Short course: Information Literacy in Politically Polarized Times

A short online course led by Andrea Baer, running October 4 - November 2, 2021, is Information Literacy in Politically Polarized Times. Cost US $175. "Participants in this course will reflect on and further develop their approaches to information literacy education in polarized moments, as they engage with research and teaching approaches from disciplines like media literacy, information studies, education, cognitive psychology, and sociology. Participants will ultimately develop an instruction plan that they can apply to their teaching practice." More information at https://inquiringteachers.com/courses/il-polarized-times

Visual Mis- and #Disinformation

An open-access article, Visual Mis- and Disinformation, Social Media, and Democracy, contains mini-articles on multimodal disinformation.
There is a useful introduction identifying the nature and problems of dis- and misinformation in visual or multimodal form. There follow mini-articles outlining current state-of-the-art in faked videos etc., this media's impact, issues in detecting them, posible approaches to combatting them & future directions for research.
The essays are called: (1) Fake Videos: Challenges for Journalism and Democracy Emanating From Deepfakes and Cheapfakes; (2) Long on Profit and Years Behind: Platforms and the Fight Against Audiovisual Disinformation; (3) The Effects of Visual Disinformation and Debunking Falsehoods: State-of-the-Art and a Future Research Agenda; (4) Prebunking: Vaccinating Citizens Against Visual Disinformation
No. (2) is by an information/library academic who, identifying the value of human checkers, notes that "Librarians and archivists are experts at vetting information and indeed have been building information systems for the public interest for a century. Moreover, libraries offer a unique opportunity and locus of further research on combatting disinformation as they are trusted, localized sites of information negotiation that can engage the public in-person discussions around interpretating and evaluating information"
No. (4) discusses three games which aim to make people more aware of misinformation, by challenging them to use the techniques of misinformation, conspiracy theory etc. to boost social media profiles. I have certainly mentioned the first game (Bad News Game) on this blog before, but I don't think I've mentioned Go Viral which has the same format as Bad News Game, but with COVID related themes (the third relates to elections, Harmony Square).
The conclusion to the whole article identifies the need for more work on visual misinformation, and for collaboration between disciplines, and between researchers and other stakeholders. It also calls out for  "new forms of inoculating people against visual misinformation" - though I'm not sure that the innoculating metaphor is helpful when dealing with the need to keep developing information literacy lifelong?
The article is: Dan, V., Paris, B., Donovan, J., Hameleers, M., Roozenbeek, J., van der Linden, S., & von Sikorski, C. (2021). Visual Mis- and Disinformation, Social Media, and Democracy. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 98(3), 641–664. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990211035395

Photo by Sheila Webber: Misinformation? (slightly out-of-date guide to the London skyline, July 2021

Online short courses: Online Instructional Design; Online Instructional Delivery

Forthcoming Library Juice Academy short online courses include:
- Online Instructional Design, led by Mimi O'Malley runs from 1-28 November 2021, at a cost of US $175.00. "Following Wiggins and McTighe’s principle of backward design, this course first focuses upon learning outcomes, then addresses assessments and instructional materials which align with those learning outcomes. The course concludes with discussion on learning activities and tools to increase online student engagement."
- Online Instructional Delivery, led by Mimi O'Malley runs from 6 December 2021 to 2 January 2022, at a cost of US $175.00. It "walks participants through the instructional delivery and facilitation of an online course. The course pays attention to instructor social presence and feedback. This course delves into online instructor strategies for pacing online students on task and remedying student misbehavior in the online classroom."
Photo by Sheila Webber: white roses, August 2021

Recent articles: Collaboration during COVId; Inquiry; Reading & information literacy

The latest issue of the open access College & Research Libraries News (volume 82 number 7, July/August 2021) includes
- Teaching in the digital library: A partnership between teaching librarians and digital library staff by Matthew Weirick Johnson, Salma Abumeeiz, Elizabeth McAulay
- From concept to creation: Shaping inquiry culture on campus with a co-curricular panel by Jennifer Jarson, Kate Morgan ("Our experience developing a co-curricular, interdisciplinary panel discussion series spotlights how librarians and instructional designers shape inquiry culture on campus through programming.")
- You can improve: Using the Framework in How to Read workshops by Erin Weber ("Information literacy is inseparable from reading literacy, but neither are a basic or innate skill. Both take time, practice, repetition, and a host of willing instructors ready to engage in critical discussions about reading strategies. This is particularly true for first-generation, non-traditional, and marginalized students. Instruction librarians are uniquely positioned to promote and teach reading comprehension in a broader context of literacy, including information literacy.")
Go to https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/issue/view/1603/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: haul from teh farmers' market, August 2021 (first of the plums and last of the cherries)

