Articles on disinformation and evaluation; adults, chemistry students

Boler, M., Gharib, H., Kweon, Y.-J., Trigiani, A., & Perry, B. (2025). Promoting Mis/Disinformation Literacy Among Adults: A Scoping Review of Interventions and Recommendations. Communication Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502251318630 (open access) "The review examines articles published between 1 January 2016–22 November 2021 that report on or provide recommendations for media literacy interventions for adults suited to the emerging challenges of disinformation. Our findings reveal diverse intervention formats and evaluation methods including course-, web-, or game-based interventions, public events, and visual resources. Experts recommended teaching about emotion targeting and regulation, algorithmic governance, lateral reading, visual technology, and using interactive formats. Studies of evaluated interventions outside of formal education were scarce. Our review reveals significant debates around the usefulness of checklists and how to address politically sensitive issues, skepticism, and authority in programing."
Reagan, K.J., Coates, K., & Swaringen, J. (2025). Your information ZODIAC: An information evaluation framework for the age of Generative AI. Journal of New Librarianship, 10(2), 93-109. https://doi.org/10.33011/newlibs/19/9 (I think this is open access) [The evaluation framework consists of: Zooming in, Other opinions, Dataset, Intent, Authenticity, and Consistency.]
Ong, J., Loh, K., Han, J. & Fung, F. (2026). Integrating the CRAAP Framework to Support Critical Thinking and Information Literacy. Journal of Chemical Education, 103(2). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5c00624 (priced publication) "This study explores the integration of the CRAAP framework (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose) into an Environmental Chemistry course at a leading university in Asia to examine students’ approaches to source evaluation and perceptions of its utility. Sixteen third- and fourth-year chemistry students evaluated news articles before and after CRAAP training, with responses assessed using an analytic rubric. Students performed relatively well in assessing Currency, Relevance, and Purpose, but reflected a weaker performance in Authority and Accuracy. Positive student feedback highlighted the framework’s perceived usefulness and applicability beyond the course."
Photo by Sheila Webber: iris reticulata (possibly "Katherine Hodgkin"), February 2026

New articles: Using wikipedia in biochemistry; Undergraduates and IL

New articles from portal: libraries and the academy (priced publication)
- Finkel, I & Kleiman, F. (2024). Spanning Literacy Instruction: A Wikipedia Editing Assignment in an Upper-Level Biochemistry Course. portal: libraries and the academy, 24(2), 343-360. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2024.a923710
"The authors, a chemistry professor and a librarian, used a qualitative survey to assess student perceptions of a Wikipedia editing assignment that they included in a large upper-level biochemistry course. The assignment was initially intended as a public-facing alternative to a short research paper, emphasizing information literacy and scientific literacy. The goal of the survey was to use the results to enhance the assignment. The results of the survey and research for the literature review inspired a novel approach to the assignment using the perspective of metaliteracy. This approach encourages students to think critically about their role as scholars in a participatory environment." 

Vanderwerff, M., Sharun, S. & Thomas, C. (2024). “In the Greater Context of the Field”: What Undergraduate Reflections on the Research Process Tell us about Information Literacy. portal: libraries and the academy, 24(2), 405-426. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2024.a923712.
"Thematic analysis of 24 student award essays identified three strong themes in student reflections about their research experiences. Students experienced research as a social process, made meaning closely tied to disciplinary ways of knowing and practicing, and underwent a transformative process from beginner to apprentice researchers. Through a discussion of these themes, the authors highlight implications for information literacy instruction and suggest this instruction be closely connected to disciplinary practices."
Photo by Sheila Webber: red tulips and forget me not, April 2024

Information Literacy and #climatechange

It is extraordinarily hot in England and Wales today, so climate change seems an obvious topic. This article from UNESCO talks about climate change literacy as part of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) and this page https://en.unesco.org/covid19/communicationinformationresponse/visualresources includes some posters that are about MIL and climate change (scroll down the page to find them: one example is used here)

As some more examples:
- Hauke, P. (2018). From Information Literacy to Green Literacy: Training Librarians as Trainers for Sustainability Literacy. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2018 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Transform Libraries, Transform Societies in Session 116 - Library Theory and Research with Information Literacy. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2147 This talks about development of green literacy or sustainability literacy as one of the goals for a sustainable library (practicing, and educating for, sustainability). 

