#KRIK conference

On 17 and 18 September I'll be attending the KRIK conference in Zagreb, Croatia, hopefully doing some liveblogging. The conference title is Missions in Motion: From Service to Empowerment in the Era of AI and Digital Capitalism. The book of abstracts is here https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:131:308294
I'm not presenting, but I'm a "Conference invited commentator" so I will need to pay attention! ;-)
Photo by Sheila Webber: Zagreb Cathedral (under restoration), September 2026

Project CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments)

Project CORA (https://projectcora.org) is planning improvements and they welcome suggestions on what would make it more usefu. Project CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments) "is a free, open-access collection of lesson plans and teaching resources for information literacy and research instruction.
There is a "short, voluntary, anonymous survey about where you look for teaching ideas and which features, topics, and community activities would be most valuable in a resource like CORA. You don't need to have used CORA before to participate"
Deadline is 30 October 2026.
Go to https://mylmu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6Wi46turK9K9YCa for the questionnaire. Contact Susan Archambault (susan.archambault@lmu.edu) with any questions
Photo by Sheila Webber: sculpture A Family in Residence by Ivan Murray, Sptember 2026

World Patient Safety Day

World Patient Safety Day (a World Health Organization official day) takes place on 17 September and the theme is: Safe care for noncommunicable diseases.
The official website is here: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-patient-safety-day/2026
The World Patients Alliance has a ten-day social media campaign from 8th to 17th September 2026, with each day focusing on a specific theme aligned with the objectives, and I've highlighted the one most directly to do with information (medication safety and clear information).
Their World Patient Safety Day 2026 social media Toolkit is at https://www.worldpatientsalliance.org/world-patient-safety-day-2026/social-media-toolkit/

Programas de alfabetización informacional desarrollados en universidades mexicanas

Published earlier this year, the open-access book (Spanish language) on information literacy in Mexican universities: Programas de alfabetización informacional desarrollados en universidades mexicanas: Un recuento de experiencias y un vistazo al futuro, edited by José de Jesús Cortés Vera and Ma. Lourdes Tiscareño Arroyo, published by the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, ISBN: 978-607-520-566-3
The abstract reads "Este libro está enfocado en dar a conocer los esfuerzos realizados y experiencias adquiridas en programas de alfabetización informacional (ALFIN) que promueven el desarrollo de competencias informacionales. El propósito es reflexionar sobre los avances logrados en este tema en el contexto de la educación superior en México en los últimos veinticinco años, además de intentar un ejercicio de prospección, en una visión de corto plazo, buscando anticipar los factores que estarán afectando a estos programas en los próximos años. Los textos que se presentan en la obra son el resultado de la experiencia de varios autores desde hace algunos lustros, con quienes se buscó cubrir una diversidad de aspectos sobre el tema y, además, reflejar las visiones de varias instituciones, todas ellas mexicanas."
Go to https://elibros.uacj.mx/omp/index.php/publicaciones/catalog/book/353
Photo by Sheila Webber: ice plant, September 2026

Delivering effective online training

CILIP Cymru/Wales is combining its AGM on 18 September 2026 at 13.00-14.00 BST with a free CPD event: Delivering effective online training led by Marta de Abreu. 
"Increasingly library and information staff are asked to deliver online training, our informative session with Marta de Abreu, CILIP Learn Development Manager, introduces practical strategies to engage learners, and create sessions that are memorable and meaningful. All CILIP members are welcome to attend." (so that implies you have to be a CILIP member, although you don't have to provide a membership number on registration...) Register here
Photo by Sheila Webber: Mermaid statue by Damien Hirst, on the Thames, August 2026

International Media and Information Literacy Institute

The International Media and Information Literacy Institute (IMILI) was launched in April 2026, as a partnership between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 
It is based at the National Open University of Nigeria and "aims to serve as an international observatory for Media and Information Literacy development and catalyst for sustained research that offer empirical evidence on the social impact of MIL globally." A number of the resources are "under construction" but there is an interesting first issue of their newsletter. 
Go to: https://www.imilinstitute.org/

Webinar: Prebunking the Feed: Shielding The Next Gen from Online Extremism and Disinformation

The CILIP School Libraries Group with Shout Out UK have organised a webinar: Prebunking the Feed: Shielding The Next Gen from Online Extremism and Disinformation, on 12 November 2026 at 16.00-17.00 BST. This will be "a talk given by Matteo Bergamini, the founder of Shout Out UK whose book Man Enough: protecting boys from online misogyny will be published on 14 September 2026." 
Free to CILIP members, £15 to non members. 
Go to https://my.cilip.org.uk/events-calendar/cilip-slg-shout-out-uk-prebunking-the-feed-shielding-the-next-gen-from-online-extremism-and-disinformation/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Creepers over the park grass (which have just been mown awayY, September 2026

