Open access book:
Jarke, J. & Bates, J. (Eds.). (2024). Dialogues in Data Power
Shifting Response-abilities in a Datafied World. Bristol University Press. ISBN: 9781529238327
https://doi.org/10.51952/9781529238327
Chapters debating aspects of data subjects, data power, data colonialism, data studies etc.
Open access at https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/edcollbook-oa/book/9781529238327/9781529238327.xml
Photo by Sheila Webber: blossom and new leaves against the sky, April 2025
An open access article:
Maertens, R., Roozenbeek, J., Simons, J.S. et al. (2025). Psychological booster shots targeting memory increase long-term resistance against misinformation. Nature Communications, 16, Article 2062. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57205-x " We [...] report five pre-registered longitudinal experiments (Ntotal = 11,759) that investigate the effectiveness of psychological inoculation interventions over time as well as their underlying mechanisms. We find that text-based and video-based inoculation interventions can remain effective for one month—whereas game-based interventions appear to decay more rapidly—and that memory-enhancing booster interventions can enhance the diminishing effects of counter-misinformation interventions."
I have only skimmed this, but the boosters were short reminders of the original messages - they found that "threat"-focused boosters were not so effective. Also, it seems like having specific problems/content to engage with was helpful in prolonging retention.
Photo by Sheila Webber: beautiful yellow, scented azalea, May 2025
The Association des Bibliothécaires de France annual congress focuses on Bibliothèques et esprit critique (Libraries and Critical Thinking), including many aspects of public engagement to develop critical thinking, including gamification and play, more philosophical approaches, reflection on the (critical) role of the librarian. It is held 11 - 13 June 2025 in Montreuil, France (in French, obviously). I wish my French was good enough to participate! It's just good enough for me to see that there are lots of sessions relevant to information literacy and, I think, critical librarianship.
Go to https://www.abf.asso.fr/pages/congres.php
A special issue of open-access Information Matters has numerous short articles focused on Canadian perspectives on Information Science. It includes:
- Stepping Up to BAT: Inspiration for a Research Process Model by Valerie Nesset
- Health Information Without Borders: The Struggles and Strategies of Older Chinese Adults in Canada by Xiaoqian Zhang, Yi Wan
- Information in Times of Crisis: Learning Together by Lisa Nathan, Luanne Sinnamon, Rachael Huegerich
-
Information Literacy Instruction in Canadian Libraries by Heidi Julien
Go to https://informationmatters.org/si-canadian-perspective/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Vancover, Canada, May 2024
There is a teachers' kit for Unpacking the Truth, an EU/ European Commission publication. It is (to quote the site) "a new educational game designed to tackle disinformation head-on." "this interactive classroom activity empowers students aged 16 to 18 with critical thinking and fact-checking skills. Dive into a fictional social media post and navigate the world of false claims with the guidance of captivating EU-themed characters. Through engaging gameplay, students will learn to use EU resources to debunk disinformation effectively." There are professionally designed materials and a lesson plan.
They include one scenario and some social media posts that aim to lead students to very specific official EU sites. So, to be honest, this could end up being a bit tedious if the students don't pick up on the clues about which sites they are SUPPOSED to visit to combat the disinformation: I think you'd need to decide whether you were going to accept other types of disproof as well.
Also I would say calling the characters "capivating" is a bit of a stretch since all they get each is a short social media post. However, it is worth checking out for the learning design and teaching materials.
Download from https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/b955acdc-2999-11f0-8a44-01aa75ed71a1/
A useful, scholaly open access review:
Huvila, I & Gorichanaz, T. (2025). Trends in information behavior research, 2016–2022: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 76(1), 216–237. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24943
"We reviewed 1270 articles in the field published in the years 2016–2022 and identified seven emerging trends: The CoVID-19 Pandemic, Diversity and Inclusion, Embodiment, Misinformation and Trust, Social Q&A Websites, Collaboration, and Information Creation. The reviewed literature and trends are discussed in relation to their significance for information, earlier review of information behavior research, and the long-debated issue of theory-driven versus atheoretical research in the field."
Photo by Sheila Webber: yellow peonies, April 2025
If you read this today (15th May) there is time to register to follow online the Knowledge in Crisis conference on Misinformation and Disinformation, 19-20 May 2025 (hosted by Central European University in Vienna, Austria: it's mainly an in-person conference but they are streaming it). In fact it looks like you can still register today in-person, but that's probably not an option iunless you happen to live in Vienna. Note that it will be in Central European Time.
