Webinar: AI Tools for Research and Content Discovery in the Fifth Industrial Revolution

From the North-West University, South Africa, on 10 October 2024 1.00-12.30 Central Africa Time a free webinar: AI Tools for Research and Content Discovery in the Fifth Industrial Revolution, presented by Malose Langa
"Artificial intelligence chatbots can be used to conduct research effectively and efficiently in the fifth industrial revolution. Artificial intelligence chatbots are software applications that utilize artificial intelligence technologies to assist researchers in various aspects of the research process. These chatbots are specifically designed to understand researchers' inquiries, provide relevant information, and perform tasks related to data collection, analysis, literature review, collaboration, and more. In the fifth industrial revolution, the strength of artificial intelligence can collaborate with the strength of human intelligence in conducting sound and ethical research."
Go to https://nwu.libcal.com/event/13165536
Image by Sheila Webber using Midjourney AI

Recording: Information Literacy and Related Literacies

I'll highlight a few webinar recordings from Ohio State University Libraries over the next couple of days. For today, here is Information Literacy and Related Literacies (a webinar held on 2 July 2024). "Information literacy exists alongside related literacies, including digital, media, algorithmic and artificial intelligence literacy. How do these literacies come together? Do they all fall under the umbrella of information literacy? If so, what does that mean for librarians’ ability to teach information literacy? Should librarians embrace one of the other terms instead of information literacy?"
Panellists were: Melissa Mallon, (Associate University Librarian for Teaching & Learning at Vanderbilt University, USA), Sarah Morris (currently working on media literacy education projects with the Carter Center and as an educational consultant); Audrey Gunn (Research and Instruction Librarian at St. Olaf College and Spencer Brayton (Director of Library Services at Waubonsee Community College, USA).
Go to https://youtu.be/LSmp5o7d_2I?si=qeSKLQXaWAcZW0er
Photo by Sheila Webber: the rather exotic decoration in the Ladies' at the Ivy restaurant (including a ceiling covered in silk flowers), London

Webinar: Project Information Literacy: What students can teach us

A webinar from ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) is Project Information Literacy: What students can teach us on 22 October 2024 at 12noon AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). It is free to members and AUS$22 to non members of ALIA. "In this webinar, Dr. Alison Head highlights five major research takeaways about students’ research habits that PIL researchers have learned from conducting a total of 22,500 interviews and surveys with students enrolled at nearly 100 different colleges and universities across the U.S." More info and registration at https://www.alia.org.au/EventDetail?EventKey=PIL
This is part of a tour that Head is making in Australia, with other events in: Sydney (in person and online 28 October), Melbourne (online 29 October) and Brisbane (in person 4 November) - for more info go to https://subjectguides.library.westernsydney.edu.au/blog/Project-Information-Literacy-Tour-Australia
Photo by Sheila Webber: hydrangea, August 2024

New articles: Advanced searching; Systematic review; Teaching with Wikipedia

The latest issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) (Volume 112 Number 3, 2024) includes
- Exploring librarians’ practices when teaching advanced searching for knowledge synthesis: results from an online survey by Glyneva Bradley-Ridout, Robin Parker , Lindsey Sikora , Andrea Quaiattini, Kaitlin Fuller , Margaret Nevison, Erica Nekolaichuk
- Effect of librarian collaboration on otolaryngology systematic review and meta-analysis quality by Rachel Whitney, AHIP, Michael C. Shih, Tamar Gordis, Shaun A. Nguyen, Ted A. Meyer, Emily A. Brennan
Go to https://jmla.pitt.edu/ojs/jmla/issue/view/34 for these, and for articles marking 125 years of the US MLA and also on other medical library topics