CILIP's Media and Information Literacy Alliance

Today I attended a meeting organised by the UK's Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) on their emergent Media and Information Literacy Alliance. It is a "cross-sector group with a common belief in the power of Media and Information Literacy to help people be happier, healthier, safer and more informed in their online lives" and the participants mostly represented groups and associations with an active interest in media or information literacy. Chaired by Nick Poole and Jane Secker, it provided opportunity for some discussion about the Association and included presentation of a proposed framework for MIL. There was also a presentation from the UK's Department of Culture, Media and Sport on the Online Media Literacy Strategy that was published last month and there was also a presentation on the CILIP Information Literacy Group's response to the Strategy

It is a development worth watching (and getting involved with! - there's a form to register interest on the website). An interesting range of organisations was represented, including the following:
- Scottish Information Literacy Community of Practice http://www.therightinformation.org/
- Newsguard's News Literacy programmes (this is a priced service with "trust ratings for over 6,000 websites produced by real journalists") https://www.newsguardtech.com/news-literacy/ 
- The Literacy Trust's News Literacy Network (this is the link to their resources pages) https://literacytrust.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/all-party-parliamentary-group-literacy/fakenews/newsliteracy/ - they also have some reports e.g. the family news literacy report.
- The Association for Citizenship Teaching "the subject association for Citizenship representing teachers and others involved in Citizenship education" which provides citizenship training https://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/
 - Ofcom, with their important media literacy initiatives and research https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/media-literacy-research
- Disinformation researchers who had produced The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook https://hackmd.io/@scibehC19vax/home

I am involved with UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy Alliance (currently I'm on one of their working groups - on Innovation in Media and Information Literacy). I do think that the British MILA will need to suffix or prefix its name with something (e.g. "UK" or "CILIP") to make it clear that it is not part of the UNESCO MILA.

Photo by Sheila Webber: hydrangea (and photographer), August 2021

Cfp: Western Balkan Information and Media Literacy Conference 2021

There is a call for papers for the International Summit of the Book and Western Balkan Information and Media Literacy Conference 2021, taking place 9-10 December 2021. The theme is: Epistemology: Opinion, Belief and the Reality and the deadline for proposals is 16 October 2021. It will be online and at the physical location of Bihać, Bosnia & Herzegovina. The website with more information is at https://www.wbimlc.org/
Keynote Speakers are: Ismail Serageldin (Founding Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina); Vinton G. Cerf, (Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google); Paul G. Zurkowski; Christine Bruce (Dean, Graduate Research at James Cook University, Australia: Sanda Erdelez (Professor and Director at Simmons University School of Library and Information Science) and Frode Alexander Hegland
Proposals can be for: Full paper to be published in conference proceedings; Presentation; Roundtable discussion; Poster session; Workshops; Symposia; PechaKucha 

Photo by Sheila Webber: pink dahlias, July 2021

A contrast in priorities: LIBER draft vision

LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche – Association of European Research Libraries) just publicised a draft vision statement with 6 elements. I found them a bit of a disappointment, in particular after posting about the IFLA themes for libraries yesterday, which can be applied to research libraries as much as any other kind of library. There is a connection with some of the IFLA themes, but is seems rather dampened-down in scope.
One obvious thing is the lack of reference to the research librarians' role in developing the information literacy of all the stakeholders (staff, students, researchers), which one would expect to get a mention, given that most research libraries are actually part of universities. Instead there seems to be a big focus on the curatorial and publication roles, with more emphasis on support than leadership. In relation to the first element (see below) one statement is "The research library should not be seen as a facility but as a service provider" - I know this acknowledges that some universities do undervalue their libararies, but I would think that a research library could be more ambitious than being a "service provider" alone, considering the potential for expertise and leadership within library staff. 