Go to https://philevents.org/event/show/135437
Photo by Sheila Webber: coffee and cake in Cardiff, April 2025
There is a new batch of research studies from Ofcom, the United Kingdom's communications watchdog that also has responsibility for Media Literacy. These are high quality quantative and qualitative research reports that are published annually.
The participants are all UK residents.
- Adults media literacy research (quantative data on use of digital media, there is a dashboard that you can use) https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/media-habits-adults/adults-media-use-and-attitudes
- Adults Media Lives (qualitative study: they interview "a panel of 20 people who represent a broad cross-section of the UK population" most of whom have been participating in this annual study for 15 years) https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/media-habits-adults/media-lives
- Children's media literacy research (children = below 18 years: quantative data on use of digital media, there is a dashboard that you can use) https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/media-habits-children/children-and-parents-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2025
- Children's Media Lives (qualitative study: started in 2014 "a longitudinal study tracking the media behaviours, experiences and attitudes of a group of children aged between eight and 17, from all over the UK and with a variety of backgrounds.) One snippet about the type of media they consume "Children's feeds were dominated by short, loud, fastpaced and contextless videos." https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/media-habits-children/childrens-media-lives
Photo by Sheila Webber: crab apple blossom, April 2025
An interesting new journal is the Journal of Creative Research Methods. As well as submitting conventional articles they also welcome contributions in other forms and formats. It "it publishes critical and engaged work on creative research methods and welcomes contributions from authors across all disciplines and sectors." Unfortunately, contributions not open-access unless the author pays an article fee (with archiving of the original submitted version available immediately free to the author).
Call for papers at https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/journal-of-creative-research-methods/author-instructions
Photo by Sheila Webber: I think this is giant rhubarb, Sheffield Botanics, April 2025
There is a call for papers for the ISIC: The Information Behaviour Conference which will be held 1-4 June 2026, in Montréal, Canada. The deadline for proposals is 8 October 2025. You can submit for Full Papers, Short Papers, Posters, Panels, Workshops and the Doctoral Consortium. The scope of the conference includes most aspects of information behaviour e.g. "Theoretical conceptualisations of the cultural, social, cognitive, affective, and situational aspects of information creation, needs, seeking, searching, use, and sharing." and practical applications.
More information at https://www.mcgill.ca/isic2026/call-papers
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry blossom starting to fall, early April 2025
Alert! This has been rescheduled to 11 June 10am US Pacific time. The same Zoom link will work. There is a LiLi Show & Tell session on 14 May at 10:00 US Pacific time (which is 18.00 BST/UK time): Enhancing Library Instruction Videos with AI-voiceover Software. It is presented by Cynthia Soll (Research Librarian at McLennan Community College, USA)
"This session will focus on integrating AI-voiceover software into library instruction videos. Specifically, it will highlight the presenter's use of ElevenLabs' software ".The session includes a "sample video created by combining an AI voiceover and instructional material in Camtasia" an "overview of ElevenLabs' interface" and tips for using the AI voiceover with Camtasia and Canva.
Register at https://northampton-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0tfuigrT8sGdTXZxVT2xRs95jjleQByiwP#/registration
Photo by Sheila Webber: earlier in the spring, April 2025
This article applies the elements of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (which are: context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation) to discuss an information literacy teaching intervention:
Tardiff, A. (2021). Ignatian Information Literacy: Applying the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm to
Library Instruction. Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal, 10(1), Article 8. https://repository.gonzaga.edu/foleyschol/33/ or https://epublications.regis.edu/jhe/vol10/iss1/8/
Photo by Sheila Webber: reflection with marsh marigolds in the Botanics, April 2025
Thomas Mackey (of Metaliteracy fame) is giving a free online workshop on 14 May 2025 9am US EDT (which is 14.00 BST (UK time) Reimagining Course Design with AI: Practical Strategies for Global Learning "as part of the SDL Collaborative Corner on Multimodal Learning and OER at North-West University / Noordwes-Universiteit" he will "share some of the techniques [he has] developed for course redesign in the Digital Media Arts Program at Empire State University" Register at https://zoom.us/j/95917731273
There is a call for proposals for the ISIC: The Information Behaviour Conference, taking place 1-4 June 2026 in Montréal, Canada. Deadline for submissions is 8 October 2025. You can submit full papers; short papers (complete text required for papers); posters; panels; workshops, and there will be a doctoral forum.
