Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries

The Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries (ERIAL) Project aimed "to understand how students do research, and how relationships between students, teaching faculty and librarians shape that process": there was also a particular focus on use and conceptions of the library. The project has been "a collaborative effort of five Illinois universities: DePaul University, Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU), Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU), the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS)." The website is at http://www.erialproject.org/
The research approach was qualitative, including interviews, diaries, concept mapping and other data collection methods (see http://www.erialproject.org/project-details/methodology/)

Results are now being published:
- Some materials from conferences on the project website: http://www.erialproject.org/publications/presentations/
- A forthcoming book: Duke, L. and Asher, A. (2011) College Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know. ALA Editions. ISBN 978-0-8389-1116-7
- An article highlightlighting key points from the book: Kolowich, S. (2011) What students don't know. Inside Higher Ed, 22 August.

They also developed:
- A Libguide for students
- Asher, A. and Miller, S. (2011) So You Want to Do Anthropology in Your Library? or a Practical Guide to Ethnographic Research in Academic Libraries. ERIAL Project.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Busy bee, August 2011

Project: Deep Critical Information Behaviour

Professor Nigel Ford and I presented some basics about this project, funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council, for which Nigel is Principal Investigator. The project blog is at http://information-behaviour.blogspot.com/ (at the moment it doesn't have much more than the powerpoint, but you may want to keep track of it)

Deep Critical Information Behaviour

This presentation was given by Professor Nigel Ford (Nigl Forder in Second Life) and Sheila Webber (Sheila Yoshikawa in SL) on 13 June 2011 in the virtual world, Second Life, on Sheffield University’s island, Infolit iSchool.

Centre for Information Literacy Research Ning

Just a reminder that there is a ning website for the Centre for Information Literacy Research, which includes a feed from the Centre for Information Literacy Research slideshare account. This latter account currently has three presentations from the event in August and several powerpoints just uploaded by Professor Sheila Corrall. The ning is at http://infolitresearch.ning.com/ and the slideshare account is at http://www.slideshare.net/cilr

Seminar presentations online

Three of the four presentations from the information literacy event held at Sheffield University on 6th August are available online. These were reports on projects that were undertaken for the Information Literacy Research module that is an option on the Masters programmes here. The three presentations are:
Kate Coleson and Chloe Furnival. Developing a thesaurus for information literacy. (There is also a link to the draft thesaurus, and I will be posting some more about this)
Samantha Abrahams and Hannah Wood: Analysis of Departmental Learning Teaching and Assessment Strategies’ (DLTAS) treatment of information literacy
David Brown and George Davies: LILAC delegates’ influential books, articles & web resources.
These presentations are all linked from the event page on the new Centre for Information Literacy Research ning: http://infolitresearch.ning.com/events/centre-for-information . I took a few notes from the sessions which I will add here or on the ning, but for the moment I wanted to publicise the availability of the presentations. There was interesting discussion on all the presentations at the event.
The fourth presentation was from Shahd Salha (a PhD student here), on information literacy of Syrian school librarians. If you would like more information on this, please email me at s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk and I will pass on your email.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Presenters (left to right) David Brown, Samantha Abrahams, Kate Coleson and Chloe Furnival after the event.

Presentations from information literacy seminar

Yesterday we held a Centre for Information Literacy Research event here in Sheffield, with five presentations from current or former postgraduate students. The photo shows (l to r) Yazdan Mansourian, Phussadee Dokphrom, Maryam Nazari and Pam McKinney (the remaining speaker was Helen Dobson).

There are two of the powerpoints online in pdf form: The first, from Dr Yazdan Mansourian draws on a model of “information visibility” that he developed as a main outcome of his doctoral research. This model has been used with students at Sheffield university and in two universities in Iran to help students understand their own information behaviour better. The powerpoint (see http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/mansourianCILR2008.pdf ) presents the model and the results of using the model with British and Iranian students.