- Dailey, A. & Smith, M. (2017). From Climate Change to Vaccination Safety: Teaching Information Literacy in an Undergraduate Epidemiology Course. All Musselman Library Staff Works. 76. https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/librarypubs/76 This leads to an abstract and a powerpoint you can download. It describes a collaboration between a faculty member and a librarian on an assessment targetting information literacy, with a scenario on climate change being one topic the students had to investigate. In fact the climate change subject isn't described in detail, but the powerpoint has a good amount of detail about the intervention and the results, so I thought it was still worth mentioning from a "teaching information literacy" point of view. 

- Lovitt, C. & Shuyler, K. (2016). Teaching Climate Change Concepts and the Nature of Science: A Library Activity To Identify Sources of Climate Change Misconceptions. In: Integrating Information Literacy into the Chemistry Curriculum. (pp. 221-246). ACS Symposium Series. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bk-2016-1232.ch012 A priced publication, but it looks an interesting example "A library activity was developed in which students found information about climate science misconceptions from popular and scientific literatures. As part of the activity, students developed a rubric to evaluate the credibility and type of literature sources they found. The activity prepared students to produce an annotated bibliography of articles, which they then used to create a training document about a climate science misconception for staff at a local science center." 

- Duru, P. & Emetumah, C.F. (2016). Evaluating the Effects of Information Literacy on Climate Change Awareness among Students in Imo State University. Archives of Current Research International, 4(3), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.9734/ACRI/2016/27186 A questionnaire was administered at a Nigerian university: the questions were mostly to do with knowledge about the impact of climate change, but there were also questions about how the students got information about this topic and whether they felt it was sufficient.

Articles: scavenger hunts; chemistry; government documents in open education

I've some catching up to do with issues of the Journal of Academic Librarianship, and I'll start with Volume 47 issue 3 (May 2021) which includes the following (priced publication - though one article, marked below, is open access):
- Scavenging for evidence: A systematic review of scavenger hunts in academic libraries by Rachel Keiko Stark, Eugenia Opuda, Jenessa McElfresh, Kelli Kauffroath (open access) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2021.102345 (finishes with some recommendations for future research - though the authors do seem to be assuming that quantataive methods are the best, and they don't mention the absence in many articles of a detailed description of the learning design and pedagogic approach. Nevertheless, this article is very useful in summarising and critiquing this approach.)
- Seizing the opportunity: Collaborative creation of academic integrity and information literacy LMS modules for undergraduate Chemistry by Arielle Lomness, Sajni Lacey, Amanda Brobbel, Tamara Freeman https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2021.102328
- A process of engagement: Using government documents in open pedagogy by Stephanie Hallam, Pat Willingham, Kris Baranovic https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2021.102358
Photo by Sheila Webber: Greenwich Park flower bed, late July 2021 

#Wikipedia: article on writing assignments, and videos #infolit

Firstly, an article: Vetter, M., McDowell, Z. and Stewart, M. (2019). From Opportunities to Outcomes: The Wikipedia-Based Writing Assignment. Computers and Composition, 52, 53–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2019.01.008 (open access). "This article presents select data from a recent large-scale study conducted by the Wiki Education Foundation that ... confirms and extends research from the computers and writing community. Key findings from this research include positive evaluations of Wikipedia-based assignments in general, as well as positive evaluations concerning the capacity of Wikipedia-based assignments to teach critical thinking skills, source evaluation and research, public writing, literature review and synthesis, and peer review. ... Finally, this article suggests key recommendations for teaching with Wikipedia based on these findings."