"The central theme revolves around people's situational, contextualized interactions with information and engagements in information activities, expressed in forms such as 'information behaviour', 'information practice', 'information seeking', and 'information experience'. The conference is a platform for research exploring information seeking as a rich site of study, going beyond a sole focus on technological aspects and exploring a wide variety of contexts."
There is an information webinar on 13 May 2025 at 16.00 BST (UK time) / 11:00 US Eastern time for people considering submitting proposals at https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/81352217046
More information at http://www.mcgill.ca/isic2026/call-papers
Photo by Sheila Webber: fallen blossom on a hedge, April 2025
There is a call for proposals forignite/lightning talks on Media behavior and news consumption in the age of AI and digitalization at a session at the World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan, 18–22 August 2025. Deadline for proposals is 26 May 2025.
The session is organised by the IFLA News Media Section in partnership with the IFLA Information Technology Section, the IFLA Serials and Other Continuing Resources Section, the IFLA Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group, and the IFLA Digital Humanities/Digital Scholarship Special Interest Group.
Suggested topics are
- News Evaluation, Misinformation, and AI: Challenges and Solutions
- News Literacy, Digital Humanities, and Information Technologies
- The Role of AI and Social Media in News Production and Dissemination
More details at https://2025.ifla.org/the-ifla-news-media-section/
The UK's Media and Information Literacy Alliance has published its contribution to the UK parliamentary Communication and Digital Literacy Committee's inquiry into Media Literacy. The MILA response can be found here https://mila.org.uk/mila-response-ml-inquiry/ and information about the inquiry can be found here https://committees.parliament.uk/work/9030/media-literacy/ - there is a timetable of those giving oral evidence and also some transcripts of oral evidence and written submissions.
Photo by Sheila webber: more fallen blossom, April 2025
This is a recording of a webinar hosted by the EU DisinfoLab on 17 April 2025. and part of project ATHENA, examining foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). Disinformation and real estate exploitation: the case of Varosha examines the intersection of disinformation campaigns and real estate exploitation in occupied Cyprus, specifically focusing on the “ghost city” of Varosha/Famagusta." The speaker is Dr Demetris Paschalides, Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Cyprus. Go too https://www.disinfo.eu/outreach/our-webinars/17-april-disinformation-and-real-estate-exploitation-the-case-of-varosha/ You can find information on future webinars here
Photo by Sheila Webber: blush pink cherry blossom, April 2025
Today is World Book and Copyright Day, celebrated each year on 23 April - see https://www.unesco.org/en/days/world-book-and-copyright
"marking the death of several renowned authors, including William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega" on 23 April. A good day to celebrate freedom to read, to share readings and to oppose book bans.
Image by The Reading Agency
Episode 10 of the Chatting Infolit podcast is about AI and Information Literacy, with Joshua Rodda (University of Nottingham) and Eva Garcia Grau (Royal Holloway University of London). "Eva and Josh discuss how their institutions have responded to the challenges of generative AI, and explore the academic librarian's role in providing guidance."
Go to https://soundcloud.com/chatting-info-lit-podcast/episode-10-ai-and-il-in-he-with-eva-garcia-grau-and-josh-rodda
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry blossom petals on flowerbed, Cardiff, April 2025
Some recent articles from the priced Journal of Education for Library and Information Science include:
- Dow, M. (2025). High-Impact Information Literacy Learning Opportunities in Postsecondary Education in Health, Civic Engagement, and Personal Finance Courses. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 66(1), 21–39. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis-2023-0084
- Hands, A.S. & Shankar, S. (2025). Back from Crisis Mode: Exploring Care-Centered Approaches to Teaching in LIS. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 66(1), 85–93.
https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis-2024-0052
- Winn, J et al. (2025). Identifying Core DEIA+AR Andragogical Competencies in LIS Education: A Systematic Review. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 66(2), 174–194. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis-2023-0079 "By focusing on andragogical practices (the method and practice of teaching adult learners) instead of curricular interventions, educators can ensure that DEIA+AR [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Anti-Racism] is intentionally part of academic programs and in the classrooms. ... This systematic review set out to examine what approaches have been tried, what is being currently done, and whether there are identifiable best andragogical practices that support DEIA+AR in post-secondary education."