The second paper, from Pamela McKinney, explains the work of the Centre for Inquiry Based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS), based at the University of Sheffield and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. She identifies 4 ways in which she and the library have worked with academics to develop information literacy in specific modules or programmes. Her powerpoint is at http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/mckinneyCILR2008.pdf

Discussions in the CILR

There is a further series of discussions in the Centre for Information Literacy office in the virtual world, Second Life. The dates are:

Thursday 4th October. -14-15.00 SL time (20.00 UK time) "Information Literacy and Media Literacy: what's the difference?"

Thursday 18th October 2007. 08.00 SL time (4pm UK time) Discussion based on an IL article (to be selected in advance - suggestions welcome!)

Thursday 25 October, 08.00 SL time (4pm UK time) "What is important for librarians to learn about Second Life and what role should they be taking?"

Thursday 1 November14-15.00 SL time (20.00 UK time) "Inquiry-based learning in SL" All events are held in world in Second Life: Eduserv Island 200, 240, 43

Photos: there was a fireworks display in SL from the ALA yesterday, to celebrate Banned Books week in the USA.

Information Literacy/Second Life

We have had two discussion sessions in the Centre for Information Literacy Research's home in Second Life, the virtual world. The first was explaining the Information Literacy Research map (there is a writeup including a link to the poster here). The second was on "search" in Second Life. The 3rd is on 4th September 2007 at 4-pm UK time (08.00 SL time) and Lyn Parker will be leading a discussion on librarian image in SL.

There is an account of the second, "search", session on my SL blog, including a link to the full transcript of the session, and some web links. The blog entry for the 2nd session is here (n.b. my SL blog is in a slightly Bridget-Jonesy sort of style, though I tone it down a bit for the more serious entries like this). As a result of the session I'm starting a wiki (i.e. on search in SL), which I will be "encouraging" my students to contribute to, if nothing else. I'll announce the web address when it has some content in it.

There is a big Second Life conference; SLCC about to start in Chicago, USA, and the proceedings of the educational track have already been published free at http://www.simteach.com/slccedu07proceedings.pdf. It is useful reading for anyone considering teaching in SL. It includes one case study from a librarian Library Services on the Teen Grid [that's the teenagers' version of SL] by Kelly Czarnecki (Technology Education Librarian, ImaginOn, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County) and a one-pager about activities on Info Island. The conference is also being streamed onto the web and inworld. The first photo shows me at the inworld poster session: I will be asking students to undertake enquiry into information in SL, so this poster on research in SL was interesting.
James Dearnley from Loughborough is moderating a session in Chicago, however I am getting to another SL meeting ... in London on the 20th Sept which will focus on the JISC/Eduserv-funded SL projects. I haven't got a JISC project but I have won the money for a SL island to use next academic year. The 2nd photo shows me at the poster display on Eduserv Island advertising this seminar

I will continue to use the Sheila Yoshikawa (that's me) blog for most SL material and provide summaries here now and then. [Added 24 Aug] The Report on the First Year of Operation
of the Alliance Second Life Library 2.0 Project also known as the Alliance Information Archipelago has just been published at: http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/pdf/07sllreport.pdf

CILR launched

Just a quick post to say that the Centre for Information Literacy Research was launched successfully today in Second Life, the virtual world. Eduserv have kindly given us office space. I will link the press release to this entry later and here is the link to the Centre's website again: http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/cilr/ and the SL office at http://tinyurl.com/28ef2t (coordinates Eduserv Island 200, 240, 43).

I was please to be joined by 5 colleagues from Sheffield University including Professor Nigel Ford (Nigl Forder in SL), who is Deputy Director of the Centre, and Lyn Parker from the Library.

There were also two representatives from Eduserv, with Andy Powell (Art Fossett) providing a welcoming speech. You can read some of his words on his blog. Additionally there were four people from other institutions, and there were some interesting conversations (as well as a of the usual few SL mishaps: I have written more on my SL blog).

