Monday, October 31, 2022

Global Media and Information Literacy Week final day #GlobalMILweek

Today's main events included a virtual conference featuring voices of young people from around the world, with the theme Global Media and Information Literacy Week meets World Cities Day (Youth). You can find the full recording on Facebook at https://fb.watch/gw1pWNopyF/ on the MILCLICKS Facebook page.

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Projects for media literacy funded

The United Kingdom's Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has celebrated Global Media and Information Literacy Week by announcing funding for 17 organisations to fund media literacy projects. The focus is on combatting misinformation and it is "part of the government’s Online Media Literacy Strategy to help people be safe online". You can find the details at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/help-for-vulnerable-people-to-spot-disinformation-and-boost-online-safety

Friday, October 28, 2022

Abuja Declaration on Financing Media and Information Literacy #GlobalMILWeek #MILclicks

Yesterday in the Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) week feature conference they released the Abuja Declaration on Financing Media and Information Literacy. At the moment there seems to be just the draft available. This includes exhortations to governements to fund MIL education, especially for young people.
“We urge ... Governments around the world to articulate national media and information literacy policies that will serve as a comprehensive guide in articulating the implementation of media and information literacy initiatives across all levels of governance.”
“We further call upon governments from national to city level, as well as intergovernmental organizations to ... Allocate specific budgets to the developing of Media and Information Literacy programs, with respect to the educational laws or any other regulatory framework that guides the workings of its national/regional/local education systems...”
Find it at https://www.unesco.org/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2022/10/abuja_declaration_financing_mil_drafting_committee_21oct2022.pdf

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Webinar: Untold Stories: Information practices #ICT4D #GlobalMILweek

A free webinar on 28 October 2022 at 10.00-11.00 BST (UK time: see https://tinyurl.com/28Oct22time for times elsewhere).
Dr Viviane Hessami
(Monash University, Australia) will present her research: The Use of Notebooks by Bangladeshi Village Women to Backup Digital Data and
Dr Sara Vannini
(University of Sheffield, UK) will present on The information practices and politics of migrant-aid work in the US-Mexico borderlands.
The webinar is chaired by Dr Andrea Jimenez (Information School, University of Sheffield, UK).
The webinar is organised by ASIS&T’s European Chapter & The Information School, University of Sheffield. It also celebrates Global Media and Information Literacy Week (24-31 October 2022).
The Zoom link for the session is given in this flyer: https://tinyurl.com/28Oct22flyer  

About Dr Viviane Hessami:
Dr Hessami is a Lecturer and Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow in the Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia. She is researching the information access and information preservation needs and preferences of marginalised rural communities with the aim to design a framework for culturally-sensitive and gender-sensitive information dissemination and information preservation. Viviane has multidisciplinary expertise in archival science, political science, Asian studies and community informatics. https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/viviane-hessami
Hessami's presentation will highlight the importance of planning for the sustainability of information and supporting grassroots initiatives to preserve information when working with marginalized communities. The presentation will bring up untold stories of marginalized communities who used simple analogue technologies to backup information provided to them in digital form in an ICT4D project in rural Bangladesh. This will illustrate the importance of information sustainability for marginalized communities who have limited access to information and the need to use methods that are culturally-sensitive when providing information to marginalized communities.
About Dr Sara Vannini:

Dr Vannini is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield Information School, UK. Her research is at the intersection of critical studies of technology and society, information and communication technologies and social change, and information ethics. In particular,she focuses on social appropriation of technologies, information privacy in the context of migration, the role of public access to information in mis/dis-information, online learning, and participatory and visual methodologies of inquiry. http://www.saravannini.com/wordpress/
In her presentation, Vannini will address the issue of information sharing in a situation where there are strong privacy and confidentiality issues.Organizers and volunteers work across organizational boundaries to provide humanitarian aid to undocumented migrants along the US-Mexico border and share information informally. However, resistance to information-sharing between organizations (and to the public), especially through technologically mediated means, is common, because of the need to protect the privacy and confidentiality of migrants. Vannini will discuss the strategies employed and underlying issues.