Secondly, recordings of an event held in Sydney, Australia, in March 2019.
- Pru Mitchell - Wikipedia / Wikimedia Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4IQr5ENZo ("Pru Mitchell has been involved in the Australian chapter of Wikimedia since its inception in 2008, and currently serves as President. She is an educator and librarian, working in educational research, with a strong interest in scholarly publishing and metadata workflows for the GLAM sector.")
- Tony Naar - Wikipedia and the Australian Paralympic History project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvXcqijMIiY ("Tony Naar, is facilitator of the Australian Paralympic History Project which uses Wikipedia as a platform.")
- Toby Hudson - Using Wikidata for Chemistry, Education, Australia, and #FakeNews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK1WTC4TyP4&t=3s ("Toby Hudson is a Senior Lecturer, and Director of First Year Chemistry at the University of Sydney.")
- Panel Discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vaxA1-bVtQ
Photo by Sheila Webber: Pigeons nibbling leaf shoots on a grey day, April 2019.

Recent articles: Pinterest; Critical inquiry; Outreach

Articles in the priced journal Internet Reference Services Quarterly (Volume 22 issue 2/3) include:
- Talking Through It: Using Student to Student Interviews and Brainstorming Activities for Facilitating Critical Inquiry by Krista D. Schmidt (this is in a chemistry class)
- Dust off Those Encyclopedias: Using Reference Sources to Teach the ACRL Framework Concepts by Kristin E. C. Green
- Library Outreach and Instruction to Academic Departments of Military Science and ROTC Cadets by Leila June Rod-Welch EdD, Barbara E. Weeg & Glen P. Keith
- Reframing Pinterest: Information Literacy for Interior Design Students by Ellen Hampton Filgo & Megan Martinsen
Thanks to Esther Grassian for alerting me to this journal issue. Go to http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wirs20/22/2-3?nav=tocList
Photo by Sheila Webber: beets and squash, Blackheath Farmers market, January 2018

New open access items: Curiosity & science literacy; developing a for-credit course; infolit in practice

Two open access articles and a podcast!
- Yu, S.H. (2017). Just Curious: How Can Academic Libraries Incite Curiosity to Promote Science Literacy? Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 12(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v12i1.3954 "Abstract: Based on a Bright Young Minds webinar given on February 7, 2017, this paper shows the importance of nurturing curiosity in students as an integral part of information literacy (IL) and science literacy. There are obvious parallels between "Research as Inquiry," as described in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016) and scientific inquiry. In both cases, curiosity is the fuel that drives information gathering and the pursuit of new knowledge. This paper discusses three pedagogical strategies to help information literacy librarians incite curiosity in students and promote scientific literacy. Bright Young Minds is a webinar series hosted by the Ontario Library Association’s Education Institute. It provides a platform for MLIS students and recent graduates to share their research and to foster connections between academic schools and information professionals. The webinar and this subsequent article grew out of an MLIS project exploring the concept of curiosity and its application in promoting scientific literacy in academic libraries. I draw on my dual experiences as both a Chemistry graduate student and participant in IL sessions, and as a recent MLIS graduate and IL instructor."
- Raven, M. and Rodrigues, D. (2017). A Course of Our Own: Taking an Information Literacy Credit Course from Inception to Reality. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 12(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v12i1.3907 "Abstract: Since 2009 librarians at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia have been teaching a fully weighted (half-unit/three credit) course in information literacy (IL), LIBR2100: Introduction to Research in the Information Age. Course sections are capped at 30 students with classes offered on campus in a traditional classroom/lab environment, and via distance using multimode technology. Now firmly established in the University’s curriculum, required in three programs and an elective in all others, the course is in demand with growing wait-lists requiring that multiple sections be offered each term. While the literature supports the positive outcomes of IL credit courses for both the students enrolled and the librarians teaching, few universities or colleges currently offer such an opportunity. Based on our positive experience at the Mount, accomplished with a professional librarian compliment of only five, we strongly recommend other universities and colleges consider seriously their ability to offer their own IL course. This article reflects on the steps taken by librarians at Mount Saint Vincent University to get a credit course in IL on the books, how we managed course implementation, and negotiated the inevitable workload demands. While we also briefly discuss course objectives and curriculum, and their evolution over time, these are not our primary focus. Because the literature is largely silent on the mechanics of getting an IL course mainstreamed in a university or college curriculum, this article focuses on outlining the phases of credit course development and traces an IL course from conception to reality."
- The final item is a podcast: Information Literacy for the Win, an interview with Karen Viars and Seth Porter, Librarians in the Campus Engagement and Scholarly Outreach department in the Georgia Tech Library. This is part of the Lost in the Stacks podcast (episode 355, 25 August 2017: the interview portion starts at about 23 minutes) and the interviewees talk about their views on information literacy and what they do.
Photo by Sheila Webber: red rose of autumn, September 2017

Information Literacy and chemistry: bumper issue! Wikipedia, critical thinking, embedding, peer-review and more....