CILR launch today

This week we launched the Centre for Information Literacy Research (CILR), here at the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, UK. We hope it will be a focal point both for developing our own research agenda and working with others. We already have strategic alliances with researchers at Robert Gordon University, Strathclyde University, Queensland University of Technology and CILASS. The website is at http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/cilr/

CILR does not have a separate physical office at present, however from 1.30pm today (3rd August) UK time it will have an office in Second Life (the virtual world), courtesy of Eduserv. I have been busy fitting it up with basic furniture, virtual refreshments and so forth, and if you visit at the launch or afterwards you will see we already have a freebie namely a virtual teddy bear. The address in Second Life is Eduserv Island 200, 240, 43, http://tinyurl.com/28ef2t . If you have a SL avatar and can go inworld at 1.30pm UK time (that's 05.30 SL time) then do please join us. I will say more after the launch.

Departmental research seminar

Last Friday (30th March) Dr Christine Bruce (Associate Professor, Faculty of Information Technology, Queensland University of Technology, Australia) kindly agreed to give a research seminar in the morning, and to be one of the speakers at a research event in the afternoon. That's her (right) with me (left): I forgot to take any photos during the day, so it was left until after the meal on Friday evening (thus my glazed expression).

I had invited people particularly concerned with IL research at Sheffield to the morning event (e.g. students & staff doing IL projects and dissertations, and members of the CILASS Information Literacy Network). Participants had posed questions in advance and Christine responded with her thoughts and stimulated discussion around the questions. These included questions about Web 2.0 and information literacy, developing pedagogies for information literacy, and the issue of whether you can call information literacy "information literacy" in the workplace.

The afternoon was a free event, open to anyone, and there were about 30 people there, researchers, students and librarians. Christine talked about Information literacy: models from research. She discussed the nature and agenda for information literacy research, and give an insight into the models which have emerged from research by staff and students at Queensland University of Technology (see previous post). Then Professor Nigel Ford and I talked about Information Literacy research in the Department of Information Studies, and the UK research agenda. Here is the presentation powerpoint in pdf form: http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/30-3-2007-webber-ford.pdf

After a refreshment break, Bill Johnston (Senior Lecturer, Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement, University of Strathclyde, Scotland) and I talked about Conceptions of information literacy of UK Chemistry and English academics. This presentation was based on research findings from the Arts & Humanities Research Council project “UK academics’ conceptions of, and pedagogy for, information literacy”. Here is the presentation powerpoint in pdf form: http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/30-3-2007-webber-johnston.pdf. Finally, Nigel Ford and Andrew Madden had a conversation around research findings from the Arts & Humanities Research Council project Understanding the dynamics of information seeking: analysing searchers' strategic changes over time, funded February 2005-July 2007.

I felt rather zonked by the end of the day, since I was the prime organiser (with assisstance from Phussadee Dokphrom, one of my PhD students). However, I intend to follow it up with some more events focusing on IL and information behaviour, as there is a lot going on in this area here.

Free information literacy event, Sheffield, 30 March

The Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, is holding a free half-day event on information literacy research, featuring speakers from The Department plus a visiting speaker: Dr Christine Bruce, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information Technology, Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
When Friday 30th March 2007. Registration from 1.15, programme starts at 1.40 and ends at 4.15.
Where Regent Court, Portobello Street, University of Sheffield
What Programme consists of: Introduction ( Professor Sheila Corrall, University of Sheffield); Guest keynote: Information literacy: models from research (Dr Christine Bruce); Information Literacy research in the Department of Information Studies, and the UK research agenda ( Sheila Webber and Nigel Ford); Conceptions of information literacy of UK Chemistry and English academics (Sheila Webber, University of Sheffield, and Bill Johnston, University of Strathclyde); Mining of search activity data to support information literacy (Professor Nigel Ford and Dr Andrew Madden, University of Sheffield). There will be opportunities for questions and discussion.
How much Free, but please register
How to register: Email Ms Phussadee Dokphrom at p.dokphrom@shef.ac.uk
More information at http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/march30.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Spring/winter, Weston Park, Sheffield, March 2007.