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Global Media and Information Literacy Week: panels on libraries & education #GlobalMILweek

We are on day 2 of Global Media and Information Literacy week, and it is still possible to register for the online feature conference.
On Wednesday 26th October, the sessions include a panel on Global conversations – Media and Information Literacy, libraries and trust (at 10.00 Paris time) and at 11.30 Paris time Global conversation with teachers on Media and Information Literacy and trust with speakers: Ramon R. Tuazon, President, Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC), Philippines; Cheung Chi Kim, Professor & Author, Media Literacy Education, China; Paulette A Kerr, Lecturer, University of the West Indies, Member, Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue University Network, Jamaica; Andrew Whitworth, Director of Teaching and Learning Strategy, Manchester Institute of Education, United Kingdom; Dinara Sagatova, Media and Information Literacy Teacher, Nazarbayev Intellectual School, Kazakhstan.
Go to https://www.unesco.org/en/media-information-literacy-week

Monday, October 24, 2022

Free webinar: New Voices in Information Literacy: #GlobalMILWeek

The Forum on Information Literacy (FOIL: of which I am a member) has orgainsed a free webinar as part of Global Media and Information Literacy Week, which starts today.
Date: Thursday 27th October 2022; 16.00-17.00 UK time.
Title: New Voices in Information Literacy.
"An online webinar introducing five early researchers from Masters and PhD study in the UK. This event celebrates the breadth of research in information literacy in the UK, from school librarians in Kuwait to the use of Wikipedia in higher education, Instagram, and infographics, to emotion in information literacy in research and climate change and misinformation. The speakers are students in UK at University of Sheffield, Manchester Metropolitan University and UCL and will be speaking about their dissertation and thesis work."
Chair: Dr Pamela McKinney (University of Sheffield Information School), presenters are:
- Reham Alhuraiti (University College London UCL)  Information Literacy Perspectives and practices of Kuwait’s Government Intermediate School Librarians
- Delphine Doucet (University of Sunderland/ University of Sheffield) Authority of historical knowledge: Wikipedia and Higher education
- Alex Hewitt (University College London UCL)  What Role Can Affect And Emotion Play In Academic And Research Information Literacy Practices?
- Lawrence Brannon (Manchester Metropolitan University) Researching Gamification within Immersive Journalism and i-docs.
- Ella Burrows (University College London UCL) Sharing in the echo chamber: Examining Instagram users’ engagement with infographics through the frame of digital literacy
Register here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-voices-in-information-literacy-tickets-443934679577

Friday, October 21, 2022

Webinar: Media literacy activities and resources for librarians

A free webinar on 24 November 2022 14.15-15.00 UK time (GMT) is Media literacy activities and resources for librarians, with presentation by the Behind the Headlines iniative "The Guardian Foundation’s NewsWise and Behind the Headlines have a range of fun and engaging activities and resources that can be used to support young people aged 7-18 in a variety of different contexts and environments. In this special session for librarians we will share structured activities that you can adapt and replicate with families and young people as well as ready-to-go individual resources and ideas. " Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/media-literacy-activities-and-resources-for-librarians-tickets-435658776127

Photo by Sheila Webber: Lost owl plush, September 2022. Part of the lost item series.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Call for proposals: #ECIL2023

There has been a first Call for Papers for the 8th European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL) which will be held 9-12 October 2023 in Krakow, Poland. It is co-organised by the Department of Information Management of Hacettepe University (Turkey), Department of Information and Communication Sciences of Zagreb University (Croatia), the Information Literacy Association and the hosts, Jagiellonian University (Poland). The main theme is  Experiencing Information and Information Literacy. The conference management system opens in November 2022 and the submission deadline is 22 January 2023.
"ECIL aims to bring together researchers, information professionals, media specialists, educators, policy makers and all other related parties from around the world to exchange knowledge and experience and discuss recent developments and current challenges in both theory and practice." You can make a proposal for:  full papers, posters, PechaKucha, best practices, workshops, panels, invited talks, and doctoral forum. Essentially, any topic connected with information literacy is relevant to the conference. There is more detail on the conference website:  http://ecil2023.ilconf.org/

Social justice; Citations in marketing assignments

A couple of recent articles:
- Bussmann, J. D., Altamirano, I. M., Hansen, S., Johnson, N. E., & Keer, G. (2022). Science librarianship and social justice: Part four capstone concepts. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, 100. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/istl/index.php/istl/article/view/2697/2711 The concepts summarised here include Social Justice Pedagogies and Universal Design. (open access)

 - Gil, E.L. (2022). A citation analysis of MBA bibliographies: A case study. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship [early online publication] https://doi.org/10.1080/08963568.2022.2129275
"This research was initiated to identify the type of sources that online MBA students in a required marketing class cited in their final papers. It also sought to discover whether they included any of the Libraries’ subscription databases in their bibliographies, especially IBISWorld and ReferenceUSA, which were the focus of two asynchronous video tutorials that were created for this course. The author used citation analysis to do this. Results showed that students overwhelmingly used Company websites."