The whole, open access, latest issue of the Journal of Chemical Education (vol. 93 issue 3) focuses on teaching information literacy to chemistry students: lots of useful articles here! The one that first caught my attention was the following, so I've included the abstract of that. The whole issue is at http://pubs.acs.org/toc/jceda8/93/3#Articles

- Walker, M. and Li, Y. (2016). Improving Information Literacy Skills through Learning To Use and Edit Wikipedia: A Chemistry Perspective. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 509–515. "Our students rely on Wikipedia on their mobile devices or laptops, since it is an extremely rich and broad resource. This article overviews the Chemistry content on Wikipedia and how students can learn to use it effectively as an information resource, critically evaluating content, and learning key information literacy skills. We also discuss how students’ information literacy skills can be improved through a class project where students edit Wikipedia articles. Through such projects, students may begin to appreciate where and how chemical information is generated, gathered, developed, and shared in the real world"


- Zane, M. and Tucci, V. (2016). Exploring the Information Literacy Needs and Values of High School Chemistry Teachers. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 406-412
- Shultz, G. and Li, Y. (2016). Student Development of Information Literacy Skills during Problem-Based Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiments. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 413-422
- Yeagley, A. et al. (2016). The Stepping Stone Approach to Teaching Chemical Information Skills. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 423-428
- Greco, G.(2016). Chemical Information Literacy at a Liberal Arts College. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 429-433
- Danowitz, A. et al. (2016). A Combination Course and Lab-Based Approach To Teaching Research Skills to Undergraduates. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 434-438
- Jacobs, D., Dalal, H. and and Dawson, P. (2016). Integrating Chemical Information Instruction into the Chemistry Curriculum on Borrowed Time: A Multiyear Case Study of a Capstone Research Report for Organic Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 444-451
- Jacobs, D., Dalal, H. and and Dawson, P. (2016). Integrating Chemical Information Instruction into the Chemistry Curriculum on Borrowed Time: The Multiyear Development and Evolution of a Virtual Instructional Tutorial. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 452-463
- Cowden, C. and Santiago, M. (2016). Interdisciplinary Explorations: Promoting Critical Thinking via Problem-Based Learning in an Advanced Biochemistry Class. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 464-469
- Baykoucheva, S., Houck, J. and White, N. (2016). Integration of EndNote Online in Information Literacy Instruction Designed for Small and Large Chemistry Courses. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 470-476
- Zwicky, D. and Hands, M. (2016). The Effect of Peer Review on Information Literacy Outcomes in a Chemical Literature Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 477-481
- Scalfani, V., Frantom, P. and Woski, S. (2016). Replacing the Traditional Graduate Chemistry Literature Seminar with a Chemical Research Literacy Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 482-487
- Currano, J. (2016). Introducing Graduate Students to the Chemical Information Landscape: The Ongoing Evolution of a Graduate-Level Chemical Information Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 488-495
- Kamijo, H. Creating an Adaptive Technology Using a Cheminformatics System To Read Aloud Chemical Compound Names for People with Visual Disabilities. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 496-503
- Pence, H. and Williams, A. (2016). Big Data and Chemical Education. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 , 504-508
- Stuart, R. and McEwen, L. (2016). The Safety “Use Case”: Co-Developing Chemical Information Management and Laboratory Safety Skills. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 516-526
- Tomaszewski, R. (2016). The Concept of the Imploded Boolean Search: A Case Study with Undergraduate Chemistry Students. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 527-533
- Härtinger, S. and Clarke, N. (2016). Using Patent Classification To Discover Chemical Information in a Free Patent Database: Challenges and Opportunities. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 534-541
- Glasser, L. (2016). Crystallographic Information Resources. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 542-549
- Rzepa, H. (2016). Discovering More Chemical Concepts from 3D Chemical Information Searches of Crystal Structure Databases. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 550-554
- Méndez, E. and Cerdá, M. (2016). Discovering Reliable Sources of Biochemical Thermodynamic Data To Aid Students’ Understanding. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 555-559
Photo by Sheila webber: blue sky, St Georges church, March 2016