Anyway, the six elements are:
"1. Trusted Hub: By 2027, research libraries will be trusted hubs in their user communities, collaborating with each other and with local, national, and international stakeholders, in their role as change agents and facilitators.
"2. State-of-the-Art Services: By 2027, research libraries will provide forward-looking, state-of-the-art services regarding collections, publishing, and curation of information and metadata. These services are relevant and tailor-made for user groups inside and outside academia.
"3. Shaping Open Science: By 2027, in collaboration with researchers, research libraries will stimulate, facilitate, co-develop, and manage Open Science infrastructures and practices.
"4. Upholding Rights & Values: By 2027, research libraries are to uphold public and academic values inside and outside of the research community.
"5. Space for Dialogue: By 2027, research libraries function as an inclusive and inspirational physical and virtual space, enabling interaction between individuals and facilitating dialogue.
"6. Open to Society: By 2027, research libraries play key roles in opening up science to society by taking up public engagement tasks within the field of science." https://libereurope.eu/article/outcomes-of-the-knowledge-cafe-at-liber-2021-annual-conference/

#WLIC2021 Themes for the future

At the WLIC conference last week IFLA President-elect Barbara Lison led a session identifying long term trends for librarians and libraries. Through a discussion and voting process the participants narrowed the original 10 topics down to 5. I think it is interesting to think of all of them in relation to information literacy: the "lifelong learners" priority springs out immediately, but information literacy has a contribution in all (and can be reflected on in relation to all of them):
- Virtual is here to stay: people continue to prefer to access library services remotely, putting into question the value of spaces and physical offerings
- Diversity gets taken seriously: a growing awareness of the existence and impacts of discrimination leads to a radical reform in our collections, services and practices
- An environmental reckoning: climate change brings new threats to libraries and the communities they serve, forcing radical adaptation in order to avoid disaster
- Lifelong learners: there is no such thing as a job for life any more, meaning that more and more people need to retrain throughout life. Libraries intensify learning activities in response
- Inequalities deepen: with technology creating new possibilities for those with access, the gap between them and those without grows, risking confining large shares of the population to poverty unless action is taken.
More information at https://www.ifla.org/node/94113

Photo by Sheila Webber: a big sky, August 2021

#Pledgetopause #MILCLICKS

Verified "was launched by the United Nations in response to the COVID crisis to cut through the noise to deliver life-saving information, fact-based advice and stories from the best of humanity" They work with a range of collaborators - some are civil society groups and some are rather familiar media companies like Facebook.
They have a number of campaigns and one of them is Pledge to Pause which is another slogan/ initiative that aims to encourage people to check information before they share it. They have some images and gifs like the one I'm using, that they encourage you to use on social media.

Global Media and Information Literacy Week theme #GlobalMILweek #MILCLICKS

The theme for the UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy Week (which takes place 24-31 October 2021) has been announced: Media and Information Literacy for the Public Good. It is hosted by South Africa, but will be primarily virtual, I think. There will be more details about the concept soon. Start planning your Global MIL week events if you haven't already!

Multicultural Libraries; Broadband Ecosystem; LIS Education

Three more topics that were publicised at the WLIC conference last week were:
(1) The IFLA/UNESCO Multicultural Library Manifesto (which is in 24 languages) https://www.ifla.org/node/8976?og=73 and the IFLA Multicultural Library toolkit (in English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Russian - French is being added shortly) https://www.ifla.org/node/8977
(2) Libraries in the broadband ecosystem - a useful page that links to statements and examples of libraries using broadband to extend and improve their service https://www.ifla.org/node/94070 and
(3) IFLA's Building Strong Library and Information Science Education (BSLISE) project https://bslise.org/map/

Photo by Sheila Webber: Bedding, July 2021

#WLIC2021 LIS Education and Information Literacy in The Developing Country

My final liveblog from the online IFLA World Library and Information Congress will be the session on LIS Education and Information Literacy in The Developing Country. (I intend to catch up in blogging a couple of the other sessions afterwards) 

Firstly Lan Nguyen ( Faculty of Library and Information Science, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Hanoi) talked about Integration of information literacy into undergraduate studies curriculum: A case study of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities Hanoi (Vietnam), reporting on a survey that she had done with 300 respondents. This compared responses of students who had and hadn't taken an information literacy course, and in the part that asked students to rate various aspects of their information literacy, there were slightly higher scores for those who had taken the course on each element. There was also an improvement in higher years of study. The course was based on the UNESCO definition of IL and the ACRL IL Standards. Future plans include emphasising critical thinking and Collaborative problem solving/ Content learning as outcomes of learning. Using realistic examples was also important.