I was reminded that I should be scanning JMLA more often through the announcement of the winner of the JMLA Biannual Research Article Award:
- Kahili-Heede, M. K., Patil, U., Hillgren, K. J., Hishinuma, E., & Kasuya, R. (2022).Library instruction and Wikipedia: investigating students’ perceived informationliteracy, lifelong learning, and social responsibility through Wikipedia editing. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 110(2), 174–184. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1291
"This article presents a multiyear pilot study delineating practical challenges, solutions, and lessons learned from Wikipedia editing experiences with first-year medical students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawai’i at M ̄anoa."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Can't quite reach the phone, August 2024

Research organisations exiting-X

A useful post on the LSE Impact blog from Andy Tattersall (Sheffield University) (5 September 2024) discussing the migration of research organisations (with the focus on the United Kingdom) from X/Twitter. He observes how, although many have accounts on other social media platforms, they may not be active there yet. The post is at https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2024/09/05/if-academic-x-is-sinking-where-are-research-organisations-going/

He links to a companion document where he has plotted where organisations have gone (Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky and/or LinkedIn.) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1asXGj04aSwXSNghpJAkIJdOEs51bEcULZ_SbGoEbJKA/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Image by Sheila Webber "Running away from Twitter". Created using Midjourney AI using the prompt - a woman with long hair and long dress, running away from a flock of small birds, woman in front of flock of birds, dreamy, soft colours, watercolour effect --v 6.1 --ar 16:9

Strengthening Media and Information Literacy in the Context of Preventing Violent Extremism

A new (September 2024) report Strengthening Media and Information Literacy in the Context of Preventing Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism: a focus on South Eastern Europe, published by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The report firstly "places the vulnerability to online harms in the context of broader MIL trends and challenges, with a particular focus on P/CVERLT" [preventing/ countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism]. It then "analyses how these challenges are impacting SEE" [South Eastern Europe] and discusses different approaches to developing people's MIL to counter disinformation etc. There are some recommendations towards developing a policy/curiculum (but that part isn't really very developed).
It includes a useful overview of initiatives in SEE (links to media literacy institutes, curriculum documents etc.) country by country. Go to https://www.osce.org/secretariat/575970 and this is the direct link to the pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: apple on my tree (a red devil), September 2024

Student views on #AI; Webinar on Generative AI and Education

A couple of items I got from the Contact North | Contact Nord (Canadian online education) newsletter.
(1) Free webinar on 30 October 2024 at 10am US Eastern time (2pm UK time): Generative AI and Education: The New Hybrid. "Generative AI’s unique capabilities enable the development of new hybrid human-AI models, in which educators interact and collaborate with AI to design and deliver learning that is personalized and adaptive but still grounded in the educator’s domain expertise. ... In this webinar, Dr. Mairéad Pratschke, Professor and Chair in Digital Education at University of Manchester, UK, presents key ideas from her recently published book, Generative AI and Education: Digital Pedagogies, Teaching Innovation and Learning Design. More info at https://teachonline.ca/webinar/generative-ai-and-education-new-hybrid 

(2) An article summarising results from a survey of students asking about how they used generative AI in their studies. There are some some interesting opinions from the students about why it should, or should not, be used.
Janzen, R., Church, C. & Paleja, R. (2024, August 15). Exploring AI: How Would Students Set the Rules? https://forum.academica.ca/forum/exploring-ai-how-would-students-set-the-rules
"This survey was conducted online from March 13, 2024, to April 21, 2024, with Academica’s StudentVu research panel. 881 panelists were included in the final analysis. Data were weighted by gender, institution type, and student status based on the 2021/2022 Postsecondary Student Information System enrolment data to better reflect the perspectives of Canadian postsecondary students. ... Nearly half (46%) said they were allowed to use generative AI tools to at least some degree in their coursework, while another third (32%) said they were not allowed to use it for any of their coursework ... There was also plenty of uncertainty: About one-in-five were unsure about the permissibility of generative AI in the classroom, suggesting that many students would benefit from clarity around whether they can use ChatGPT and similar tools."
Image by Sheila Webber using Midjourney AI, prompted tabby cat helping a man at his computer at home, watercolour style

