Webinar: From In-Person to Online & Back Again: Converting Information Literacy Instruction Between Formats

There is a free LiLi Show and Tell session on 13 December 2023 at 10.00 US Pacific time (which is, e.g. 18.00 UK time) From In-Person to Online & Back Again: Converting Information Literacy Instruction Between Formats, presented by Monica Maher (Online Learning & Education Librarian, University of Nebraska Omaha, USA).
"Continuous assessment and editing of information literacy instruction is essential to assure our students are meeting their learning outcomes. Over the last three years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, many aspects of our lives and jobs have been altered. It comes as no surprise then, that our lesson plans must change as well! This session will focus on one librarian’s reflections about converting information literacy instruction for undergraduate and graduate students from in-person, to online, and then back to in-person again. How to gain meaningful faculty collaboration, tips and tricks for identifying the best format for your instruction, sustainability best practices, and lessons learned will be discussed."
Register at https://northampton-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYkc-GtrjwpHtdhLnVPeshBXbJ8BuUxAsHe

Photo by Sheila Webber: Montmartre museum gardens, November 2023

Call for Proposals: Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue research grants

The Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue University, USA, is offering five $4,000 two-year Research Grants. The deadline for applications is 31 March 2023. The Institute will fund research projects that examine complex information challenges within select contexts and aim to develop or enhance information literacy models that enable people to successfully navigate and contribute to today’s information environment. The Institute supports and shares innovative, community- or context-specific information literacy research (i.e. healthcare, social media, publishing).
"As information literacy is interdisciplinary by nature, projects that demonstrate a substantive collaboration between research from different fields (such as psychology or political science and information studies) will be prioritized for funding. ... priority will be given to projects that focus on effective information practices applied in a range of contexts and communities. This is offered with support from the Esther Ellis Norton Endowment. ... Projects should aim to inform the development or enhancement of an information literacy model or technique that supports individuals, communities, or organizations in using information wisely."
Applicants need to submit a 2-3 page proposal including project title, team members (including their expertise in subjects relevant to the proposed project), budget information, a statement of benefits for stakeholders, alignment with Institute research award priorities, expected budget and justification, and references cited.
There should also be a 2-page CV for each project team member. "Successful proposals will clearly define the need to examine the particular information challenge in the proposed context and how they aim to carry out the research using an award from the Institute.They should email InstituteIL@purdue.edu with the subject line “IILP Research Grant Proposal”.
Full information at https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Jff2sv-H-ujgRzTb65TIcFcl5S3fe03/edit#heading=h.vkpzmyo9bys0
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn falling, November 2023

José Luis Agraz wins information literacy award

The Universal Information Literacies Association has announced the inaugural Information Literacy Paul G. Zurkowski Esquire Global Individual Award which "recognizes the outstanding contributions of global leaders in advancing information literacy and critical thinking in public service on a global scale." The award winner is José Luis Agraz (Information Officer and Biologist, Secretaría del Tratado Antártico.
"Mr. Agraz is tasked with serving as documentation officer for the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) and coordinating development, maintenance and accuracy of the Secretariat’s information systems. In addition, he is responsible for balancing access of scientific and operational information to comply with requirements in the scope of the Antarctic Treaty with his evaluation of the relevant impact of human activities on terrestrial environments. Having managed this vast array of data and responsibilities using the core concepts of Information Literacy and critical thinking for peaceful purposes to help the people of the world, the UiLA bestows the inaugural Information Literacy Paul G. Zurkowski Esquire Global Individual Award on José Luis Agraz."