Monday, October 17, 2022

#LOEX2023 call for proposals

There is a call for proposals for the major USA information literacy conference, LOEX, which will be held 11-13 May, 2023 in Harrisburg, USA. The deadline for submissions is 28 November 2022. You can submit 2 types of proposal
- "Presentation: A 50-minute session that includes time for a 40-45 minute presentation and 5-10 minutes of question and answer. Most feature a successful program, practice or key issue related to instruction or information literacy. Presenter(s) should include in the proposal a description of the topic and an outline of the presentation. Based on past experience, sessions can have as few as 25 people or as many as 125.
- "Interactive Workshops: A 50-minute session where the presenter facilitates a learning experience in which attendees develop or explore teaching and/or research techniques. Presenters are expected to facilitate a well-planned and interactive session. Proposals should include a description of the topic and details on how the presenter will make this session a "hands-on" experience for attendees. Workshops are intended for an audience typically of 30-60 people, but can be as high as 90"
More information at https://www.loexconference.org/breakout-proposals/

Friday, October 14, 2022

Call for proposals: Panel of Universal Design for Learning

The American Library Association (ALA) Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) is seeking panelists for the LIRT Conference Program at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, USA (physical conference) which will be held 22-27 June 2023. The session title is Universal design for learning: planning for all learners, and "Proposals received by Thursday, December 1st will receive first priority".
"Universal design for learning is an educational framework that optimizes teaching to accommodate all learners through multiple means of representation, expression, and action & engagement. By creating accessible, inclusive learning experiences, libraries of all types can provide more equitable library services and support for learners through intentional, proactive, and reflective practices. In this session, participants will learn how librarians from different library types are incorporating universal design for learning into their instruction, whether in-person and/or online, to help reduce barriers and encourage learning."
Registration form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdp_str3ohUmRMYzu-g2FqiwMmnpiK-DsRa97enGoQHQNeUaA/viewform
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn leaves, October 2022

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Five ways media and journalists can support climate action while tackling misinformation

A recent story on the United Nations site is: Five ways media and journalists can support climate action while tackling misinformation https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129162
The 5 ways (explained in more detail in the article) are:
1. Stop being so (overly) dramatic
2. A climate change story goes beyond (the) climate
3. Get local and think more about climate justice
4. Build trust and engagement that can combat dis/misinformation
5. Be guided by science
It also cite the UN Climate communication guidelines at https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/communicating-climate-change
Photo by Sheila Webber: oak leaves, October 2022

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Call for papers: place of teaching in academic librarians' work

The Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship (CJAL) wants submissions for a special issue on the place of teaching in academic librarians' work. CJAL is open access and peer-reviewed, published by the Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (CAPAL). Initially they are calling for abstracts of proposed papers, deadline 20 December 2022.
"Librarians teach. It might not be what we planned to do when we entered the profession, or it may have been our secret hope all along. Either way, we teach. (Oakleaf et al. 2012, 6) Teaching has become a core activity in academic libraries over the last decades, but librarians may find their teaching role to be a complicated one. Formal instruction largely began in the 1960s and 1970s as a grassroots movement led by librarians rather than library administrators or library schools (Mellon 1987), and some librarians still feel their library administrations do not understand or value their teaching.
"New librarians may still feel their education has left them unprepared for teaching. At the same time, some administrations are now creating dedicated teaching units and high-level administrative positions focused on teaching and learning, as well as providing greater support for learning to teach. Many librarians identify as teachers or educators as well as librarians, but may not consider themselves as teachers in the same way as faculty, and may not consistently define their work as teaching (Davis, Lundstrom, and Martin 2011).
"Some may feel anxious or ambiguous about the role (Lundstrom, Fagerheim, and Van Geen 2021; Mattson, Kirker, Oberlies, and Byrd 2017). We invite authors to contribute to these ongoing conversations by submitting proposals for inclusion in this special issue of CJAL. Both big picture and narrow focus on specific contexts/topics are welcome, including conceptual pieces, empirical studies, and case studies of practice. "
Proposals (maximum 800 words plus references) should be sent as email attachments to can.j.acad.lib@gmail.com by December 20, 2022.More information at https://cjal.ca/index.php/capal/announcement/view/872.
Photo by Sheila Webber: more scattered birch leaves, October 2022