Personalized serious games for information literacy

An intriguing experimental study carried out in Thailand at Chiang Mai University. They used a game designed to develop people's information literacy in resisting and detecting fake information. The researchers aimed to find out whether personalising a game to appeal either to introverts or extroverts (intro/extrovertion judged through a much-used personality questionnaire) would improve the game's impact on the students' learning. The article includes an interesting table summarising research evidence about which features of serious games have been found to be positive, negative or neutral for introverts and extroverts (I must be an introvert!)
The overall findings were (to summarise crudely) that the personalisation did not seem to increase knowledge, but for introverts in particular the personalisation increased their engagement with the game and their confidence in learning.
From the conclusion:
"Personalization of serious games for educational purposes by means of suitable game elements for introverts and extraverts cannot effectively improve knowledge acquisition and retention compared to Non-personalized serious games.
"Personalized serious games can enhance intrinsic motivation, specifically in terms of perceived competence, which can be used as an interesting tool for educational environments and settings.
"Personalized serious games can significantly improve engagement, almost 37 percent in terms of average and total playtime for introverted people, but may not affect extraverted people.
"Designing personalized serious games by integrating suitable game elements for various personality traits might offer a cost-effective approach. However, careful consideration is essential regarding the selection of game elements, as their individual effectiveness may vary significantly."
Reference: Thongthip, P., Intawong, K., Chernbumroong, S. et al. (2024). Design and analysis of personalized serious games for information literacy: catering to introverted and extraverted individuals through game elements. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 11, article no. 725. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03172-5 (open access)
Photo by Sheila Webber: hydrangea, August 2024

Call for contributions: CoLIS 2025

There is a call for contributions for the CoLIS conference to take place 2-5 June 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland, organised by the University of Strathclyde. Deadline is 9 December 2024. CoLIS stands for Conceptions (ideas, approaches, theories etc.) of Library and Information Science (LIS), and that is also the theme, so a wide range of topics are welcome, including Information Literacy.
"It welcomes diverse contributions offering empirical, theoretical, and historical perspectives." It aims "to provide a broad forum for the exploration and exchange of ideas in the field of Library and Information Science, Information Studies, and related disciplines.
You can submit proposals for: Full Papers, which are esearch papers of max 5500 words + references; Short research papers (e.g. of work in progress, preliminary research analysis of max 2000 words + references; Panels; Interactive events; Posters. There will also be a doctoral workshop.
More info at https://colis2025.cis.strath.ac.uk/index.php/call-for-contributions/.
Photo by Sheila Webber: hydrangea, August 2024

New articles: Using visual clues to evaluate information; Questioning AI

- Reicho, M. & Otrel-Cass, K. (2024). In Pictures We Trust: Evaluating Digital Information and Disinformation with Phenomenon-based Learning in Secondary Schools. Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy. https://doi.org/10.1163/23644583-bja10059. An interesting report of research into teenagers' information behaviour, from observations in 6 Austrian schools. Embedded in the article are 6 videos highlighting different aspects of the findings e.g. how the students judged trustworthiness from the look of the websites; "accelerated information processing" (copy-pasting from the search results list, using ChatGPT) (open access article)

- Caico, M., Harris, L., & O’Shea, S. (2024). Is This AI Tool Right for Me? Important Questions from the Framework. College & Research Libraries News, 85(8), 341-346. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.85.8.341 The "Framework" is the ACRL Information Literacy Framework. (open access article)
Photo by Sheila Webber: London street, August 2024

Recording: AI and Information Literacy

In August 2024 I organised and presented on a panel about AI and Information Literacy as part of the 2024 Virtual Worlds MOOC, in the 3D virtual world, Second Life. I presented on The relationship between AI Literacy and Information Literacy, and my fellow panellists were Dr Valerie Hill (Director of the Community Virtual Library and Co-coordinator of the Virtual World Education Consortium, USA) on Metaliteracy & AI for digital citizens and Rossana I. Barrios-Llorens (Conrado F. Asenjo Library of the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico) on Librarians navigating the AI landscape.
The recording of the session is here https://www.youtube.com/live/oD4UbSSWE8g?si=9MInKMrLDOrx2gbC