- Dow, M. et al. (2025). Cognitive Consequences of Social Presence in Online Asynchronous Learning: A Grounded Theory Study. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 66(2), 103 - 126. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis-2024-0024 "In a constructivist grounded theory study, 22 graduate students enrolled in library and information studies programs in eight US higher education institutions were interviewed about their affective feelings in online learning, their perceptions of people as real, knowing what others know and how well they know it, and social conflict monitoring. The findings reveal the need for improvements in online teaching and learning strategies and suggests that instructors should model presenting themselves as real persons through increased use of audio and visual instruction."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Cherry blossom and young leaves by St John's church, April 2025
I was trying to find an article that meaningfully connected Easter and Information Literacy, and while I failed in that, I did come across the website of the Gesellschaft für Informationskompetenz und Informationsinfrastruktur (Association for Information Literacy and Information Infrastucture). It is a German organisation, and most of the site is in German, but there is also some English language material and they are also represented by the IICIIS Institute für Information Competence and Information Infrastructure. From my superficial look, it is run by a freelance information manager, but lists a number of press associations, archives, information associations etc. as partners and has some German-language information as well as a newsletter that mostly highlights relevant events and publications. The German version of the website is at https://iiciis.org/
Photo by Sheila Webber: yet more cherry blossom petals, April 2025 (I didn't pluck that white blossom, BTW, I just photograph arrangements I see on the grass)
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a document: Social listening in infodemic management for public health emergencies: Guidance on ethical considerations. "Social listening" is a term taken from marketing, when companies monitor social media to find out what people are saying about their products and services, but they expand it to "any form of data collection and analysis activity conducted across social media and traditional media" which is then combined by other data and intelligence.
This "provides ethical guidance for governments, ministries, departments, agencies, organizations and individuals engaging in social listening for infodemic management practices in preparation for, during and after public health emergencies." "Data gathered from social listening provides additional evidence to allow informed decisions and recommendations to be made to address health misinformation, disinformation, information voids and other critical issues that are related to recommended public health action." "The document covers the technical definitions of terms, ethical challenges in infodemic management, alignment with human rights, substantive and procedural ethical principles."
There is also a link to the launch video, including speakers: Chikwe Ihekweazun (Assistant Director-General, WHO Health Emergencies Programme); Nikola Biller Andorno (University of Zurich); Elodie Ho (Africa Infodemic Response Alliance) and other speakers from the WHO.
To download the publication and link to the video, go to https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240108202
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry tree, Cardiff, April 2025
Winner of the Information Literacy Group's Information Literacy Award 2025 (announced at the LILAC conference this week) is Rebecca Mogg, Cardiff University, Wales, for her work in diversity and impact of information literacy. "The Information Literacy Award recognises an outstanding UK-based practitioner or researcher" and there is more information here: https://www.lilacconference.com/awards/information-literacy-award
Photo by Sheila Webber: scattered cherry blossom petals, Cardiff, April 2025
A final liveblog from Pam McKinney at the LILAC Conference. This keynote from Elinor Carmi, a senior lecturer in Data Politics and social justice at City St Georges University (@elinorcarmi.bsky.social), began her keynote by reflecting on why we need to build data literacy in this turbulent world. Elinor has looked at the underlying technologies behind modern digital services and identified a need to challenge the big technology companies. It's impossible to talk about these issues without talking about AI, and it is now becoming apparent that tech companies have been selling user data to train AI. In the UL, there has been a concerted effort from content providers, e.g. newspapers, authors, and musicians, to challenge the use of their data to train AIs, and celebrities seem to have more influence to change how the government deals with this issue. Elinor reflected on the privacy paradox - people say they care about their privacy but actually don't take action to protect their data privacy. People often don't understand how cookies work, and so people can't make informed decsions about protecting their data.
Elinor shared some findings from a research project she undertook and found that digital harms and abuses are seen as distant, complex and abstract, even though there have been some really high-profile cases of technology harming people, for example, the Post office scandal in the UK. If people experience privacy breaches, bullying, and harassment as part of their online lives, this mobilises them to explore improving their data literacy. People worry about things that are unimportant, such as the emergency alarm test in the UK, but critical risks are being ignored. We need to look at who is responsible for creating and solving the problems. Big tech companies seem to have a lot of power in the US, and platforms are reducing the protections available to users. Ultimately, the business model of online platforms is to sell you as a product and sell you advertising - they are only motivated by profit.