Marta Bustillo, Paige Pope and Crystal Fulton (University College Dublin, Ireland) presented on University College Dublin's Research Accelerator for the Social Sciences Online Module: Information literacy to develop core research skills at undergraduate level. It was a cross-departmental partnership involving the School of Information & Communication Studies, School of Psychology & UCD Library. The key goal was Bring information literacy, specifically digital literacy skills, to the undergraduate research curriculum at UCD. The module had 6 units related to identifying a research topic, searching for literature, critical academic literacy, research ethics and research data management. The module was online and included reflection on each unit, and there was a focus on using the virtual learning environment as an interactive space. Other points that were made included: the importance of universal design for learning; sustainability of digital materials produced; the importance of planning; the value of collaboration and how it could be continued further. Someone in chat also mentioned these open information literacy materials (OERs) for business and economics students:https://www.econbiz.de/eb/en/research-skills/ 

Finally Andréa Doyle (PPGCI IBICT/UFRJ - RJ, Brazil) talked about Critical Information Literacy in Brazil: origins, state of the art and prospects, presenting on the topic of her PhD work. She started by talking briefly about developments in IL in Brazil, and then specifically Critical Information Literacy as manifested in Brazilian LIS literature. The first mention was in 2000, and the number has grown from there. From a search in Brapci (Brazilian Information Science Database) and BDTD (Brazilian Database of Dissertations and Thesis) Doyle found 23 papers and 3 master’s dissertations, which are mostly theoretical, influenced by the Frankfurt and Paulo Freire's work. This differs from developments in North America, where Critical Information Literacy tended to be developed and written about by librarians. Doyle saw both advantages (bringing critical theories into discussion) and disadvantages (mainly a deparation from library practice). She finished by defining Critical Information Literacy thus "Critical information/media/digital literacy is the continuous development of a critical relationship with the convergent and connected information environment. Critical = to question and deconstruct systems of oppression"

#WLIC2021 Public Library Manifesto

At the IFLA World Library and Information Congress yesterday there was a session on the revision of the IFLA Public Library Manifesto and the consultation process so far. "IFLA’s Public Library Section launched a survey in 2020 to gather ideas and feedback from librarians around the world" and got 600 responses. People were positive about the manifesto, and so it will not be completely rewritten, but updated to take account of current and future issues, in particular "the public library’s role in enabling knowledge societies through helping communities access, produce, create, and share knowledge equitably"; issues to do with remote access; and outlining libraries' role in Sustainable Development.
The full statement is here https://www.ifla.org/node/94069

#WLIC2021 Combatting Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation and Fake News

Continuing some liveblogging from the online IFLA World Library and Information Congress today (my first post, where I originally used the wrong hashtag, is here). This session was on Librarians on the Front Lines: Combatting Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation and Fake News, organised by the IFLA Reference and Information Services Section.

Liz Jack (Executive Director, Libraries Tasmania, Australia) talked about Media literacy in an island state. They have been working on media literacy for about a year. They started with raising awareness amongst their 400 staff members, with a core team producing some workshop material that got people talking about roles and issues, and challenging ideas. They created a portal that people could use for independent learning, or learning in teams, including informal, semi-formal and formal learning. Some staff realised that they didn't know as much as they thought they did (e.g. a quote "I realise I have been living in a bubble with blinkers on"). As well as realising the importance for their own roles as librarians, staff also saw the importance for the public. They are working with the University of Tasmania, the Australian library association (ALIA) and other national networks, to share resources, training etc. They are going to organise events for Global Media and Information Literacy week. They are pushing for a national media and information literacy strategy in Australia. Jack emphasised the importance of having leadership at the top, finding champions and keep learning! 

Next Augusta Giovannoli (Digital development manager, Biblioteca Civica Multimediale Archimede, Italy) presented on a digital literacy project - Digital knowledge: Digital culture in public library. This has the goal of raising awareness of citizens, developing libraries capabilities in digital, media and information literacy, and "getting librarians out of their bubbles". The focus has been on training courses, which are free, and libraries (which can be any type e.g. public, education) offer to host them. There have been about 40 courses (with about 1000 participants) initially physically-based but virtual since COVID19, and the teaching teams include people who are expert in social media etc. The project website (in Italian) is here http://www.saperedigitale.org Giovannoli also described collaborative work with 10 libraries on Open the Box training and resources to do with misinformation.