Call for proposals: Critical Approaches the Libraries Conference (CALC)

There is a first call for papers for the 2025 Critical Approaches the Libraries Conference (CALC) to be held online, 14-15 May 2025. This first call closes on 24 October 2024. They use a two-part CfP process "with the first stage reserved for sessions lead by presenters who experience under-representation and/or marginalisation in libraries, academia or traditional library conferences.". These are: People of Colour/ Global Ethnic Majority/ BAME/ Non-white presenters; People for whom English is an additional language; LGBTQIA+ people; Disabled people; Neurodivergent people; Deaf people; People from Working Class backgrounds. There is information about critical library practice here. There will be a 2nd call later in 2024. https://sites.google.com/view/calcconference/call-for-papers
Photo by Sheila Webber: hydrangea, August 2024

Treasure trove of recordings on AI and infolit

Lots of recordings from the 2024 Generative AI in Libraries (GAIL) Conference are available. Examples are:
- Leveling Up Your Lesson Planning: Using AI to Build Bibliographic Library Lessons;
- How to Augment Retrieval Augmented Generation;
- Honing Information Literacy Skills with Gen AI - Building a Modular Lesson;
- Prompted to Action - ChatGPT Generated Essay Prompts, Library Instruction and fostering information literacy skill development.
The playlist is at  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOWNtfTOec9Io34ZHPctluvdk8fjgjBR-
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bournemouth, June 2024 (a real photo, not genAI)

Digital Literacy and the Sustainable Development Goals

In July, the IFLA Information Literacy (INFOLIT) Section publsihed a short article: Leveraging Digital Literacy and Skills for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) https://www.ifla.org/news/leveraging-digital-literacy-and-skills-for-achieving-the-sustainable-development-goals-sdgs/Photo by Sheila Webber: Charlton Park, August 2024

Fear of the Known: Conspiracy Theory & Misinformation Webinar for Librarians

A free webinar on 31 October 2024 10-11am BST (UK time) from CILIP Scotland: Fear of the Known: Conspiracy Theory & Misinformation Webinar for Librarians. "Using the UNESCO Addressing Conspiracy Theories: What Teachers Need to Know Guide, CILIPS Digital Assistant Leah Higgins will give a presentation about the place of library and information professionals in combating conspiracy theories, fake news, mis & disinformation." Go to https://www.cilips.org.uk/events/conspiracytheory?
Photo by Sheila Webber: secret garden, Charlton Park, August 2024

UNESCO AI Competency frameworks

UNESCO has published two AI Competency frameworks: for students and for teachers. The AI competency framework for teachers has three levls of progression (Acquire, Deepen, Create) and five competency aspects: The Human-centred mindset; Ethics of AI; AI Foundations and applications; AI pedagogy and AI for professional development.
Miao, F. & Cukurova, M. (2024). The AI competency framework for teachers. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/ZJTE2084 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391104

The AI competency framework for students has three levels: Understand, Apply and Create and four competency aspects: Human-centred mindset; Ethics of AI; AI techniques and applications and AI system design.
Miao, F. & Shiohira, K. (2024). AI competency framework for students. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/JKJB9835 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391105
Sadly they don't seem to have collaborated with the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy initiative (whose cuuriculum for MIL includes an AI literacy component).
Photo by Sheila Webber: a mulberry from this 400 year old tree https://www.moruslondinium.org/research/charlton-house-heritage-mulberry

Grant to investigate information literacy among religious leaders

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana, USA, (PALNI) has awarded a grant for the project Information Literacy Assessment of Religious Leaders, coordinated by Karl Stutzman, Director of Library Services at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, USA. It "will explore the information literacy behaviors of practicing faith leaders and will help inform models that broadly address information literacy needs. It will be supported for up to one year, with recipients expected to present their results and share ideas for further collaboration and innovation across PALNI and beyond." More information at https://palni.org/news/palni-grant-to-support-information-literacy-assessment-among-religious-leaders
Photo by Sheila Webber: Stanley Park, Vancouver, May 2024

Information Literacy as a Concept and Practice: Where Are We Going?