People should be able to negotiate with these platforms and should be better informed. There are few avenues to challenge big technology companies, but there are a few organisations that do this, it takes huge amounts of time to take technology companies to court. Citizens can use mechanisms in platforms such as reporting and blocking to protect their rights. Elinor worked with Simeon T+yates to develop a data citizenship model, which includes data doing: practical data skills, data thinking, which includes critical skills to analyse privacy, and problem-solving, and thirdly data participation: how we can use data positively to improve our communities. People are generally unaware of just how broadly their data is being traded, so can't make informed decisions about how to protect themselves.
A data and AI citizenship model focuses on "learn" - learning about what is happening with data at the moment and being aware of issues in your own country and also in other countries. secondly, to "network", noting that libraries are important community spaces where people can meet each other and develop networks of digital literacy. Thirdly, to "act", for example, nurses have developed a patient and nurse bill of rights on how AI is used in healthcare. Archivists are trying to rescue digital information that is being removed by the Trump administration, and actors have created guidelines about how AI should be used in their industry. So where do we go from here? Yes the news is depressing, but we need to be hopeful, and create our own new reality.
Governments must have legislation to protect us, but they also need to enforce these laws. They need to encourage other types of business models that are not based on surveillance capitalism. They need to make sure that any new technology must have mandator testing and community consultation, they need to provide non-digital options for citizens. The majority of people are not aware of the Information Commissioner Office, which is the body that regulates information used in the UK.
Big tech companies must provide transparent policies that are user-friendly. The media needs to inform citizens and ask people in power hard questions. fictional shows such as black mirror can support people to recognise online harms and take action. NGOs need to raise awareness of harms and risks, e.g. the Good Law Project has challenged advertising on Meta platforms. Society needs to think about new forms of data governance and actively participate in challenging big tech.
Pam McKinney here live blogging from the final day of the Lilac conference in Cardiff. Meredith Knoff from Indiana University Bloomington presented on a peer-based learning initiative in the library. Peer-based learning has long been used in academic libraries - peers are seen to be more approachable, and both learners and peer teachers gain a lot from the experience. The research desk in the main library focuses on collaborative learning and support across different support areas in a service hub, e.g. IT, financial wellness, etc. The research desk supports students with inquiry projects and searching for information on an individual basis at any stage of their research process. Students can make appointments or drop in, and they offer in-person and online appointments. The desk is staffed by graduate assistants titled "research assistants" to reflect the higher nature of their work on CVs when they leave the university. The majority of the research assistants are studying in the library programme but include masters and PhD students from other disciplines.
The desk service is based on 3 learning theories: a humanist person-centred teaching perspective that emphasises choice and addresses the whole person. Secondly it is based on a dialogic learning perspective drawing on the work of Paolo Freire. This positions the librarian as just as much a learner as the students, on the same level, and the student and teacher actively participate in the learning each other. This encourages students to ask different kinds of questions. These one-on-one consultations support the students in developing their questioning techniques. The third philosophy is based on critical reflection, using metacognition to help learners connect their experiences to academic content. This theoretical basis helps students develop higher-level learning strategies that are transferable to other contexts.
The training for the research assistants is a key part. They meet weekly as a cohort and develop relationships with each other. They use activities such as role-playing and discussion to reflect on their own practice and use this as a means to think about how to support others. They also receive specialist training from librarians, e.g. from the Arts librarian. Research assistants are expected to act independently when working at the desk, so the peer network is really important for developing confidence. They are asked to reflect on their practice in research consultations and identify what went well and what could be improved.
Research assistants complete a self-reflection after each consultation, and these are collected, anonymised and analysed by library staff so they can monitor the practices of the research consultation and improve the training for the research assistants. Library staff have identified three key attributes of a successful consultation: Interpersonal communication, source selection and evaluation and self-reflection, with 3 levels - beginner, advanced and expert.
Meredith shared an example of a self-reflection, which demonstrated a deep reflection on why a particular consultation did not go very well. It demonstrated that the research assistant had engaged with dialogic communication and had developed an advanced mode of engaging with the students and attempting to develop their search practice. Meredith shared another example of a research assistant reflection that was very perfunctory and didn't demonstrate that the research assistant was able to develop a dialogue with the students. One point of learning is that students bring a lot of emotion to their consultations, and it's OK to let the students vent their frustrations and be sympathetic listeners - this is as useful for some students as supporting them in developing a detailed search strategy.