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

PRIMO seeks information literacy tutorials

The Peer Reviewed Instructional Materials Online (PRIMO) Committee of the ACRL Instruction Section invites people to submit their "online information literacy tutorial, virtual tour, or other online library instruction project for review and possible inclusion in PRIMO: Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online." The deadline for nominations is 31 October 2022. You can nominate your own work or some other site. If you get selected you are interviewed and featured on the ACRL Instruction Section website. There is more information at https://acrl.ala.org/IS/instruction-tools-resources-2/pedagogy/primo-peer-reviewed-instruction-materials-online/

Monday, October 10, 2022

Webinar: Fighting back the Infodemic: CPD opportunities and initiatives for LIS professionals #GlobalMILweek

A free webinar on 25 October 2022 at 10.00 UK time is Fighting back the Infodemic: CPD opportunities and initiatives for LIS professionals "In this webinar you will learn more about infodemic as a concept and how we went from fake news to infodemic in the last five years; about training initiatives at the World Health Organization (WHO) and the ASEAN-USAID PROSPECT in Jakarta, Indonesia. You will also hear the clarion call on the role of the librarian in advocacy and the skills needed to fight infodemic and infobesity. "
This webinar is organized by IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workforce Learning (CPDWL) Section in support of the Global Media and Information Literacy Week (Oct 24–31). 
Register at  https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WK8l3FeYQUmRtMakzE_sbg#/registration More information at ifla.org/jD70t

Friday, October 07, 2022

Call for papers #LILAC23

The call for proposals for LILAC 2023, the UK's The Information Literacy Conference, is now open. LILAC will take place 19-21 April 2023, and is a physical conference at the University of Cambridge, UK. The deadline for proposals is 17.00 UK time 16 November 2022 (and they are strict!)
They welcome "proposals which address information literacy from all sectors and contexts. In 2023 we invite you to present on any aspect of information literacy, there are no specific themes. We ask that your presentation makes explicit reference to your innovative practice or research in information literacy.... LILAC is committed to encouraging diversity at the conference and we would specifically like to encourage proposals from members of the BAME community and other under-represented communities and sectors."
You can submit: short or long presentations; workshops; panel discussions; "wildcards" (a format different from what they have suggested), and there will also be TeachMeet & poster presentations. There is a 'Writing a conference presentation abstract for LILAC 2023' workshop on Friday 14th October, 2-3pm BST (online). "This workshop will explore the different types of presentations you can submit and what proposals for these should include. We will be showing some "best practice" guidance as well as answering pre-submitted questions from attendees."
For details go to https://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-2023/call-for-presentations

Thursday, October 06, 2022

Google Search Power Hour

An online workshop from search expert Phil Bradley on 20 October 12 noon - 13.00 UK time is Google Search Power Hour. The cost is £35.
"Are you getting as much out of Google as you possibly can? Google offers many different search options which are not automatically obvious, and if you don’t know what and where are they, you are condemned to a life of poor searching!"
"In this Zoom run online Power Hour you will learn not only the basics of constructing an effective Google search, but you’ll also have the opportunity to see the advanced search functionality that Google offers." "Why attend? At the end of the hour you will have learned how to streamline your search techniques, leading to faster and more effective results. You’ll save time when searching and you’ll be able to trust the results that you’re getting!
"What’s a Power Hour? Power Hour training is designed to give you exactly 60 minutes of high-value content. Delegates may ask questions in the chat log, and if I can answer them directly I will, but if not the questions andanswers will be addressed via email to all delegates after the session. Delegates will also receive a copy of the PowerPoint presentation used as the basis of the session. If delegates wish to record the session for their own personal use later they are welcome to do so."
Register and pay via Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/google-search-power-hour-tickets-412737297367 Questions to informationtrainingteam@gmail.com

Photo by Sheila Webber: birch leaves, October 2022

Wednesday, October 05, 2022

New articles: Information behaviour in HCI; Social networking & HIV/AIDS; Information resources in Nigerian libraries

There is a new issue of the open access journal Information Research (volume 27 issue 3). It includes:
- Harriet U. Igbo, Ijeoma J. Ibegbulam, Brendan E. Asogwa, and Nwabuisi T. Imo. Provision of digital information resources in Nigerian university libraries
- Hamid R. Jamali and Majid Nabavi. The use of information behaviour research in human-computer interactionThe use of information behaviour research in human-computer interaction
- Azam Bazrafshani, Sirous Panahi, Hamid Sharifi, and Effat Merghati-Khoei. Drivers and barriers of using online social networking technologies among people living with HIV/AIDS in Iran
- Bradley Wade Bishop and Hannah R. Collier. Fitness for use of data: scientists' heuristics of discovery and reuse behaviour framed by the FAIR Data Principles
Go to http://informationr.net/ir/27-3/infres273.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: "Lost item" series: lost plush owl, October 2022