The recording of the webinar held on 29 July 2024, Information Literacy as a Concept and Practice: Where Are We Going?, (hosted by The Ohio State University Libraries) is available. The panellists are: Veronica Arellano Douglas (University of Houston, USA), Clarence Maybee (Purdue University, USA), Sara Miller (Michigan State University, USA) and Logan Rath (State University, New York State, USA).
"Definitions of information literacy have evolved over the past 50 years. How does “second-wave” information literacy differ from “first-wave” information literacy? What changes may be in store for how we think about information literacy as a concept and how we practice information literacy? Should we think about information literacy as a discipline? How will the relationship between information literacy and critical information literacy continue to develop? How should the Framework for Information Literacy evolve? This discussion will explore how our conception of information literacy has evolved and may continue to transform."
The slides are here and the recording is here https://youtu.be/FsWnlcqGWaU?feature=shared
Photo by Sheila Webber: white rose, July 2024

Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy

I have blogged previously about this international project (IPILM), which was previously called Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy. In the Western-hemisphere autumn semester students from different countries collaborate to produce presentations on current information-related topics and this culminates in a webinar in January (and this year there was also a summer version). The current project involves academics and students at Hildesheim University (the lead organisation), Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce Pune, India, SUNY Empire State College New York, United States, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria, University of Sarajevo – Faculty of Political Sciences, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Tischner European University, Kraków, Poland.
They are curently advertising for students to participate October-December 2024 (I assume they have to be in one of the participating organisations) to address one of the themes: AI impact on local culture - language; AI impact on local culture - Cultural perception of AI regulation; AI impact on democracy - Politics; AI impact on democracy - Mis- and Disinformation; AI literacy for teacher education; AI literacy for students and students learning process; Ethics of producing digital media art with GenAI.
You can find the student videos from January 2024 and previous years here https://www.youtube.com/@interculturalperspectiveso2656/videos.
There is also a recent post from Thomas Mackey about the project team's in-person meeting here.
Additionally, here is an article about the project: Griesbaum, J. et al. (2023). Teaching Internationally, Learning Collaboratively: Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy (IPILM). Communications in Information Literacy, 17 (1), 260–278. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2023.17.1.4
Photo by Sheila Webber: colourful border in Western Park, August 2024

Role of Public Institutions in Media and Information Literacy Development in Albania

An Albanian-language report has been published by the Albanian Media Institute: Role of Public Institutions in Media and Information Literacy Development in Albania. There is a short English-language summary and a link to the report here: https://www.institutemedia.org/report-on-media-and-information-literacy-and-the-role-of-public-institutions-in-albania/ I picked this up when searching for items published in the last week, but the publication isn't dated and I think it was actually published earlier. However, the website is also worth browsing: particularly if you read Albanian (obviously!) but there are also some interesting English-language reports on their activities https://www.institutemedia.org/.
Photo by Sheila Webber: spot the squirrel eating yew-berries, August 2024

Webinar: Teaching Information Literacy: Foundational Concepts and Teaching Strategies

On 11 September 2024 at 12 noon US Eastern time (which is 5pm UK time) this free webinar seems principally aimed at faculty etc. in Ohio, but appears to be open to all: Teaching Information Literacy: Foundational Concepts and Teaching Strategies. "What exactly do we mean when we talk about information literacy? Why is it important that our students are developing their information literacy? This virtual workshop will provide an overview of information literacy as a concept and a practice in higher education and explore why information literacy is crucial to student success. Participants will also learn about resources and strategies that they can use to incorporate information literacy into their courses. This workshop is aimed at course instructors, graduate teaching associates, and librarians."
Information and registration link at https://library.osu.edu/events/teaching-information-literacy-foundational-concepts-and-teaching-strategies-virtual-event-0
Photo by Sheila Webber: rowan berries, August 2024 