In the future, they will use this consultation reflection to inform strategic service development. There is potential for this service to be expanded, particularly to develop librarianship students, which will support them to develop as reflective practitioners. There is also the opportunity to develop the service in collaboration with student groups.
Photo: student voice wall in the Cardiff University Centre for Student Life
Pam McKinney blogs Jess Haigh (@bookelf.bsky.social) from Leeds Beckett University presented her research: The "LILAC Stories" project, which aimed to investigate the impact of the LILAC conference on the wider Information Literacy community, both for individuals and for institutions. Eva Garcia Grau also contributed to the data analysis. Jess undertook this research because she knew there was anecdotal evidence of the impact of the lilac conference, but this isn't enough for evidence-based decision-making, and it isn't research. Jess found a lot of literature about conference attendance - motivations, experiences and critical studies of conferences. However, there was less literature about the impact of conferences on attendees. Jess has been involved in the lilac conference committee for a long time, and they have found it tricky to evaluate the impact of the conference, but they wanted to demonstrate the value of the conference to employers in all sectors to support future applications for attendance and participation. Conferences enable access to temporary power, but it can also generate feelings of inferiority, shame, anxiety and fear.
The impact of the conference depends on what delegates do after the conference with the new information they have gleaned. Jess spoke about the time it takes to do research and how she managed to fit this in around her full-time job. She didn't have a research supervisor or any funding to do this research. She had to gain ethical approval, and there were concerns about anonymity because the lilac community is quite small. There were 3 main methods for data collection - 25 online form submissions of "lilac stories", 14 online interviews transcribed automatically and a review of 70 conference reports that were created after the conference. Jess spoke about the challenges of the research - lots of people promised to submit lilac stories but didn't. The online team's transcriptions weren't high quality, and anonymising the interviews without losing meaning was hard. Jess used Nvivo qualitative analysis software, which really helped simplify the thematic analysis of the data. She used Zotero reference management software to support the research process. Another limitation is that it wasn't possible to acknowledge the way that the conference has been complicit in oppressive systems.
Papers presented at Lilac were relevant to the delegates and supported them to develop information literacy research and practice "I would describe it as a great big ideas party". Presentations are used to benchmark practice locally and globally. The information gathered at the conference leads to further academic work and publications. Delegates report a "critical awakening" leading to more critical praxis, and led to confidence to challenge academic staff. Keynotes were a significant point of impact and development for delegates.
There were themes relating to the affective impact of the conference. First-timers can feel overwhelmed, and there was advice to take time to rest and process information. Attending Lilac can lead to professional validation, and feelings that their work matters and has value. It was clear from the data that there is a group of Lilac "fans", who gain significant benefit from the conference.
The social side of the conference was important. Connections made at the conference have led to professional collaborations, including research and publications. Sustained involvement in Lilac, e.g. on the committee or through regular attendance, has a significant impact on the careers of delegates. Attendance at the conference for many is dependent on bursary funding, either from the ILG or other partners. Getting a bursary can be instrumental in career development, research collaborations, or joining the committee.
More research is needed on the experiences of global majority delegates, the impact of fandom membership on conferences, the impact of conference attendance on citation practices, and the voices of those who haven't been to the conference or have only been once and didn't come again.
Recommendations: make more bursaries available, recruit people to the committee who come from sectors outside of Higher education, and work with organisations outside of HE to host a conference. There is a need to encourage reflection on the value of the conference.
Pam McKinney here live blogging from the second day of the LILAC conference in Cardiff. Richard Douglas from Trinity Laban Conservatoire spoke about research that he undertook as part of his MA in Librarianship at UCL. Richard is a trained singer who started working in libraries and studied at UCL. He became interested in embodied information, drawing on the work of Annemaree Lloyd, who identified this corporeal information as an aspect of the information landscape of trainee firefighters and ambulance workers. There is a body of research looking at embodied information behaviours in serious leisure contexts, e.g. ultra running. Embodied information refers to information stored, processed, produced and interpreted by the body. Singing is a very embodied activity, bodies are central to singing practice, but also, in the context of the conservatoire, it is embodied information in an academic context, where singers become experts in using their voices.