Leonardo Ripoll (Researcher Librarian at Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, Coordinator of CIDAD) talked about Libraries combatting misinformation: The Commission for Informational Reliability and Misinformation combat in the digital Environment (CIDAD). CIDAD is an outreach project covering topics such as information literacy, misinformation, critical thinking. Outreach is achieved though such activities as creating materials and providing training. These include "how to spot fake news" bookmark, critical reading workshop and ebook. 

Finally Lesley S Farmer (Professor of Library Media - California State University Long Beach, USA) talked about creating a fake news webquest, which was embedded in the Calfornia School LIbrary Association website - it is here https://csulblis.libguides.com/FakeNewsLibGuide

There was a discussion session afterwards where questions included: (1) how can you tell whether training has been successful (this included finding out whether learners/participants were able to act in a more information literate way, more aware of fake news etc., whether they made better decisions; also whether people were returning for more training or recommending it; whether they were asking questions that showed their engagement in training). (2) How do you get people to engage with the resources you created. Responses included: connecting the issue with something in people's everyday lives; gamification; showing that you need practice and then it is simple; getting schoolchildren to discuss news stories. As part of the discussion I mentioned this book that I have seen recommended How algorithms create and prevent fake news. Also someone from the US National Library of Medicine mentioned this resource Identifying Credible Sources of Health Information in Social Media: Principles and Attributes

#WLIC2021 Access to health information as a human right

From today until Thursday I will be attending some sessions of the IFLA World Library and Information Congress, which this year takes place online. I will liveblog a few sessions. It is a truly international conference and each day is scheduled to fit with a different time zone: the first in a European/ South African time zone, the second in an American time zone and the third day in the Asia-Pacific time zone. This means that I will miss the end of the second day and a lot of the third day, but I really think it is an equitable way of approaching timing.

The first session I'll blog is on Access to health information as a human right: A global call to action and practical steps.
Neil Pakenham-Walsh (coordinator of the HIFA global health movement, Healthcare Information For All) identified that "Misinformation is a symptom not the disease" with the problem being the dysfunction of the global healthcare information system - this is an important point that I think isn't tackled often enough in anti-misinformation campaigns. He said that "We cannot tackle misinformation unless we improve the availability of reliable healthcare information". There is a need for high level commitment. Pakenham-Walsh pointed out that medical profession is already supportive internationally (a participant posted a BMJ editorial on WMA Statement: https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m759.full), and it is the governments that are "far behind" even though under international human rights agreements they have an obligation to provide healthcare information. Pakenham-Walsh said that one of the most shocking aspects of the COVOD19 pandemic has been heads of states themselves spreading misinformation.
Margaret Zimmerman (School of Information at Florida State University) continued the theme of health information as a human right, highlighting differences in the way in which governments have, or have not, spread accurate health information about the pandemic. Thus it is also a violation of human rights to ignore or obscure quality health information. However there have been proclamations from governments or heads of state which promote misinformation or hinder the spread of quality information. Zimmerman called for library and information professionals to act to make a difference in this area, advocating and working for health information, and supporting development of health literacy inside and outside the library.
Ola El Zein (Director of the Medical Library and lecturer at the American University of Beirut) talked about Building a public resource centre for credible information, referring to the COVID-19 resource center. El Zein again emphasised library and information professionals' obligation and role to work for the application of the human right to quality healthcare. Immediate practical action can include creating reliable resources & training others and advocacy can involve bringing together stakeholders: El Zein gave examples of how she has engaged with both these aspects, drawing on her expertise and position.
Finally Blessing Mawire (Knowledge and Information management specialist based in Pretoria, South Africa) talked about Adaptation of Information Professionals in the evolving global health needs, identifying some of the skills required e.g. packaging the results of systematic reviews for different groups of people, including those in different communities. Mawire talked about both technology skills and people skills (including emotional intelligence and collaboration). She again talked about advocacy skills, for example writing persuasive policy papers, as well as technical writing skills.
After the presentations there was a question session in Zoom, and a few points that came out were: the importance of librarians understanding what constituted good research (as that supports understanding and promotion of good health information) and the need for advocacy skills; the need for a global action plan for health information (e.g. like the WHO's Global Patient Safety action plan) - this needs political commitment. The role of librarians in bringing people to the discussion table (not just being at the table) was stressed. The folllowing link was also posted in chat, to a multicultural health website https://www.mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au/
A summary of this session and responses to other questions will be added to the IFLA E4GDH pages.

