Presentations from #ECIL2017

Many presentations from European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL) that took place on September 2017 are now on the website http://ecil2017.ilconf.org/
Go to the Speakers and program tab, and if the presentation is there, it will be linked in its place in the programme. Lots of of aspects of information literacy are covered, and with presentations from many countries around the world.

Medical students information literacy self efficacy: Pam liveblogs from #ECIL2017

Ann de Meulemeester from Ghent University presented some of the research about information literacy for self efficacy, which highlighted the role that IL has in the academic curriculum and for lifelong learning. Their research has shown that new students' confidence level of their searching abilities is much higher than the reality. Self efficacy is developed gradually through experience, it involves participation, and affects how persistent a person will be. Students with lower self efficacy avoid active learning and are less inclined to develop IL. Doctors must contiually engage in evidence based practice, and so need skills for lifelong learning, including IL. They identified a need for a longitudinal large scale, domain specific study. This study took place in the faculty of medecine and health sciences which has a 6 year medical curriculum. This was a mixed methods study using a 28 item ILSE questionnaire and pre-and post- testing, the study has been runnng since 2011. Data is collected in the first 2 weeks of the academic year. The qualitative data is collected through focus groups with students from all levels of study. Data analysis is still ongoing, however some initial quantitative results were presented, showing the gap in IL abilities between new and experienced students.

#ECIL2017 - panel session on theorising information literacy: Pam live blogs

This is the last day of the ECIL2017 conference and this morning I'm live blogging a panel session on "theorising information literacy" hosted by Bill Johnston, Honorary research fellow at University of Strathclyde,  and featuring contributions from Information Literacy Weblog owner Sheila Webber and Olivier Le Deuff, assistant professor in information science and communication studies at University of Bordeaux Montaigne.

All panel members have long experience of information literacy, and have a strong nterest in pedagogy and education. Sheila spoke about Information Literacy as a discipline, and the benefits this has as a field of study for PhD researchers, as this provides common touchpoints, language, understandings etc. If we are to consolidate research and move forwards as a discipline people need to be able to identify each other and work together. The evidence for identifying information literacy as a discipline is compelling, for example the existence of dedicated journals, associations and conferences, graduate research and an international community. Sheila cited Trowler 2014 who has written a definition of what is a discipline in the 21st century. Perhaps what IL lacks is a specific university department, however in looking at this conference, we could say that it is an organisational form.

Olivier then looked at discipline from a Foucaultian perspective, and likened IL to telling people to "eat your spinach" (because it is good for you) but we need to explore more how to cook the spinach, or how it is grown. Information literacy is spoken about as being school-based in France, delivered by school librarians, and there have been efforts to develop IL as a new discipline in schools. Frisch 2003. Research is taking place into pedagogy for IL and cultures of information. It is more complex than simply identifying a set of skills and teaching those. IL is closely linked to library and information science, and is seen to be a scientific concept. Others related disciplines are education studies, media studies, communication studies, "documentology" the science of documents.

In the second half of the session the panel addressed the question of theory within the discipline of information literacy. Pupils can access information easily but struggle with evaluating and understanding, and there is limited time for teaching these complex abilities. Over the last 10 years Olivier feels they have been successful in developing a scientific curriculum for IL, but there is still work to do in convincing politicians to devote time in the school timetable for IL.

Sheila spoke about different models and theories of IL and the need to use and discuss these with learners. Sheila introduced Theories in Information Behaviour" published in 2005, however there is still debate about the existence of theory in information science. Sheila then asserted that there is theory development in information literacy, before going on to introduce phenomenography research method as a way to work towards the generation of  theory. Sheila is beginning a meta analysis of phenomenographic of studies of adults' conceptions of IL, and introduced a range of conceptions of IL drawn from 6 phenomenographic studies, and suggested that these conceptions would be present in any adult population. Is is possible to move to a discussion of why these conceptions are present?

It was a stimulating panel, and provided much food for thought- many thanks to Sheila, Bill and Olivier!

