
- Baxter G., Marcella R., Chapman, D., & Fraser, A. (2013). Voters' information behaviour when using political actors' web sites during the 2011 Scottish Parliament election campaign. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 65(5), 515-533. https://openair.rgu.ac.uk/handle/10059/958
Photo by Sheila Webber: white rose in June, 2019

@Cam_ILN Cambridge Information Literacy Network update

This isn't a course open to people outside Cambridge University libraries, but if you are developing a programme for developing librarians' teaching, you might want to look at this blog post in which the Cambridge Information Literacy Network announces an inservice programme "Teaching and Learning for Librarians ... The course will be 9 months and will focus on enhancing teaching practices, developing a personal philosophy of teaching and applying these practices and beliefs to a class/educational resource specific to participants’ libraries." You will also see a link to the IL framework they have developed for the university. Other blog posts are also interesting. https://camiln.org/2019/06/10/registration-for-teaching-and-learning-for-librarians-now-open/
Photo by Sheila Webber: green shade, June 2019

Ocean Literacy

Another literacy! Ocean Literacy (which "means understanding the ocean’s influence on you and your influence on the ocean") is more about knowing things (rather than developing attitudes and skills), but this is a useful resource that could be used in teaching. http://oceanliteracy.wp2.coexploration.org/
Photo by Sheila Webber, taken in Second Life (TM Linden Lab).

Active Learning

Active Learning from King's is recently-started blog from Kings College London with informative blog posts on teaching and learning in higher education e.g. a step-by-step explanation of the jigsaw approach to learning (where students form groups, each learning one aspect of a topic, then they teach each other). https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/activelearning/
Photo by Sheila Webber, taken in Second Life (TM Linden Lab)

Call for chapters for Critical Library Pedagogy in Practice

There is a call for chapters for Critical Library Pedagogy in Practice which "will be an edited collection of 10-15 short, practical, chapters which will explore various aspects of critical pedagogy and how the theory can be applied to information literacy teaching. The book is inspired by the success of the Critical Library Pedagogy Handbook, published by the American Library Association, and the aim for this collection will be to produce a similarly helpful book focussed on the work and practice of librarians in various countries within a classroom context. This book will also be open access and therefore free for anyone and everyone to use." I think this is a revision of this call for chapters. Proposals have to be submitted by 31 July 2019, and those selected have to submit chapters by 29 November 2019. There is more information here: http://www.wou.edu/wp/critlibpedagogy/
Photo by Sheila Webber: more wild strawberries at my door.

Presentations from CILIP Scotland conference

I don't think any of them are specifically about Information Literacy - but an interesting selection of presentations from the CILIP Scotland conference that just took place in Dundee, Scotland https://www.slideshare.net/CILIPScotland/clipboards/cilips-conference-2019
Photo by Sheila Webber: yellow rose in June, 2019 (at one of the rare points when it wasn't raining)

Syllibi of credit bearing information literacy courses

John Siegel recently asked on some North American discussion lists for information on credit-bearing IL university courses, and very helpfully he has collated the information (with the providers' permission) in a Google folder. He said "The folder is largely organized by the number of semester credit hours of the course (1, 2, or 3). There is also a subfolder for a quarter-long course. Although I received permission to share and in some cases there is Creative Commons, I would recommend checking with the creators if you would like to use/adapt any materials."
Go to https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WkXkcv7UymlR3F2jAf_yMrULxxAFy96J?usp=sharing
Photo by Sheila Webber: Rhododendron (and bee), Greenwich park, May 2019

Recent articles: oral information literacy; professional identity; information behaviour in Bangladeshi students