#FestivIL presentations and recordings

The archive for the FestivIL by LILAC event (held in July) is available on the LILAC website. The archive contains links to all the pre-recorded content, including our main stage speakers Emily Drabinski, Barbara Fister and Alison Hicks with students from UCL, plus presentation slides and posters from the event (live sessions were not recorded). The archive is open to all, whether you attended FestivIL or not https://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-archive/festivil-by-lilac-2021
The pre-recorded videos are on the FestivIL Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNURkbkVe5bZY_2SRNlD_l9D_n31B3mzG

The GO-GN Research Methods Handbook

An open access research methods handbook has been created by a team at the Open University, including insights from PhD students who are researching open education topics:
Farrow, R., Iniesto, F., Weller, M. & Pitt., R. (2020). The GO-GN Research Methods Handbook. Open Education Research Hub. The Open University, UK. CC-BY 4.0. https://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/research-methods-handbook/ You can also download  and use the images in the handbook (including a number of cute cartoon penguins, as well as the front cover, right) 

Aberystwyth University Library Teachmeet 2021: How Do Libraries Support Researchers? /Dysgwrdd Llyfrgell Prifysgol Aberystwyth 2021: Sut Mae Llyfrgelloedd yn Cefnogi Ymchwil?

The Aberystwyth University Library Teachmeet 2021: How Do Libraries Support Researchers? will be held on MS Teams, on 23 November 2021. They call for contributions from both library staff and the research community, including students. They want to address the following themes
- Librarians: How does the library at your organization support research? What methods have you employed to discover the needs of researchers and what have you found? How have you developed your own range of skills to be relevant to the researchers to whom you offer support and training?
- Researchers: Are you a research student or member of research staff who has taken up library support? What can librarians learn from you to develop and market their support and training offer?
Presentations can be pre-recorded or delivered live. To register, please complete this short survey (which is in Welsh and English) https://aber.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/dysgwrdd-llyfrgell-202
If you have questions please email librarians@aber.ac.uk with the subject line: Teachmeet 2021
Photo by Sheila Webber: Greenwich Park, July 2021

Beyond Search

For those of you interested in search and search engines, the blog of long-time search expert Stephen Arnold will be of interest, if you haven't come across it already http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/ Called Beyond Search it is his own take on what's happening, with a lot of insights, critique and links to other interesting opinions/information (for example his blog post of 9 August 2021 on Google  http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2021/08/09/google-search-an-intriguing-observation/)

Photo by Sheila Webber: an echinacea I think, July 2021

Short courses on FOSIL

School libraries expert Elizabeth Hutchinson has created two moodle courses Exploring and understanding the IFLA School Library Guidelines and FOSIL (Framework Of Skills for Inquiry Learning) and Approaching and Working with Teachers using FOSIL. Each costs £40, which gains you access for 2 months, and a certificate on course completion. Hutchinson says "All of these courses contain videos created by me and includes simple tasks to check your understanding. These courses take roughly 2-3hours to complete." Go to https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/moodlecourses
Photo by Sheila Webber: tree ferns as bedding plants, July 2021

India National Librarian's Day - celebrating Ranganathan

The Library Division, Social Development Federation, India, celebrates National Librarian's Day 2021, and also the Anniversary of the birth of library pioneer and thought-leader Padmashree Dr S.R. Ranganathan, with a webinar on the Relevance of Ranganathan's Philosophy and Laws of Library Science in Present Scenario on 12 August 2021 5pm-6pm IST (which starts, e.g. 12.30 UK time, 7.30am US Eastern time). It will be broadcast live on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYhDteX8vi1082mHQGZP0qQ and you can also register at https://forms.gle/tfzaMiRMQB5jCEhv8. Invited Chief Guest and Speakers are: Chief Guest: Prof. A.P. Singh, Director, General, RRMRF & National Library of India, Kolkata; Speaker-1: Dr. Naushad Ali PM, Professor (Former Chairman), Dept. of Library and Information Science, AMU. Aligarh, UP.; Speaker-2: Dr. Margam Madhusudhan, Professor & Former Dy Dean), Dept. of Library and Information Science, University of Delhi, Delhi. There is more information about Ranganathan here and here, and you can see the full text of The five laws of library science here.