Session on IL in different contexts : Pam liveblogs from #ECIL2017

Fabian Franke from Bamberg university library in Germany spoke about government information literacy at German universities and the role of the library in this. Information literacy has to fit into the digital strategy of the university. Librarians need new skills in order to be part of this digital strategy, and that this should be part of the curricula at library school.

Next Monique Schoutsen from Radboud University presented on privacy and an online IL course. Organisations in the EU will face large fines, up to 10million Euros for leaking personal data. Universities have to be concerned about this, as they hold lots of personal data, and also research data. They are designing an online course to teach students how to communicate privately, and how to encrypt data held on personal storage devices. The computer support department has the following slogan:  A password is like a toothbrush: choose a good one, don't share it with anyone, change it occasionally

Lieselot Verryck and Stephen Laporte from Vrije university in Brussels spoke about setting up a MOOC for information literacy. This had to be accomplished with limited time and limited resources, and with unfamiliar software. Collaboration was really important, and the team made best use of expertise from across the university. They did extensive research on existing IL Online tutorials worldwide, and luckily there was considerable buy-in across the university for this new resource.

Rajendra Munoo from Singapore Management University spoke about continuing professional development and the contribution this makes to workplace information literacy.

And finally Dr Leslie Farmer, the coordinator of a teaching librarian programme at  CSULB in the US Spoke about fake news and becoming an informed citizen. Fake news is deliberate, published misinformation, and news information must be evaluated by the individual to avoid being taken in by fake news. It is vital that students have media and information literacy teaching as part of their Higher Education experience. Some example activities are for students to write their own fake news story, involving users in fact checking a fake news story, and asking learners to identify fake news trends.

Keynote from Andrew Whitworth- Lessons from the Borg Cube: information literacy and the knowledge of difference. Pam liveblogs from #ECIL2017

Andrew began his talk with a brief discussion of the misinformation laden Brexit election, and commented on the neoliberal agenda that is closing libraries and increasing state surveillance. There is collusion between the establishment and the media to control information, as evidenced during the Hillsborough stadium disaster where a narrative blaming the Liverpool fans rather than the police persisted for 27 years. Andrew cited a book by Marge Piercey called "body of glass" where the heroine is an information professional. In this dystopian future controlled by multinational organisations, independent communities must protect their information by building complex information architecture. Andrew then used the Star Trek villains "the Borg" to comment on information practices, and the need to be creative.The work of David Harvey was used to comment on the relationship between space, place and capital.   Each landscape is unique, they can constrain information flows and flows of capital. The space of this lecture theatre is designed to allow information to flow from the stage to the audience. The work of Annemaree Lloyd on information landscape was used to raise the idea of mapping of the (information) landscape. An example was given of a local authority whose new office building radically altered both information and working practice, but not everyone found it a comfortable or easy place to work. Redesign of the physical space in an academic library can affect information practices. A concept mapping too was used to facilitate group mapping of practices in the landscape and to raise and discuss differences in practice. This allowed a bottom up reconfiguration rather than it coming from the top.

This was a wide ranging and complex keynote, so that I'm not sure I've been able to capture the breadth and the depth of the talk, however other perspectives are available!

Information literacy for Masters dissertation students: Pam live blogs from #ECIL2017

Next Kristine Stewart spoke about a project at Kings College to develop IL for masters dissertation students. These students are form a diverse range of international backgrounds, and may lack IL, it is difficult to know what level of IL students have. Continuous reflective activities are seen as one way to develop IL. Students are encouraged to relate their dissertation topic to the prior areas of study in the department. An initial dissertation proposal allows supervisors to be assigned and gives them an idea of the students level of topic knowledge, and their information seeking ability. Further support is then offered for search strategies, and sources and writing strategies are also discussed. Masters students, as researchers have a role as information creators when doing their dissertation. Dissertation advisors engage in reflective teaching practice in advice sessions, and this empowers students to engage in research.