Reading's importance: a manifesto and an article

Firstly, The Importance of Higher-Level Reading: A Manifesto, launched at the Frankfurst Book Fair - you can sign this manifesto if you agreed with your argument that higher-level reading (sustained reading etc.) is "our most powerful tool for analytic and strategic thinking". Go to https://readingmanifesto.org/#. Also they link to an article:
Schüller-Zwierlein, A., Mangen, A., Kovač, M. & van der Weel, A. (2022). Why higher-level reading is important. First Monday, 27(9). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/12770/10709   "While digital technologies offer much potential for new forms of reading, recent empirical research shows that the digital environment is having a negative impact on reading, in particular on long-form reading and reading comprehension. It also remains unclear whether the transition to digital media actually lives up to its promise of improving learning outcomes. Recent studies of various kinds indicate a decline of crucial higher-level reading competencies and practices, such as critical and conscious reading, slow reading, non-strategic reading and long-form reading. Current educational policy, meanwhile, relies heavily on monocultural standardized testing of basic reading capabilities and on growing use of digital technologies. Reading education, assessment, research and policy-making should focus more on higher-level reading practices in both adults and children in order to understand the development of reading skills and practices in an age increasingly dependent on a ubiquitous digital infrastructure."
Photo by Sheila Webber: in the gardens of the Musée de Montmartre, November 2023

RUSA/ETS Best Emerging Technology Application (BETA) Awards

You can apply for one of two RUSA/ETS Best Emerging Technology Application (BETA) Awards if you have "used technology in an innovative way to enhance your library or patron services." "The awards offer $3,000 each to an individual or group in recognition of a technology project that directly benefits library users." Submission deadline is 23 February 2024. There are 2 categories:
(1) "Develops an original technology or significantly modifies an existing technology for an entirely novel use that benefits the library and its patrons."
(2) "Utilizes an existing technology and applies it in a novel way that benefits the library and its patrons. " The award is open to any library employee or group of library employees, and you don't have to be based in North America. The initiative has to have taken place no more than 2 years prior to the date of the application deadline. For more info including the evaluation criteria go to http://bit.ly/RUSABETA.
Photo by Sheila Webber: tomb of Napoleon, Les Invalides, November 2023

Call for papers: Fact-Checkers Around the World

The journal Media and Communication seeks papers for its special issue Fact-Checkers Around the World: Regional, Comparative, and Institutional Perspectives (editors Regina Cazzamatta, Lucas Graves, and Laurens Lauer). Deadline for abstracts is 15-30 January 2024.
"This thematic issue brings together scholars who study fact-checking organizations, practices, and institutions around the world. Fact-checkers work in a wide variety of media and political systems. Even where practices converge, they understand their own mission—and the wider problem of misinformation—in very different ways. These vital differences remain underexplored and can offer a revealing lens for journalism studies and political communication researchers to investigate changing media systems around the world.
"To address this gap, this thematic issue highlights research with a regional or comparative focus, as well as studies of the wider global movement. We invite work across methods and theoretical traditions, from ethnographic case studies to large-scale content analysis, with a particular focus on studies that help to deepen our understanding of the specificities or differences in this work in particular kinds of organizations and specific media and political environments."
Full info at https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/nextissues#FactCheckers
Photo by Sheila Webber: Krakow, October 2023

Quick Guides

The Scottish Government Library has produced "quick guides" for Scottish Government staff, but they are mostly accessible and free to use by others. They are tutorials etc. on collaborative tools (e.g. Trello, LinkedIn), digital skills etc. Go to https://sglibraryservices.wordpress.com/quick-guides/ 

Photo by Sheila Webber: Maria church, Krakow, October 2023

Keeping up with ... peer tutoring

The latest in the ACRL keeping up with series is Keeping up with ... peer tutoring which,as usual, has a brief outline of what this means and some useful references and links. Peer tutoring is basically students teaching or supporting other students, including in tasks like searching for, and evaluating, information. The keeping up sheet is here https://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/keeping_up_with/peer_tutoring and an example of peer tutoring they link to is at Penn State University, USA.
Image by Sheila Webber using Midjourney AI - interesting that all the pictures for peer tutoring, students, search and evaluating information had students looking at print materials

Webinar: A Library and Social Work Collaboration to Support Research-Informed Practice