He used an interpretive qualitative study design using grounded theory. There were 4 participants - three students and 1 teacher. Participants were asked about their bodily information and their singing practice, focusing on their learning and progression and how they got better at using information. Participants were very engaged in the questions, and the data was very rich. Participants spoke about analogies and metaphors for information, pain as a key source of information, and listening to themselves singing. observing other people's bodies, the unreliable nature of hearing one own voice. A more reliable way to access information about the quality of the voice is to record it and play it back. Information activities acted as feedback loops, and then this could be used as a prompt to action. Even though singers can notice information, they don't always know what to do with it, but teachers can support this and help singers take appropriate action.
Richard noted that the study of embodied information literacy is still quite new and under-researched. This study has provided music educators with an information-based understanding of formal singing training, and provides some insight into the role of the teacher in developing information literacy. For librarians, it is important to recognise that singing students might have a high level of information literacy, but in a non-traditional way, we need to avoid a deficit mindset in teaching. We need to think of ways to connect their existing information literacy practices to more text-based information literacy that is more traditional in higher education.
Photo by Pam McKinney - statue of a child in front of the Cardiff museum
Jane Secker was introduced by Nigel Morgan with a revision of his "Cephalonian method" which involved seeding questions in the audience for Nigel to answer to provide a background to Jane's career and information literacy work, it was a a very funny introduction to Jane, that matches the word cloud that Nigel and colleagues created for Jane (see photo below), writes Pam McKinney from the LILAC conference.
Jane introduced us to a writer, Brene Brown, who writes about speaking truth to power and putting oneself out there to communicate important values. Jane spoke about the current "information wars" and that we have lost a battle with truth with the prevalence of mis and dis information. This is concerning to the UK government - only 45% of UK adults said they were confident in judging the truth of the information they encountered online. We assume that people use their information literacy for good, but actually, there are highly information-literate people who deliberately spread misinformation. Jane used Star Wars as an example - with librarians acting as the plucky Jedi with information literacy lightsabres. The film Dead Poets Society was another cultural reference. This movie illustrates the value of excellent teaching, and Jane reflected on her experience of being taught history as an inquiry in school, where she had to analyse evidence to try to determine the truth. Jane learnt about bias and propaganda and why these concepts mean that information literacy is so important. This led to Jane becoming a researcher, she was interested in how historians evaluated newspapers and whether it would be possible to digitise newspapers and make them keyword-searchable.
Jane reflected on the value of libraries as places where people can freely access information and knowledge and shared a picture of the band the Manic Street Preachers, who had a banner behind them that said, "Libraries gave us power". It became clear to Jane when she was working as a librarian that information literacy was a vital personal competence, it wasn't just about the preservation of material, it was about being able to access it. Jane spoke about her friendship with Debbi Boden-Angell and how meeting Debbi sparked the creation of the LILAC conference that brought the nascent Information Literacy community together. She spoke about how Paul Zurkowski's initial paper sparked an entire information literacy movement with huge amounts of activity, models, research, and frameworks. Zurkowsli assumed that information would be locked away and would be hard to access, but in reality, information has become over-abundant, and is pushed at us in so many ways.
Advocating for information literacy has been hard. The value of information literacy outside the library community is poorly recognised, and in a paper by William Badke about why information literacy is invisible - he concluded that it was because academic assumes students will just learn information literacy by osmosis. In the UK, there is a recent school curriculum review which summarises competencies that students need to work effectively with information. However there is a proliferation of terms to describe new "literacies", and this forces us to have to justify our conception of the critical value of information literacy.
Jane spoke about the value of the LILAC community for her, and her work to connect with information literacy researchers and practitioners all around the world. We need to go outside our community and connect with others such as the Media and Information Literacy Alliance to have an impact on these complex problems the world is facing.
Jane spoke about doing a Postgraduate Diploma in learning and teaching in Higher Education and how the experience of doing this qualification was important for her career. Jane now teaches academic practice to lecturers and educational developers. Jane thinks that information literacy teachers are some of the most innovative educators in universities and encourages librarians to get a teaching qualification. She spoke about some examples from this years' LILAC conference of the innovative teaching that librarians are doing.
Jane spoke about the importance of copyright in this AI environment where there is a perceived threat to artists from AI using their work without attribution or permission. There is a misconception about copyright law, and it is necessary for librarians to be informed about copyright law and to share this with library users. Jane encouraged us to share our information literacy teaching with each other, and ensure that it is available as Open Educational Resources for all to use.