threshold concepts in IL professional education: Pam liveblogs from #ECIL2017

Virginia Tucker from San Jose State University presented first after the coffee break on her research into threshold concepts in IL professional education. Information literacy professionals undertake a variety of roles such as teaching, mentoring, facilitating the information experience of others. Virginia cited the Information experience book, and introduced the idea of "threshold concepts" for learning. She stated that it's pretty hard for a concept to qualify as "threshold", it must be transformative counterintuitive, troublesome, integrative, irreversible and bounded. Threshold concepts can be used in curriculum design, but one must consider the sequencing of the content, the learning processes, and how learners and educators recognise that a threshold concept has been internalised (I.e. through assessment). Curriculums need to shift from being skillls based to being concepts based. The department that Virginia teaches in is wholly online, where the role of the instructor is to "participate and provoke in creative and playful ways". Students work frequently in groups, and students from different time zones can struggle with scheduling. Online discussions are reflective, and evalauative. Discussions are problem solving, and involve peer testing of databases that students have created.  It was really interesting to hear how Virginia manages and facilitates group work for distance learning students.

First session after lunch at #ECIL2017: Pam liveblogs

Charlie Inskip from the department of information studies at UCL was the first speaker after lunch and presented his research project "on the move", funded by the CILIP information literacy group. The agenda in U.K. HE is increasingly concerned with employability and digital literacy. Information literacy is well understood in the HE context, but is less well understood in the workplace. The context of this research is the financial sector, as this is the number one destination for UCL graduates.   They conducted 18 interviews at an insurance firm in the city of London, and 2 focus groups. Five interviews and one focus group were also conducted with students. Marc Forster's themes of expanding awareness were used to analyse the data. The results showed that students and insurance workers had different language to talk about information literacy. More specific technical terminology was used by insurance workers. Statements were created that were mapped against each of Marc Forsters 7 themes, and an online resource was created.

Joyce Kinyanjui from the University of Zululand spoke about financial literacy of female entrepreneurs in Kenya. 81 million USD were lost on pyramid schemes in Kenya, primarily by women, raising concerns about the level of financial literacy in the population. Female economic empowerment is linked to functional, financial and information literacy. 25% of working age women are illiterate. The study used a mixed methods approach, with a sample of women's entrepreneur groups. The results showed that information seeking behaviour before taking out a loan was not good, they didn't shop around for loans.  Only 20% felt in control of their financial status, and only 30% had a written record of their expenses. There was a link between checking statements and level of comfort with their debt, and regularly checking these is an important indicator of financial literacy. Being in control of the family finances empowers women economically.

Angela Repanovici from Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania spoke about an international project to modernise academic library services in Moldova. They identified different needs for IL at different levels of study, but also in terms of life after university in the workplace. Masters graduates were invited to take part in an information literacy survey about their IL skills and the support available for entrepreneurship. 119 responses were received from graduates who were either working for an organisation or who had set up their own business. The results showed that respondents were heavy users of professional information for their field, and the majority of respondents thought that the library had contributed to the development of critical analysis of information. About half respondents though that their university had made information about financial sources for entrepreneurs available. Most respondents thought that the development of professional competence was up to the individual. The results can be a starting point for the development of joint employer-university courses to buil IL.

In the final presentation in this session, Gunilla Widen and Muhaimin Karin from Abo AkademiUniversity in Finland  presented on the role of information culture in workplace information literacy. There is growing awareness that IL in the workplace is not just a set of skills, it is highly contextual and dependent on the information culture of the organisation. A literature review was conducted to examine information literacy and information culture in the workplace. 23 journal papers were extracted, and 18 were reviewed as containing a focus of IL and information culture. The review found that Information culture is heavily influenced by leadership style, institutional regulation and information politics. Factors such as mission, employee behaviour also affect it. Information culture affects the adoption of new ICT systems, it is not just about the capabilities of the technology itself. Information usage in the workplace is often about social interaction, and it is important to have a transparent, open and positive environment towards information and knowledge.