Webinar: Being Present, Supporting Presence: Ideas for Online Teaching and Facilitation

There is a free webinar organised by the ACRL Contemplative Pedagogy Interest Group on 13 October 13 2022 at 2pm US Eastern time (which is, e.g., 7pm UK time): Being Present, Supporting Presence: Ideas for Online Teaching and Facilitation. It is presented by Rebecca French and Jody Fagan (James Madison University Libraries, USA) "Although many campuses are returning to in-person classes and meetings, plenty of libraries are still holding events online. How can you as a facilitator or teacher be more fully present when leading or teaching online? How can you support attendees' ability to be present themselves, and for all to find human-to-human connection in virtual spaces?
"This program will cover: Planning and preparation work to support your presence as a facilitator and the needs of the group, considering the learning objectives or meeting goals; Activities for opening and closing online events in a way that invites presence and connection; Practices for maintaining presence throughout the meeting or class; Challenges and potential pitfalls that can arise when opening up opportunities to be present with one another.
"Attendees can expect interaction and reflection throughout this session, as well as the opportunity to share and learn from colleagues' experiences with bringing more presence to online meetings, classes, and other gatherings. The speakers will draw from their experience in academic libraries, but content may be adaptable for other postsecondary education contexts." The zoom link is given at https://connect.ala.org/acrl/discussion/new-zoom-information-for-cpig-program-on-1013-being-present-supporting-presence-ideas-for-online-teaching-and-facilitation
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn cosmos, September 2022

Monday, October 03, 2022

Indigenous voices informing academic information literacy

An interesting full text Masters thesis I just noticed:
Ford, J.T. (2022). Indigenous voices informing academic information literacy: critical discourses, relationality, and indigeneity for the good of the whole. (MLIS thesis) University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
Abstract "Instructional librarianship in public post-secondary institutions requires that librarians be responsive to a diversity of paradigms and student needs, including Indigenous contexts. Although constrained by institutional infrastructures, Indigenous research methodologies and epistemologies provide frameworks for Indigenous librarians and students to practice and support inquiry in ways that are responsive to their culturally-specific needs. Currently, research in the field of library and information science about how Indigenous research methodologies and epistemologies can support academic librarianship is limited, especially concerning how Indigenous voices can inform information literacy as a whole. For this study, 4 Indigenous LIS and academic professionals and an Apache-Comanche Elder were interviewed. These semi-structured interviews were then analyzed to better understand how Indigenous voices can inform information literacy in the public academy. Responses were coded using thematic analysis. Results demonstrate that Indigenous voices can inform information literacy in consideration of relevancy, value neutrality, positionality, through being critical of hegemonic infrastructures including technology, prioritizing native voices, braiding knowledge systems, and centering relationality. These results hold implications for strategic planning, curriculum development, and informing social paradigms that support Indigenous people in post-secondary education while addressing issues in modernity for the good of the whole."
https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/6f65acc4-e195-44e2-92cc-68f81671c2f1/content
Photo by Sheila Webber: the first apples picked from my tree (red devils), September 2022

Saturday, October 01, 2022

Call for papers: Library and information studies in the climate crisis

There is a call from the  Nordic Journal of Library and Information Studies (NJLIS), for articles on the theme of Library and information studies in the climate crisis. The deadline for full papers is 28 February, 2023.
"As people and institutions struggle to make sense of new ecological realities, LIS scholars can make an important contribution to addressing these ongoing crises by contributing to a conceptually informed understanding of how people in different roles and various social actors create, engage with, make sense of, implement or reject environmental information. What kind of environmental information practices are prevalent among different social groups and why? How do people interact with information with regards to climate-related issues? How do libraries as institutions transform their practices in the wake of the climate crisis? To what extent can we speak of emerging environmental literacies? What is the role of search engines in highlighting environment-related search queries?" There are a lot of suggested themes including: Search engines and environmental information;  Environmental information practices; Environmental literacy; The role of algorithmic platforms in shaping environmental information;  Information avoidance and climate chang.
For more information go to https://tidsskrift.dk/njlis/announcement/view/1020
Photo by Sheila Webber: squirrel in search of autumn nuts, September 2022