There is a LiLi free online Show & Tell session A Library and Social Work Collaboration to Support Research-Informed Practice on 29 November 2023 at 10.00 US Pacific time (which is, e.g. 18.00 UK time) with Amanda Dinscore (Associate Librarian at Cal Poly Humboldt University Library, USA) and Debbie Gonzalez (Assistant Professor at Cal Poly Humboldt Department of Social Work, USA).
"Social work programs in higher education prioritize the use of empirically sound research to inform practice decisions. As university students, prospective social workers have a wealth of research available to them, as well as librarians to help them find, evaluate, and use it. However, access to most of this research ends once the student graduates - at a time when this information is needed to inform their practice. This presentation will describe an effort to address this challenge at Cal Poly Humboldt, where a librarian and social work faculty member conducted surveys and co-taught a series of workshops with students in their final semester of the Bachelor of Social Work program.
"Students learned how to find and evaluate non-paywalled information sources, understand and challenge information privilege and traditional scholarly publishing models, and expand their understanding of authority. Additionally, students applied what they learned to locate both scholarly, open access research and non-scholarly information sources related to their practicum experience. An open pedagogy approach was then used to support the student-led creation of an online repository of these resources, the Humboldt Social Work Knowledge Commons, which includes annotations evaluating their usefulness to the communities they serve."
Register at https://lili.libguides.com/showandtell/home
Photo by Sheila Webber autumn leaves November 2023

Recent articles: Decision-based learning; Using AI for reference

Articles in the latest issue of open access journal College and Research Libraries (Vol 84, No 6, 2023) include
- Teaching Expert Information Literacy Behaviors through Decision-Based Learning by David Pixton " This paper details the results of a multisemester study involving groups of engineering and technology students taught using this method. Students tended to engage with a pre-class learning module based on the new method more fully than the comparable groups of students used pre-class instructional videos. "
- How Well Does ChatGPT Handle Reference Inquiries? An Analysis Based on Question Types and Question Complexities by Katie Lai "Overall ChatGPT’s performance was fair, but it did poorly in information accuracy."
Go to https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/issue/view/1646/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: beanbags in a study corner, Jagellonian University, Poland, October 2023

Webinar: Exploring AI Applications for Teaching and Learning

The next LIS Pedagogy Chat is on 17 November 2023 at 14.00 US Eastern time (which is, e.g., 7pm UK time).  This topic is Exploring AI Applications for Teaching and Learning.  Joyce Valenza (Rutgers University, USA) will give an introduction and then there will be discussion. Register at https://www.lispedagogychat.org/schedule-registration  (you need to scroll down the page to find the specific event)"LIS Pedagogy Chat is a community of practice for faculty and professionals who teach in LIS" There is an archive of slides and discussion notes at https://www.lispedagogychat.org/archive
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn leaves, November 2023

Webinar: AI Tools for information professionals

There is a Power Hour with Phil Bradley at 12noon-13.00 (UK time) 1 December 2023 (cost £35) on AI Tools for information professionals. "See AI in action and learn how you can use it to develop, change and improve your daily work, and indeed your own career" https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-tools-for-information-professionals-a-power-hour-with-phil-bradley-tickets-688792174937.

On 17 November 2023 (12.00-13.00) (cost £35) there is a Power Hour with Ned Potter on An introduction to using UX in libraries  "User Experience (UX) in this context is used as an umbrella term to cover various ethnographic and design techniques, designed to help us truly understand our users." https://tinyurl.com/ra9j5kf4

Image by Sheila Webber using Midjourney AI (promt was power hour with Phil Bradley, cheerful colours, splash page, --ar 16:9) Midjourney thinks Phil's power hours are a psychadelic experience!

Today! EDI 2.0: Individual Responsibility for Creating Belonging and Connection in the Library Profession

The next in the series of Library 2.0 free online conferences (organised by School of Information at San José State University, USA) is EDI 2.0: Individual Responsibility for Creating Belonging and Connection in the Library Profession being held today, 9 November 2023, starting at 12 noon US Pacific time (which is 8pm UK time) and finishing at 3pm US Pacific time (which is 11pm UK time). More details here: https://www.library20.com/edi20. You can access past talks from the Library 2.0 conferences at https://www.youtube.com/user/library20conference

2024 ALA LIRT Awards

The ALA Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) offers two awards created to recognize excellence in information literacy and instruction. There can be submissions from all types of libraries (public, school, workplace, academic). Deadline submission is 15 January 2024. Winners receive a US $1,000 award, a plaque, and a US $500 stipend to be used to attend the 2024 ALA Annual Conference.
"The LIRT Librarian Recognition Award honors a practicing librarian for their contributions to information literacy and instruction. The LIRT Innovation in Instruction Award honors a library for their innovative approach to information literacy and instruction. "
Full details at http://www.ala.org/rt/lirt/awards

#LILAC24 bursaries

There are bursaries avilable for the LILAC (Information Literacy) Conference which takes place 25-27 March 2024 in Leeds, UK. "To apply for a bursary you must be a librarian, volunteer, or information professional working in the UK." The closing date for applications is 17 November 2023 (17.00 GMT). This year winners will be randomly selected using a lottery system and will be notified early December. 