Using a brain booth to promote metacognition: Sheila liveblogs from #ecil2017

At the end of the session in which Pam and we're presenting at the I were presenting at the European Conference on Information Literacy , Katia Karadjova (coauthor Marissa Mourer) presented on Dare to share the silence: tools and practices of contemplative pedagogy in a library brain booth. She was reporting on a project at Humboldt State University. The idea of the library brain booth was to introduce mindfulness, and promote metacognition. Students are encouraged to think about the impact of taking a brain break on their academic performance and life: emotional self-regulation and singular thoughtful focus are the other aspects of mindfulness that were mentioned.
The first tool was guided meditation (in a booth with a cd), a second used a biofeedback machine (with the idea of aiming to become calm, as registered on the machine), then there was sound-relaxation, colour relaxation (that is, doing colouring) and light-relaxation (to counter lack of sunlight) . There was also virtual reality immersion, with 2 headsets for iPhones and android. Another tool was a sheet on which people could express gratitude to someone in their lives. Fitdesks were available. Finally, there was also a collection of books etc. related to this topic.
The investigation was esssentially into whether there was interest in such tools and activities. Two different rooms/setups were used, to see which was more effective. A lib guide was produced, which gained over 1000 views. 240 different people came to the brain booth, some several times, in 10 weeks. Following this initial semester, the brain booth was treated as a pop up initiative, for example around exam time. People were able to fill in comment cards, and all these were positive. There were also observations by the authors of the presentation, which identified that some tools were more effective than others e.g. people seemed to get distracted when doing colouring. Therefore they are identifying the best combinations of technology and tools.

The speakers “showed an existing gap between engagement with digital tools centred on contemplative pedagogy and in person faculty participation”. They felt there was scope for using these techniques more in library/ academic work. In answer to a question, the speaker said that they are talking to faculty about embedding the brain booth into subject classes.

Pre-lunch session @ #ECIL2017 Pam liveblogs

Pavla Kovarova spoke about information behaviour and e-safety of primary school children in the Czech Republic. Previous research has shown that children download illegal and inappropriate content. They struggle to evaluate quality of material. There are issues to do with the sharing of personal information with many children having public profile information and getting involved in sexting activities. They engage in more risky online behaviours than the EU average. There is not much time given in the primary school curriculum to discuss issues of e-safety and information literacy. Pavla developed a series of lessons for primary school children based learning n constructivist theories, so student-centred,problem based and involvingactive and cooperative learning. The classes are 90 minutes long but don't actually involve use of computers, the focus is more on safety. The research methods were observation (59 classes, 1398 children), children's evaluations, 360 degree feedback, focus groups with teachers and pre- and post- tests for children. 5 schools and 2 libraries took part in the study.

 children in lower grades were happier with the sessions. Less traditional and more active teaching styles got better feedback from both children and teachers. There was a wide range of expertise and experience of using the internet in the children.

Anna Mierzecka spoke about school librarians attitudes to teaching information literacy. This reseRch project was undertaken in collaboration between Warsaw university and researchers in Lithuania. The literature says that school librarians take on a number of roles in their institutions, but there is lack of awareness of the school librarian as an IL educator. Several studies highlighted how emotions and lack of self esteem affect librarians' teaching.  A web survey was developed aimed at librarians from the 250 best secondary schools in Lithuania and Poland (500 school in total). Response rate was 45%,  143 responses from Lithunania and 87 from Poland. The majority of respondents were experienced librarians. There were big differences in how librarians from the 2 countries taught IL. The big six model was used to ask librarians what aspects of IL they taught. The study examined librarians emotional motivation for their teaching role, and generally respondents were really positive about their roles, and were also positive about their development in the future. People considered their role important, and that they made a difference in the world.