Media and Information Literate (MIL) Cities network

An interesting initiative is the Media and Information Literate (MIL) Cities network, which is grounded in the UNESCO MIL Cities framework that was developed in 2018/9. The network has a Facebook hub here https://www.facebook.com/milcitiesnetwork, where they "talk about UNESCO's MIL (Media and Information Literacy) approach and how it can be applied in cities. We will discuss the indicators and metrics needed to be a MIL city." They have had webinars, which are generally in English or Portuguese, and you can see recordings on the Facebook page.

Instructional Technologies and the Effects of COVID-19 on Library Instruction

Thre is a series of free e-forum discussions on the topic of Instructional Technologies and the Effects of COVID-19 on Library Instruction, taking place on August 24th and 25th 2021, between 10am and 6pm US Eastern time (which is, for example, 3pm-11pm UK time) each day. It is moderated by Breanne Kirsch (University Librarian at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa, USA) and Melissa Johnson (Instructional Design Librarian, Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, USA). "Join the Core Instructional Technologies Interest Group to discuss some of your favorite technology tools that are related to instruction. We will also be discussing the potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on library instruction. There will be 8 questions to answer during this E-Forum about instructional technologies and how they can be used in libraries and how COVID-19 has affected library instruction. Participate by answering the questions from August 24-25, or read other’s responses.
How does it work? "The e-forum discussion list works like an email listserv: register your email address with the list, and then you will receive messages and communicate with other participants through an email discussion."
Registration for e-forums is necessary to participate. "Once you have registered for one e-forum, you do not need to register again, unless you choose to leave the list." Go to http://www.ala.org/core/continuing-education/e-forum-instructions and email core-eforum+help@groups.io for help. It says "Your request will be approved within 1-2 business days" but I got an immediate response (you have to reply to an email) - however, best not to leave it til the 24th to join!

Photo by Sheila Webber: Greenwich Park, late July 2021

Habits of Mind survey

A researcher is seeking participants (if you are "a library worker who teaches information literacy concepts regularly as part of your job") for a questionnaire. It is a "survey about your familiarity and experience with Costa & Kallick's 16 habits of mind. In this exploratory study, I hope to identify the most common habits of mind from Costa & Kallick's list that information literacy specialists associate with information literacy skill development and to determine both if and how these habits of mind are intentionally addressed in information literacy instructional settings. The survey will collect basic information about your experience teaching information literacy content but will primarily focus on your familiarity and experience with these habits of mind. You do not need to be familiar with habits of mind as a concept or with Costa & Kallick's specifically identified habits of mind to participate in this survey. In fact, responses from those unfamiliar with these ideas will provide a more accurate picture of how they are understood among library workers." The survey closes on October 31, 2021). The researcher is Jenny Dale, jedale2@uncg.edu The link to the survey is at http://uncg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_50xccfZWNzs5V78

Photo by Sheila Webber: HYdrangea, July 2021

New articles: Data Literacy; the WHY method; IL of first gen students; Librarians as teachers

The latest issue of open-access College and Research Libraries (vol 82 no 5) at https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/issue/view/1602/showToc has the following articles:
- Making Sense of Student Source Selection: Using the WHY Method to Analyze Authority in Student Research Bibliographies by Frank Lambert, Mary Thill, James W. Rosenzweig (WHY= Who wrote each source, How it was edited, and whY it was published)
- Exploring Social Sciences Students’ Perceptions on Information Literacy and the Use of Mobile Technologies in Higher Education by Maria Pinto, Dora Sales, Rosaura Fernández-Pascual, David Caballero-Mariscal
- The Impact of Basic Data Literacy Skills on Work-Related Empowerment: The Alumni Perspective by Marek Deja, Aneta Januszko-Szakiel, Paloma Korycińska, Paulina Deja
- Assessing the Information Literacy Skills of First-Generation College Students by Sarah LeMire, Zhihong Xu, Douglas Hahn, Valerie Balester, Leroy G. Dorsey
- Open but Not for All: A Survey of Open Educational Resource Librarians on Accessibility by Teresa Auch Schultz, Elena Azadbakht
- Using Machine Learning to Predict Chat Difficulty by Jeremy Walker, Jason Coleman 

The previous issue vol 82 no. 4 included
- Epistemology of Teaching Librarians: Examining the Translation of Beliefs to Practice by Mary K. Oberlies, Maoria J. Kirker, Janna Mattson, Jason Byrd
- Preparing the Instructional Librarian: Representation of ACRL Roles and Strengths in MLS Course Descriptions by Sandra J. Valenti, Brady D. Lund
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea July 2021