New Book: Using Project Outcome for Academic Libraries

This new book includes a few chapters about teaching information literacy (e.g.Revitalizing our Instructional Assessment: Embracing a New Approach using Project Outcome and Assessing Information Literacy Programs for First-Year Writing Courses at a Public University):
Parsons-Diamond, G. (Ed.). (2024). Assessment and Advocacy: Using Project Outcome for Academic Libraries. ACRL. Item number 979-8-89255-524-1. https://alastore.ala.org/assessment-and-advocacy-using-project-outcome-academic-libraries? This has examples from libraries involved in Project Outcome and using its toolkit.
Photo by Sheila Webber: yew trunk, Charlton Park, August 2024

New articles: Online learning; Generative AI; Learning design

Volume 28 Number 3 (2024) of Online Learning has a good number of articles about online learning at https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/issue/view/132 including a special focus on AI and online learning. Picking out a couple :
- Stefaniak,J.E., & Moore, S.L. (2024) The use of generative AI to support inclusivity and design deliberation for online instruction. Online Learning, 28(3), 181-205. DOI: 10.24059/olj.v28i3.4458. https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/4458/1388 [This includes a worked example of using a series of prompts to develop ideas for activities with students with disabilities].
- Dello Stritto, M.E. & Aguiar, N. R. (2024) Skills needed for success in online teaching: A qualitative study of experienced instructors. Online Learning, 3(28), 585-607. DOI: 10.24059/olj.v28i3.3518 https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/3518/1405
[The six identified skills may seem obvious to experienced staff, but the themes and quotations resonated with me, and I think it is a useful article to open up discussion, in particular with people new to teaching online.]
Photo taken in the 3D virtual world, Second Life in August 2024: learning online

Shaping the future: a research agenda for UK libraries

There is a free in-person event on 11 September 2024 at 14.00 UK time: Shaping the future: a research agenda for UK libraries presented by Libby Tilley. It is hosted by the University of Sheffield Information School and coorganised by the iSchool's Libraries and Information Society Research Group and the CILIP Library and Information Research Group (LIRG). The venue is The Wave, University of Sheffield, S10 2AH, UK. "The seminar will be led by Libby Tilley, winner of the 2023 LIRG Research Award, in which she will present on the findings of her 'Shaping the Future' project which involved using a Modified Delphi Study in order to surface a consensus around sector-wide critical trends to help to focus and prioritise future library and information research. This will be followed by refreshments and a short Annual General Meeting of the Library and Information Research Group (LIRG)." Register at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/informationschool/1337998
Photo by Sheila Webber: apple blossom, April 2024 - almost time for the apples now

2024 Innovating Pedagogy Report

The 2024 version of the annual Open University report which identifies interesting opportunities or trends for pedagogy was published in August. This year it was co-authored with with researchers from the LIVE Learning Innovation Incubator at Vanderbilt University (USA).
The trends are: Speculative worlds; Pedagogies of peace; Fostering peace; Climate action pedagogy; Learning in conversation with Generative AI; Talking AI ethics with young people; AI-enhanced multimodal writing; Intelligent textbooks; Assessments through extended reality; Immersive language and culture; Exploring scientific models from the inside.
Kukulska-Hulme, A., Wise, A.F., Coughlan, T., Biswas, G., Bossu, C., Burriss, S.K., Charitonos, K., Crossley, S.A., Enyedy, N., Ferguson, R., FitzGerald, E., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Hundley, M., McTamaney, C., Molvig, O., Pendergrass, E., Ramey, L., Sargent, J., Scanlon, E., Smith, B.E., & Whitelock, D. (2024). Innovating Pedagogy 2024: Open University Innovation Report 12. Milton Keynes: The Open University. https://iet.open.ac.uk/files/innovating-pedagogy-2024.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: peace post at Charlton House, August 2024