The latest issue (vol 45, no 2) of open access IFLA Journal includes:
- Impact of tailor-made information literacy provision on rural dwellers’ participation in sustainable development targets in Nigeria: Implications for public library services to oral societies by Chimezie P. Uzuegbu "This paper examined the impact of tailor-made information literacy provision on Nigerian rural dwellers’ participation in three sustainable development targets. A mixed method research design comprised of field experimental approach, site visit and focus group technique was used to collect data that answered the five questions raised in the study. From the findings, rural dwellers who received information literacy provision participated more in the sustainable development targets than their counterparts who depended only on the existing information communication systems accessible to them. Information literacy provision to a sample of 20 households had a spill-over effect on the behaviour of non-sampled households of the same village. In conclusion, the triangulation of methods used in this study showed that rural dwellers’ effective participation in development programmes can be achieved through contextual information literacy provision. This draws implications that are summarised into a model. Public libraries in Nigeria and in similar developing countries can explore the strategy conveyed in the model to launch effective outreach services to their rural dwellers."

- Evolving practices and professional identity: How the new ways we work can reshape us as professionals and a profession by Melissa Ann Fraser-Arnott "This paper’s first objective is to provide insights into how professional identity development occurs and how the emergence of a new or unusual take on the library and information science profession based on professional experiences working in non-traditional roles can be seen as both an opportunity and a threat to the library and information science profession, using the experience of library and information science graduates working in non-library roles as a lens. The second objective is to translate the experiences of library and information science graduates working in non-traditional roles into recommendations for promoting diversity in the definition of the profession."

- Information-seeking behaviour of undergraduate students: A developing country perspective by Ahmadul Islam Howlader and Md Anwarul Islam "The purpose of this study is to investigate the information-seeking behaviour of the undergraduate students at Dhaka University, Bangladesh. Questionnaires were distributed to the students and data were collected over a period of 60 days between November and December 2017. Of the 450 questionnaires distributed, 339 were returned where the response rate was 75.33%. It was found that most undergraduates needed academic and job-related information. To meet those needs, they often went to the library to study and to prepare for competitive job exams. For doing academic work, they were heavily dependent on the class lectures and they were only slightly satisfied with the library services they get. This study brought out the findings that undergraduates’ information skills were poor and they were not aware of the library resources. "

Go to: home page - https://www.ifla.org/publications/ifla-journal and pdf of this issue http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/publications/ifla-journal/ifla-journal-45-2_2019.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: more poppies on Blackheath, June 2019

Call for papers: ISIC 2020: the Information Behaviour Conference

There is a call for papers for ISIC 2020: the Information Behaviour Conference, which takes place at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, 28 September - 2 October 2020.
"The ISIC conferences focus on people's contextualised interactions with information. We welcome interdisciplinary information research, taking influence from fields such as information science, information studies, library studies, communication studies, computer science, education, information management, information systems, management science, psychology, social psychology, sociology, and other disciplines. A common thread is the focus on contextualised information activities, expressed as 'information behaviour', 'information practice', 'information seeking', 'information experience' and others. For the 2020 conference, authors are invited to particularly consider issues of misinformation, and application of information behaviour research to practice. However, all theoretical and empirical work that falls within the broad scope of the conference is welcome. The conference includes full and short papers, panels, workshops, posters, and a doctoral workshop."
Deadline for submissions is 31 January 2020. For more details go to http://isic2020.co.za

Webinar: Citizens’ approaches to evaluating political ‘facts’ in the fake news era

There is a free webinar on 19 June 2019 at 3-4pm UK time, organised by the OneHE Mindsets Information Digital & Media Literacy thematic network: Citizens’ approaches to evaluating political ‘facts’ in the fake news era. It is presented by Professor Rita Marcella and Dr Graeme Baxter, Robert Gordon University. "Recent years have seen significant public discourse surrounding the concepts of ‘post-truth politics’, ‘fake news’, and ‘alternative facts’ online, with much of it focusing on ‘Brexit’ or Donald Trump’s election campaign and presidency. This webinar will reflect upon recent research into fact response, fact checking, and the journey of the political fact. This research, conducted during the 2017 UK General Election campaign, consisted of two interrelated studies: 1) an online survey of the general public (n = 538); and 2) a series of 23 electronically-assisted interviews with citizens in North-East Scotland. Both studies explored the tactics and heuristics used in evaluating the credibility of ‘facts’ presented online by Scottish political actors." Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/citizens-approaches-to-evaluating-political-facts-in-the-fake-news-era-registration-62206243549
Photo by Sheila Webber: bee on Eschscholzia californica, June 2019