First set of parallel sessions Tuesday @ #ECIL2017: Pam liveblogs

Monica Krakowska gave a presentation about the use of information grounds theory used to understand the information literacy of new undergraduate information management students. Information grounds theory makes it possible to understand information activities and to investigate their emotional response to information use and sharing. 95 first year undergraduate information management students at Jagiellonan University took part in the research in 2016-2017. Student writing created during face to face sessions were used as the data for the research, and were examined for evidence of information grounds. The data revealed that students identified places as information grounds where people make ad hoc information exchanges. The writing was quite impersonal, probably because it was created quickly for a class assignment. It was noticed that students create information grounds at the university. A problem with the res arch was that students often wrote about the examples they were given in the lecture, rather than thinking of their own examples.

Next, Vajeran Buselic spoke about graduate employability using and information literacy quest at Croatian Universities. In Croatia graduate unemployment is very high. Employers recognise the value of IL and critical thinking but lack awareness of the terminology. A web of science search for "information literacy" and "employability" found only 15 results. There seems to be a disconnect between information literacy researchers and authors, and employability researchers and authors. Citespace was used to visually map citations for information literacy and employability.

Stephane Goldstein: information literacy and the future of work : Pam blogs from #ECIL2017

Stephane is the director of Informall which is concerned with promoting Information literacy in the workplace and in other contexts. Past science fiction authors have imagined a dystopian and hyper industrial future world of work, but this hasn't and probably wont come to pass. Stephane introduced some long term workplace trends, for example a trend for less hierarchical organisational structures, that work is becoming less routine and there is an increase in project work, meaning more collaborative and team work. Stephane introduced some emerging characteristics of work, including less security, more entrepreneurial, fragmented in terms of task and space, more working from home and automated or at risk of automation.

 A more optimistic vision of the future is that the workforce will be "ageless", "mindful", "intuitive" and "collaborative". Another vision of the future is that it is a "lattice" rather than a "ladder" model of career progression, meaning that workplaces are more inclusive and collaborative. Going hand in hand with this vision is the idea that the workplace is characterised  by widespread knowledge and information sharing. However these rather rosy view of the modern workplace ignore the fact that there are workers such as cleaners, catering staff, security personnel etc who are on the margins of the organisation - what can information literacy do for them? There is a risk of digital and information exclusions for this type of worker. Stephane reflected on the rise of the gig economy, and how this is positive in flexibility, but negative in terms of job security and exploitation. There is a rise in the availability of the "human cloud", platforms and services that allow individuals to bid for work internationally. This could encourage entrepreneurship, but also it could encourage the emergence of a new "precariat", a class of people with no job security, job stability or career progression. Stephane asks "what can information literacy do for this kind of worker?"

Information literacy could apply to the defence of employment rights for gig economy workers, e.g. recent legal challenges posed by workers at Deliveroo. more and more data is being gathered about work behaviour, and new technologies enable employers to monitor their employees, and this raises concerns about intrusiveness, control, autonomy and data protection. This actually reminded me of a keynote presentation at the lilac conference in 2015 by Julia Jones on trade unions and information literacy  It is important to look at information literacy in the light of ethics relating to the uses of big data.

Information literacy has a place in retraining the evolving workforce, and in thinking about how IL related to lifelong learning, and in helping individuals navigate more complex career pathways. IL can help people adapt to the rapidly changing workplace.

Children's Literacy is Important, but what about Adult Reading Literacy? Vlasta Zabukovec, Polona Vilar: Pam blogs from #ECIL2017

This research project aimed to understand the relationship between reading literacy and information literacy. An online survey was distributed via snowball sampling. There was a high correlation between past and present experiences of reading. Respondents were most likely to read alone rather than with a parent. Many people visited the library often or regularly and 96% agreed that family literacy is important. One fifth of parents bought enormous amounts of books. Librarians and teachers promoted reading in primary school. Most respondents thought that reading literacy is the ability to read, to receive information, express as thoughts and ability write. Structured activities were recommended for children to develop reading literacy. 3 central factors were indicated as influencing reading literacy: personal motivation, social support and technical aspects e.g. Use of a computer and internet searching. People were asked what texts they preferred to read, and surprisingly they preferred internet texts over printed texts. The conclusions of the project include that family reading should be supported, and that technical support is needed.