Register Your Event for Global Media and Information Literacy Week 2026

UNESCO's Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week will again take place 24 October-30 October, although this year they are encouraging a looser interpretation of "week" to include events September-November. The theme this year is We All Play a Part – Media and Information Literacy for the People. There will not be a single flagship conference, but regional conferences: at the moment ones in Cairo, Nairobi, Montreal, Chișinău, New Delhi and Bishkek are announced.
Also "MIL stakeholders worldwide are invited to contribute to the celebration by organizing and registering their own event or activity in their community, city, municipality or region. Events can take place online or in person during September, October or November 2026 and may include workshops, conferences, debates, exhibitions, training sessions, youth activities, campaigns and other MIL initiatives." Therefore, do register your information literacy events!!
- Information about Global MIL week is here https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/global-media-and-information-literacy-week-2026
- You register your event here (it doesn't look like it has to exactly match the theme, just relate to MIL): https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Uq5PHbM5-kuwswIpVrERlBWhhgVs9XdMvveTwgiLYAhUQkRHUUgyMlkyT01OWlNJQ1FDNlFPVlA0Wi4u
- There is more information about the groups who are considered particularly important when "We all play a part" here (perhaps we could lobby for librarians to be included? though obviously they are partially covered by "educators") https://www.unesco.org/en/weallplayapart

Task cards for teaching AI Literacy & AI competence

Faktabaari (a Finnish "digital information literacy and fact-checking service") has published a pdf with 286 "Task cards for teaching AI Literacy & AI competence descriptions for learners " in English.  Each card (a page in the pdf) has an outline of a lesson plan for teaching some aspect of AI Literacy, and there are cards for all levels of education from kindergarten to university (with a lot fewer at university level, but that seems fair). "Each card is based on the principle of AI as supporting tool in which AI can be used to support human thinking, learning and action, not as a source of information or a substitute for decision making."
For example, there is an activity for those age 1-5 "Sometimes the machine does something silly" "Staff show an example in which the machine does something silly or wrong, for example draws an odd picture. Notice together that the machine does not always get it right. Wonder that a picture made by a machine
is not a photograph and is not true, but something the machine has made." (with more tips for the teacher). Each card also makes links to the Finnish national curricula and the OECD AI literacy framework.
The introduction is here https://kivinen.wordpress.com/2026/09/02/task-cards-for-teaching-ai-literacy-ai-competence-descriptions-for-learners/
The pdf is at https://faktabaari.fi/images/ai_task_bank_by_level_en.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber, taken in Second Life, interior design by me, August 2026. This is not a machine-made picture, as I spent hours choosing and arranging each part of the furnishings and then taking pictures, on the other hand it is entirely virtual. I think it will also be important to think about the difference between "real screenshots" (of virtual worlds, games tec.) and AI-created screenshots.

Recent articles: algorithmic literacy; writing with AI

The latest issue of open-access College & Research ibraries News (Vol 87, No 86) includes:
- Putting Algorithmic Literacy into Conversation with the ACRL Framework: Insights, Ideas, and Innovations by Sarah Morris
- When the Program Becomes the Author: A Librarian’s View from the Threshold by Anna Małgorzata Kamińska (discusses writing and AI)
- AI as Assessment Partner: Practical Applications and Critical Cautions, Part 2 by Becky Croxton, Megan Oakleaf (this is about evaluation of services or programmes, not assessing learning)
Go to https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/issue/view/1701/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: adopt a phone box, August 2026

International Literacy Month Celebration: Literacy for People, the Planet and Prosperity

The Library and Information Service and the Faculty of Humanities North-West University, South Africa, has a hybrid (online and in person) event on 15 September 2026, 10-13.00 Central Africa Time (9.00-12.00 BST): International Literacy Month Celebration: Literacy for People, the Planet and Prosperity 
Register at https://nwu.libcal.com/event/17225008 
Photo by Sheila Webber: tiny park, September 2026

Critical Thinking Bootcamp 2026: Strengthening AI Literacy

The publishers Sage have made available material from an event held in July 2026: Critical Thinking Bootcamp 2026: Strengthening AI Literacy. It comprises recordings of speakers (all from North America) e.g. The rationality of distrust: Information integrity beyond individualism by Brooklyne Gipson (Rutgers University), and "a crowdsourced list of AI literacy and critical thinking resources, including teaching materials and reading recommendations shared by attendees of the 2026 Bootcamp" (i.e. a list of curated links).
Go to https://www.sagepub.com/our-initiatives/critical-thinking/critical-thinking-bootcamp-2026
Photo by Sheila Webber: lowering weather in North Greenwich, August 2026

Recording: the Information Literacy Handbook

There is a 51-minute recording of a session, held on 13 August 2026 in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication (IJC), University of Sheffield (UK), in which I, Bill Johnston and Dr Pam McKinney introduce the Information Literacy Handbook. The chair is Dr Dani Madrid-Morales (Co-Lead of the Disinformation, Information Integrity and Literacies (DIIL) Research Cluster in the IJC, University of Sheffield). 
It starts with an introduction to the Handbook and to ILIAD, then Bill and I highlight some aspects of our introductory chapter, then Pam talks about her Theory of Change chapter and finally I talk about my chapter on Autoethnography. There is alos a short question session at the end. You can enable captions if you wish. 
The recording is at https://digitalmedia.sheffield.ac.uk/media/Launch+of+the+Information+Literacy+Handbook/1_o55e9bc6 and is embedded below.