Recent articles: community of practice; people of colour

Recent articles from the open access journal College & Research Libraries News include: from Vol 80, No 5, 2019
- Information Literacy Faculty Fellows program: Building a faculty-librarian framework community of practice by Stephanie Crowe, Anne Pemberton, Vonzell Yeager "The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework) calls upon librarians to think of information literacy as a concept to be applied beyond the one-shot session, suggesting that the “Framework…is intended to be developmentally and systematically integrated into the student’s academic program at a variety of levels."
- Empowering collaborations and creating brave spaces: People of Color in Library and Information Science Summit by Nataly Blas, Aisha Conner-Gaten, Rachel Deras, Jessea Young "The William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, California, held the first People of Color in Library and Information Science (POC in LIS) Summit on July 13, 2018. The summit was a collaborative planning effort by LMU librarians to create a productive and brave space for POC, especially women and marginalized identities, working in the information sector. The POC in LIS Summit invited participants to challenge their roles as information workers and acknowledge that dominant narratives may be disrupted."
Table of contents at https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/issue/view/1127/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: foxgloves, June 2019

Health libraries: Teaching and Learning in Action

Donna Iriving is the new editor of Health Information and Libraries Journal's "Teaching and Learning in Action Regular Feature" and she has started by summarising "examples of your best practice" from articles in the past five years (priced article).
Iriving, D. (2019). Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand: a review of the Teaching and Learning in Action feature. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 36(2), 190-194. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12259
Photo by Sheila Webber: alium head, June 2019

#uklibchat - past on UX, future on #healthliteracy

On Monday 3rd June there was a #uklibchat tweetchat on UX Research. When announcing it, they said "User Experience research is all about exploring the needs and behaviours of our users. This research is conducted with a variety of different qualitative and quantitative methods, many of which are fairly new to the library sector, such as: observation; behavioural mapping; cognitive mapping; usability testing; touchstone tours; cultural probes; semi-structured interviews and user journey mapping."
The wakelet with the chat archive is here https://wakelet.com/wake/7decb843-e4e5-471b-afa7-9bd8e44bb145.
The #uklibchat website is at https://uklibchat.wordpress.com/ and the next #uklibchat will be at on 1st July 2019, 7pm-8.30pm UK time (which is, for example, 2pm-3.30pm US EST) on health literacy, and communicating information to patients and the public.
Photo by Sheila Webber: the first wild strawberries by my front door, June 2019

Call for chapters: Teaching About “Fake News”: Lesson Plans for Different Disciplines and Audiences

There is a call for chapters for a proposed book to be published by ACRL: Teaching About “Fake News”: Lesson Plans for Different Disciplines and Audiences. The Editors are Candice Benjes-Small (Head of Research) and Mary K. Oberlies (Research and Instruction Librarian), William & Mary; Carol Wittig (Head of Research and Instruction, University of Richmond). "The problem of “fake news” has captured the attention of administrators and instructors, resulting in a rising demand for librarians to help students learn how to find and evaluate news sources. But we know that the phrase “fake news” is applied broadly, used to describe a myriad of media literacy issues such as misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes. There’s no way we can teach everything there is to know about “fake news” in a 50-minute one-shot library session. What we can do is tailor our sessions to be relevant to the specific audience. For example, a psychology class may benefit from a session about cognitive biases, while an IT class might want to talk about the non-neutrality of algorithms. Special populations such as non-traditional students or writing center tutors could also be considered." Chapter proposals have to be submitted by July 31, 2019, via the form here which requires a 100 word abstract of the proposed chapter and a sample learning activity. You have to identify a specific discipline, or a specific audience (e.g. first-year students)
Final chapters will be 2,000-3,000 words in length and have a fixed structure: "it will begin with an overview of that specific aspect of fake news and be grounded in the established scholarship. Next it will include a brief annotated list of accessible readings that could be assigned to participants ahead of a workshop when appropriate. Authors will be asked to house a student-friendly PowerPoint version of their chapter in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox; the teaching librarian could use it as-is or modify it for the direct instruction portion of a session. Finally, each chapter will include hands-on activities and discussion prompts that could be used in the actual workshop." Email teachingaboutfakenews@gmail.com with any questions.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Alium and bee, June 2019