Required Skills for Teachers: Information Literacy at the Top Tatiana Sanches: Pam blogs from #ECIL2017

With changes in teaching practice and new learning technologies, there are changing competencies required by teachers, and hence there have to be changes in teacher education. Students have to be prepared to be lifelong learners, have to be able to work collaboratively have to be able to learn Ina technology rich landscape. Information literacy is essential to this process. Several countries already include IL in pre-service education for teachers. This study took place at the university of Lisbon in Portugal. The ALA and UNESCO provided guiding documents for teacher training in information literacy. Training sessions carried out in 2016-17 were evaluated. There was a high degree of satisfaction with the workshops, which were highly personalised.

Social Media and Information Literacy: Investigating the Perceptions of Undergraduate Students: Pam blogs from # ECIL2017

This session reported on a small study that took place in the sultanate of Oman at Sultan Qaboos university, where approximately 16,000 students are enrolled. The study aimed to investigate the extent to which UG students have the ability to deal with information flows through social media. The researchers were interested in the extent to which students used social media for academic purposes. 2000 students were surveyed with a print questionnaire and 1142 valid responses were collected.

The majority of respondents described their IT skills as "intermediate" and smart phones were the most popular devices. About half had attended a library information literacy session

Students reported that they did seek to evaluate information sourced from social media before they used it. They felt they could distinguish between fact and rumour. Student had reported a strong understanding of information ethics, and understood the need to cite sources. There was some understanding of copyright and other legal issues. There was a good understanding of the risks in sharing personal images on social media. Further qualitative research is planned. Authors: Ali Al-Aufi, Hamed Al-Azri, Nehad Al-Hadi

Understanding the Academic Library as an Information Literacy Workplace Danuta Nitecki: Pam blogs from #ECIL2017

Danuta is dean of libraries and professor at the college of computing and informatics at Drexel University, USA. She proposed 3 ideas: the library as the learners' workplace; the relationship between space and learning is an emerging area of study; libraries are prime examples of this phenomenon. A purposeful space should take account of the desired change in the user, the type of activities they do and the space features.g. Technology, furnishings that are required. Library spaces are not driven by pedagogy in the way that formal teaching spaces are. Instead they take account of how the learner behaves. Many disciplines are interested in space and learning, but there is no overall theoretical model. Danuta's research into informal learning spaces involved students identifying learning environments, they inspected many campus spaces and provided descriptions of how they could use a space. They identified a common set of features that could characterise learning space e.g. Space, natural light. Danuta then reported selected findings from Nitecki and Simpson (2016) investigating the library as learning environment. The study used descriptions of 25 library spaces as data and extracted quotes about design features or student learning. They identified that vocabulary used to describe formal spaces are mirrored in informal learning spaces. Collaboration was a key feature of library space. http://libjournal.uncg.edu/jls/article/view/1318 A 3rd study peer engagement Used mobile phones to record learning activities in informal learning spaces. The data did not show how people moved through the space, but showed both collaboration, and people working individually. There is a need for a research agenda for understanding the relationship between informal learning environments and learning.

After lunch at ECIL : Pam blogs from #ECIL2017

There was a packed program in the first session after lunch so I'm going to briefly summarise a few papers in this post

. Implementing Library Strategies and Values as a Part of the Workplace Information Literacy

Marja Anneli Hjelt and Jarmo Kyösti Saarti

The presentation was based on Marja's PhD research looking at the adoption of e-books in public libraries. The research aimed to understand the role of the librarian as innovator. Marja conducted interviews with librarians in 6 libraries. Ebooks were considered to be complementary and supplementary to the library's other services. Librarians thought that non fiction ebooks were more heavily used than fiction ebooks, however the usage statistics contradicted this view. Ultimately librarian knowledge about ebooks is based on public external information rather than library strategies or data therefore this disconnect between perception and reality is an issue to do with IL in the workplace. 