Education in Chemistry

Education in Chemistry is a publication from the UK's Royal Scociety of Chemistry, and it aims to support chemistry teaching at secondary and tertiary levels. There was recently a supplement to this online magazine on Using technology to empower student learning: this includes an article (by a chemistry academic) on getting students to develop a wiki as an assessment and to develop teamwork skills: obviously one can see an information literacy aspect to this.
Education in chemistry https://magazines.rsc.org/web-reader/eic/
Photo by Sheila Webber: War memorial, Sheffield, October 2015

Creating Knowledge & Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education

An Easter treat (well, ok, only if you are mad for information literacy) are papers and filmed keynotes from the Creating Knowledge conference that took place at Lund University last August. Unfortunately, as it clashed with IFLA, I was not able to go, but I attended all of the previous CKs, I think, it it has always been an excellent conference. Some of the short papers are available full text as a special issue (volume 5, no. 1, 2013) of the Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education. Some items are just abstracts, but full papers include:
- The value and impact of cross professional collaborations in developing student information and academic literacy skills at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. by Diane Rushton, Alison Lahlafi
- How does assessment affect learning: an example from a chemistry PhD-course in scholarly communication by Camilla Hertil Lindelöw
The journal home page is: https://noril.uib.no/index.php/noril/index
The filmed keynotes are from Olof Sundin, Gráinne Conole, Trine Schreiber and Christine Bruce and they can be accessed via the conference website at http://learning.lub.lu.se/flow/creating-knowledge-vii.aspx?FlowCategoryID=165
Photo by Sheila Webber: blossom on my cherry tree, April 2014

Science Information Literacy wiki

I think this is fairly new (started about a year ago) and it has a number of pages, for example a list of the ACRL Information Literacy standards with teaching tips; links to resources related to assessment. As you might guess, it it is focused on information literacy in scientific disciplines. The Science Information Literacy wiki is at http://wikis.ala.org/acrl/
index.php/Science_Information_Literacy
Additionally, there is an active group on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Science-Information-Literacy-Wiki/61526697085 which has "first wednesday" discussions.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Beans at the farmers' market, August 2009

Information Literacy in transition

Moira Bent's National Teaching Fellowship report sounds very interesting. There is the full text on the Newcastle University eprints server.
Bent, M. (2008) Perceptions of information literacy in the transition to higher education. (National Teaching Fellow Project Report). "The aim of this piece of research was to investigate the conflicts and congruencies between staff and student perceptions of information literacy in the transition to higher education, particularly in Chemistry and English. The project comprised four main strands: perceptions of information literacy, library and information aspects of the transition into Higher Education: study tours and networking, and the impact of the National Teaching Fellowship."
http://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/deposit_details.php?deposit_id=6052
Photo by Sheila Webber: Signs of spring, Sheffield, Jan 2009

Information literacy in transition

I have been trying to catch up on other people's blogs ... there are some very useful posting on Moira Bent's. One of them is an article available for downloading free (you have to register - free - first).

Ben, M. (2008) "Information Literacy and the Transition from Secondary to Tertiary Education: Measuring Perceptions." Enhancing learning in the social sciences, 1 (1). http://www.eliss.org.uk/CurrentIssue/tabid/54/Default.aspx
Abstract "How people perceive information literacy and how they think others perceive it can affect how they teach and learn. The transition from secondary to tertiary education offers opportunities to develop information literate students. Variations in perceptions of information literacy in schools and universities in the UK and New Zealand are being investigated using phenomenographic techniques. The research focuses on students studying Chemistry or English in their final two years at school and their first year at university, their teachers and library staff."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hakone, Japan, 2005