LILAC Bursaries Five free places for people in the following under-represented groups in the UK: Ethnic minority backgrounds; School libraries; Further Education; Public libraries; Health libraries (e.g. NHS – please note; librarians working in Higher Education who support health subjects are not eligible to apply). The bursary includes the conference plus up to £250 in expenses for travel and accommodation.
Local to LILAC Bursaries "These bursaries are day delegate places, and we are offering two places for each day of the three-day conference. ... We have created these six day delegate places, intended for people who live or work near to the LILAC venue, to have the chance to attend a day at LILAC and experience what the conference offers. Each of the six bursaries will involve a free day place to one day of the conference and £50 for travel expenses."
More info at https://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-2024/bursaries-1

Artificial Intelligence Tools for Primary and Secondary School Educators

The IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning (CPDWL) blog has a post on Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools for Primary and Secondary School Educators by Ray Pun, go to https://blogs.ifla.org/cpdwl/2023/10/29/generative-artificial-intelligence-tools-for-primary-and-secondary-school-educators-by-ray-pun-cpdwl-advisor/
Image by Sheila Webber using Midjourney AI

Webinar: Writing for publication

On 17 November 2023 (13.30-16.30 UK time) there is session 4 of the Library and Information Workplace Research events series. This one is Writing for publication. The cost is £30 per participant (£20 for CILIP members).
"This session takes the form of an online workshop in which Leo Appleton (University of Sheffield, Information School) will talk about writing for publication. The session includes practical elements and focuses on how to turn your Library and Information workplace research, evaluation activities and projects into scholarly and academic publications. He will be joined by several Library practitioners who all have recent experience of writing for publication and will share this with the participants in the second part of the workshop. Guest speakers: Marilyn Clarke - Institute of Advanced Legal Studies; Brooke Combie - University College London; Natasha Howard - NELFT NHS Foundation Trust; Tracey Pratchett - Citizens' Advice Bureau; Tim Wales - Cranfield University.
Register at https://www.cilip.org.uk/event/LIRG2023-libraryandinformationworkplace (scroll down the page to find the session)
Image created by Sheila Webber using Midjourney AI using the prompt writing for publication in the style of Gwen John

Webinar: Warming Up Your Brain

A LILi webinar on 15 November 2023 at 10am US Pacific time (which is 6pm UK time) is Warming Up Your Brain: the most important 5 minutes of your instruction session, presented by Amy C Odwarka (First Year Experience/Student Success Librarian, Eastern Illinois University, USA)
"How do you help students get into an “academic mindset” when they enter your library instruction session? How can you be intentional in creating a space for students to focus in the present? Getting students into the right mindset for learning allows for more active participation and information intake on their part. Join First Year Experience/ Student Success librarian and 25+ year teaching veteran Amy Odwarka (she/her) to learn how the warmup can be the most important 5 minutes of your instruction session. We will frame our discussion around these culturally relevant teaching strategies and practice several styles of warm-ups that you can use the next day or next week."
Register at: https://northampton-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMpdO-oqDkjGdZcHWqX1LjxPvhOOONCz3m_ and all sessions are listed at https://lili.libguides.com/showandtell
A warmup exercise with mathematician statues in Krakow, October 2023

Looking for information

There is a new edition of the classic information behaviour work (the go-to starting point for overviews of past research in different areas of information behaviour research):
Given, L., Case, D. & Willson, R. (2023). Looking for information: Examining research on how people engage with information. (5th Ed.) London: Emerald. https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/looking-for-information/?k=9781803824246