New articles from @JInfoLit - Academics; Story time; Teens and video games; Learning diaries

Volume 13 No. 1 (2019) of the open access journal Journal of Information Literacy has been published. The articles are:
- Shaking up story time by Bartlomiej A. Lenart and Carla J. Lewis (Looks at the Philosophy for Children (P4C) method)
- What academics really think about information literacy by Deborah Stebbing, Jane Shelley, Mark Warnes, Carol McMaster ""We took a qualitative approach to this research, using semi-structured interviews with a convenience sample of participants drawn from nursing subjects and business subjects in a post-1992 university in the United Kingdom. The research questions asked about academics’ perception of IL, the impact of their discipline on IL and their view of the ideal information literate student. Six key areas of concern emerged around the teaching of IL: students transitioning into higher education, developing evaluation skills, the significance of the undergraduate major project and discipline differences, the information landscape and the perceived need for preparation for IL at work. The article discusses the findings, difficulties surrounding students achieving adequate IL and considerations for future practice in delivering focused IL support."
- How do teens learn to play video games? by Ruth S. Contreras-Espinosa, Carlos A. Scolari. "The aims of this article are to identify the main ILS ]informal learning strategies] that teens apply as they acquire and improve their video game literacy, and to develop a series of categories for analysing and classifying these informal learning experiences."
- Attribution and plagiarism in the creative arts by Joanna Hare, Kimburley Choi
- Using learning diaries to evaluate and improve online information literacy and academic skills provision by Aidan Tolland, Dr, Rebecca Mogg, Amanda Bennett
There are also book reviews and conference reports. Go to https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/issue/view/206
Photo by Sheila Webber: Rose, Sheffield, June 2019

California Conference on Library Instruction presentations: student learning; reimagining one-shot; intersectionality

Presentations from the California Conference on Library Instruction held on May 3 2019 are available. There is a recording of the keynote, Curiosity, Compassion, and Conversation: Facilitating Student Learning in the Library from Melanie Chu (Director of the Library & Learning Services, Lake Tahoe Community College). Presentation slides include:
- Goodbye Scavenger Hunt! Hello Problem-Based Scenarios from Tessa Withorn (Online Learning Librarian, California State University Dominguez Hills)
- Reimagining a Standard One-Shot with Critical Information Literacy: Diversity within Google, the Deep Web and Library Databases from Robin D. Lang (Instructional Services Librarian, Point Loma Nazarene University)
- Empowering Students through a Feminist Framework: Intersectionality and Primary Source Literacy from Sharon Ladenson (Gender and Communication Studies Librarian, Michigan State University Libraries)
Go to http://www.cclibinstruction.org/2019-conference/
Photo by Sheila Webber: rhododendrons in Greenwich park, May 2019

Library Publishing and information literacy

The numerous presentations from the IFLA Library Publishing Mid-Term Meeting (Dublin 2019) have been linked from https://www.ifla.org/node/92080 The first time I tried, some the links to the pdfs did not work, although they seem to be ok now. Through careful research (i.e. googling) I discovered that at least some of the presentations are also in the repository of the Dublin Business School (venue for the conference, I think), including:
- Kevin Stranack: Open Education, Open Access, and Open Source: Information literacy Instruction through course-based publishing https://esource.dbs.ie/handle/10788/3632 and also https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/library-publishing/publications/midterm-dublin-2019/kevin_stranack_2019.pdf
Numerous presentations (and teh video of the keynote) would be of interest to those concerned with open access, open education and scholarly publishing.
Photo by Sheila Webber: back from the farmers' market, May 2019