Enhancing the Quality of the Library Processes – Benchmarking Workplace Information Literacy, Numeracy and Communication Practices in Two European University Libraries

Jarmo Saarti and Nora Balagué
This research study looks at the use of communication and management tools to support information literacy and numeracy in academic librarians in 2 universities, in Finland and in Spain. The researchers used the PDCA (plan, do, check, act) to investigate the situation. They found that library staff make a lot of use of internal data, but are not great users of generic management resources to improve management.

Information Literacy of Croatian Subject Indexers

Kristina Feldvari, Kornelija Petr Balog

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Osijek, Croatia

This presentation reported on PhD research using a cognitive work analysis framework to understand workplace information literacy of subject indexers. Subject indexing is unpredictable, changeable and interpretive, it is also highly contextual. The study aimed to understand the process and procedures of these subject indexers. 10 highly experienced subject indexers from 5 large libraries formed the purposive sample for the study. A comparative qualitative case study methodology was adopted using semi structured interviews as the data collection method. Each interview featured a subject indexing task and used a think aloud method to record the process. The interviews were then compared with the actual practice displayed by the indexers. Indexers preferred to use existing subject headings rather than create new ones. Searching for new appropriate headings was a barrier, particularly as there is no national subject indexing manual. 

Subject indexers were not familiar with the search capabilities of internal databases, OPACs and the internet, their search capabilities were poor. Suggestions derived from the project were to have information literacy training sessions for the subject indexers.

Test of an Iterative Process Cecile Touitou, Anita Beldiman Moore: Pam blogsfrom #ECIL2017

Sciences Po is a small social science based university. The presenters spoke about their experiences of teaching information literacy. The development is an iterative process based on student feedback. They tried to use new tools (tablets) to teach IL but this wasn't effective due to wifi problems. The IL workshops were moved to earlier in the academic year, and the use of quizzes really helped with positive feedback. They cited an ISO white paper on measuring the value of library and used this to develop their evaluation instrument. They looked at the differences between English and French speakers and English speakers rated their own skills more highly. They developed an "escape game" teaching session where students search for books on the shelves and in the catalogue, and initial feedback indicates that this should be a longer session.

Leading Together: Harnessing the Community College Atmosphere to Impact Student Learning Emily Brown, Susan Souza-Mort Bristol Community College, USA: Pam blogs from #ECIL2017

Community colleges were created to make learning affordable, so students can transfer their credits to a 4 year institution. College Librarians are now working closely with university librarians to teach information literacy. There has been a big growth in the number of IL sessions given to students. They identified the need to market IL to both faculty and students. They were able to analyse student assessments using the  LEAP value rubric which indicated that students hadn't really grasped the concepts they were supposed to. It led to faculty asking for more librarian time and teaching, based on this evidence. Demand was high initially from a wide range of classes, but ultimately they have focused attention on classes which have a high research component.  A paper on this research is available 

The tortoise or the hare: undergraduates, information literacy, and the slow movement Marietta Frank, Kimberley Bailey and Catherine Baldwin from University of Pittsburgh: Pam blogs from ECIL2017

There is a challenge for librarians to move on from the discourse of "quick and easy" approaches to information searching to a more "slow and steady" approach which ultimately may be more successful for learners. This idea has developed from the slow movement e.g.  Slow eating. Draw on theories of Poirier and Robinson (2014) who define principles of slow information searching, and these were linked to the ACRL framework of information literacy.

Undergraduates today live a "fast" life and this has effects on the brain.  This manifests in stress, frustration, unreasonable expectations, and sensory overload. The resulting pedagogical approaches lead to surface learning, and a lack of deep reading of texts. Mindful practices and reflection can counter these problems, and help students focus on tasks, choose quality over quantity, and enjoy learning more. 

These librarians aim to incorporate a slow "critical" approach in their own teaching, so aim to be critical, problem posing, creative, intellectual, process-based. Slow principles contribute to students' lifelong learning. 

Teaching strategies include focusing on open ended questions, time for reflection, using debate, and interviewing each other about research topics. Students asked to evaluate news stories, engage in problem based learning.