Some recent articles

Free on the web:
Hughes, Hilary E. and Bruce, Christine S. and Edwards, Sylvia L. (2007) "Models for reflection and learning: a culturally inclusive response to the infomation literacy imbalance." In: Andretta, S, (Eds) Change and challenge: Information literacy for the 21st century, pp. 59-84. Adelaide: Auslib Press. Available from QUT e-print archive: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00007038/

Irving, C. and Crawford, J. (2007) "Information literacy: a framework for life." Library and information update, 6 (7). (Discusses Scottish Framework and the background to it) http://www.cilip.org.uk/publications/
updatemagazine/archive/archive2007/
july/Irving%20and%20Crawford.htm

Priced:
Bombaro, C. (2007) "Using audience response technology to teach academic integrity: 'The seven deadly sins of plagiarism' at Dickinson College." Reference Services Review, 35 (2), 296-309. "This paper seeks to explore the successes and challenges associated with teaching first-year students a session on plagiarism avoidance through the use of an audience response system."

Emmett, A. and Emde, J. (2007) "Assessing information literacy skills using the ACRL standards as a guide." Reference Services Review, 35 (2), 210 - 229. "The purpose of this study is to obtain preliminary evidence over a three-year period on the efficacy of a curriculum designed to foster information literacy skills in graduate students in a chemistry bibliography course."

Mizrachi, D. and Bedoya, J. (2007) "LITE Bites: broadcasting bite-sized library instruction." Reference Services Review, 35 (2), 249 - 256. "This paper sets out to describe a successful collaboration between the UCLA Library and a campus-based student television production team to create and broadcast a series of short library commercials."

Photos by Sheila Webber: Top photo - trying to pick cherries from top of tree through the bedroom window; 2nd photo - the tree, before the pesky birds ate most of the cherries.

i3: Presentation and panel

On Monday Bill Johnston and I presented our paper on Chemistry academics’ conceptions of teaching information literacy. In it we described the research approach, and the nature of the sample (20 academics from 11 different universities were interviewed). After analysing the transcripts of the interviews we identified three conceptions of pedagogy for information literacy:
1. Implicit in teaching students to understand chemistry.
2. Designing a path for students through a chemistry course
3. Challenging students to respond independently, critically and creatively with information
This was different from the other three disciplines we studied in that in Chemistry the “teaching information literacy is someone else’s job” category we discovered in Marketing, Engineering and English was not present - information skills were seen as essential for learning chemistry. One thing we highlighted was the differences in the types of information, information behaviour between disciplines. We also felt that the third approach was rather more exciting and stimulating than some of the more pragmatic search-focused approaches to teaching students IL

In fact the tension between a search-focused view of IL and one which is more holistic emerged as one of the issues for me. In a plenary session yesterday some of the session chairs were asked to identify questions that emerged, and many of them were to do with information literacy. I did write down some of the questions, but in a rather scrawled way, so this is my impression of a few of the questions (I might come back to them when blogging other sessions).

There was one question concerning whether information literacy needs to be defined differently in different contexts, and with a different approach to education. In fact with this one it seemed to me that everyone that spoke agreed it was the case, but was arguing as if others might disagree. There seems to me to be an obvious point that all education is context specific - management education would be approached very differently in a company, or a first year class, or a masters class, for example, even leaving aside the “different kinds of information in different contexts” angle that you get with IL. There was a question about whether information literacy had an aesthetic dimension (this arose from a presentation earlier in the day that I hope to blog about).

The rather dry way in which it can be taught was mentioned, with an interesting question about whether a focus on things like controlled vocabularies meant it was bound to seem rigid and unexciting. Someone pointed out that information seeking tended to be associated with negative concepts - things you mustn’t do etc., search failure and so forth, and that the pleasure/passion dimension of information literacy could be explored more.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Reception at the Town House on Monday evening.

Library Philosophy and Practice

Articles added to Library Philosophy and Practice (a peer-reviewed electronic journal) in March and April include Games for Teaching Information Literacy Skills (games element in teaching chemistry sources) and The Role of Nigerian Primary School Libraries in Literacy and Lifelong Learning. The contents page (linked to full text) for 2007 is at http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/lpp2007.htm

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.