Jane spoke about the need for us all to collect evidence of the impact of our information literacy work and how it supports learning. We need evidence that our teaching is making a difference to learners. In all the noise about critical AI literacy, it is important that Librarians are at the table where this is being discussed and that we have excellent teaching that encompasses AI literacy.
Jane's colleague Chris Morrison finished the keynote by playing a new song on his guitar that they wrote together to share the history and joy of information literacy. This was a great keynote that I thoroughly enjoyed and it brought a real energy to the conference - thanks Jane!
Jane has made her presentation available here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1skEEswue-ctVdcSvkyaj-HTRp0BiJdum
Veronica Arellano Douglas and Natalia Kapacinskas from the University of Houston shared a "teaching story" from their own practice blogs Pam McKinney, from day 2 of the LILAC conference. They designed a collaborative activity to support students to write a technical report for the fantasy scene in the movie "Up", where the house flies away connected to a cloud of balloons. The session first focused on a questioning approach to create a curiosity-driven session. Although they really enjoyed teaching this session and students seemed to get a lot out of it, ultimately, the only "measure" of the session was quantitative - a set of numbers that were reported to a library association. They gave a brief overview of learning assessment in academic libraries in the USA, moving from 2010 when the ACRL and other authors tried to establish how to assess the value of information literacy teaching. from 2013-2016, there were several attempts to link information literacy teaching to higher grades in students, but it was quite tricky to prove a causal relationship, and it was perceived to be correlational only. A lot of quantitative data is easy to collect, e.g. gate statistics, numbers in sessions, etc, but it does a poor job of illustrating the value of the library. From 2019 onwards, there was a lot more interest in qualitative measures of student satisfaction and how they perceived the value of the instruction they had received.
At the university, they wanted to delve a lot more deeply into their own teaching and how it could be assessed or measured. They wanted to introduce a value-based approaoch. The University of Houston is a large, publically funded university with high research activity. Within the library, there is a teaching and learning department with 7 librarians who provide information literacy teaching across the university. They are dedicated to the learning and growth of both themselves and their students. They played a recording from Mae Warren, who spoke about the department values - inclusivity, collaboration, authentic assessment, a critical approach, a reflective approach, experimentation and empathy. There is a culture of development and reflection for the staff, with lots of activity centred around professional development, collaborative development and peer support for teaching. Critical reflection is at the heart of all they do. A project started to look at critical approaches to assessment, and this led to the development of a reflective toolkit, which consists of a set of resources to support the teaching of information literacy. It encourages teachers to reflect on their teaching assumptions and think about how students learn. It encourages teachers to reflect on the different perspectives on their teaching, and draws on a broad variety of previous research and literature to create a thought-provoking resource.
A student learning section provides resources to support the evaluation of student learning. It includes lots of ideas to encourage student reflection that can be applied in teaching sessions, for example, using reflective polls throughout a session. Another section of the resource focuses on supporting a process of evaluation of teaching. This toolkit is intended to be used over 2 years by teachers to develop themselves and their teaching. They shared some examples of how the toolkit had supported their professional development as teachers in a number of ways, for example, supporting reflection, addressing imposter syndrome, and developing their self-efficacy, being more mindful about teaching. It supports small improvements in teaching - noting that "it doesn't have to be big", but continuous improvement is something to aspire to.
At the end of the year, they applied some evaluation of the toolkit and discussed a number of questions in their team, e.g. what have you learnt this year, what worked or didn't work, and what have you changed in your teaching practice. This was a great opportunity to share successful activities they had tried, for example, "sticky note plaudits", which encourages attendees at a session to write positive feedback about other people's comments at the end of a teaching session. There was a creative flavour to their reflection with one colleague writing a poem about the value of feedback.
Year 2 of the toolkit focuses on student learning and how to encourage reflective approaches in various ways in classes. They noted that not all sessions were suitable for reflective approaches, but they are always thinking about ways to support them.
Sheila and I include a reflective assignment in the information literacy module that we teach, and this presentation made me reflect (again!) on the value of reflection as a teacher, and that this assessment is a very useful way to build reflective skills in our student-librarians.
Photo by Pam McKinney: covid-era pavement sign to encourage social distancing in Cardiff
