MIL Curriculum for Asia

There's a short interview on the UNESCO website with Professor Arul Selvan, who leads development of a Media and Information Literacy Curriculum (based on the UNESCO MIL Curriculum) for South and Southeast Asia. 
UNESCO. (2026, June 6). Shaping a new generation: Integrating Media and Information Literacy into India’s education system. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/shaping-new-generation-integrating-media-and-information-literacy-indias-education-system
Photo by Sheila Webber: greenery, including stickyweed, May 2026

New articles: IL in Workplace; Schools; Curriculum mapping; Supporting communities; Teaching through popular culture

The latest issue of open access Journal of Information Literacy (Vol. 19 No. 2, 2025) is available. The articles are:
- Mapping the core dimensions of information literacy in the critical and workplace domain A thematic analysis by Dijana Šobota
- Integrating service-learning into information literacy education A case study from the Philippines by Ana Mae Cantel, Eun Youp Rha,
- Toward a coherent framework for school-based information literacy Delphi-based expert perspectives on competence and implementation by Ivana Martinović
- Reflection as a means to assess information literacy instruction by Natalia Kapacinskas, Veronica Arellano Douglas, Erica Lopez, Mea Warren
- Teaching critical information literacy through popular culture A media studies approach using the Oz texts by Daniel Williford
- Using Nuthall’s ideas to conceptualise and support children’s information needs by Andrew Shenton
- Information literacy without walls Comparative insights from India’s implementation and Greece’s emerging approaches by Nihar K Patra, Panorea Gaitanou
- Curriculum mapping for identifying and assessing information literacy teaching in humanities and social sciences libraries by Paul Cooke
Go to https://journals.cilip.org.uk/jil/issue/view/55
Photo by Sheila Webber: gingko leaves on a bench, November 2025

Combining Information Literacy and Metaliteracy to Advance Transnational Group Learning about AI #ECIL2025

This is Sheila liveblogging on Combining Information Literacy and Metaliteracy to Advance Transnational Group Learning about AI. Learning Process and Learning Outcomes, Results from a Case Study authored by Joachim Griesbaum, Stefan Dreisiebner, Emina Adilović, Justyna Berniak-Woźny, Subarna Bhattacharya, Jini Jacob, Tom Mackey, Tessy Thadathil at the ECIL conference. It was presented by Mackey, Griesbaum and Dreisiebner. They are reporting results from an intercultural course part of the IPILM project, which involves institutions in India, Poland, Germany, USA, Austria and UAE. They noted that the course was worthwhile but demanding, requiring motivated students. The project https://ipil.blog.uni-hildesheim.de/ fosters intercultural learning whilst learning about information literacy and metaliteracy. It is an example of Collaborative Online International Learning which involve course co-creation, interactive learning, accessibility, and students based at the home institution. There is an explanation of COIL here). The course combines information literacy and metaliteracy in a seamless way. Learners work in team find synthesising content and evaluating tools they are using, the learners also have to reflect on themselves and their learning. Outcomes include critical thinking, knowledge production and collaboration.
The concept of IPILM involves the community (including the LMS and other collaborative tools), the learning cycle (course structure) and transnational groups (including learners from at least 2 locations). The idea emerged from the collaboration between universities in Germany and India, and developed in terms of course design (to have a winter and summer course) and to the different countries. This year there were 7 instructors, and 34 students from India, Poland, Germany, USA, Austria, UAE.
They onboard students, then there is the main part where the students collaborate and then a public online conference where the student groups present. The students, who are from different disciplinary backgrounds, are given some initial readings and then the collaborative knowledge construction starts. They build up their knowledge on the allocated topic then present and discuss interim results. Each group has to produce an artefact that addresses the problem and which is accessible to people outside academia. This is usually a video. There is iterative discussion and feedback and then the presentation.
The learning topics addressed by the groups all focused on AI this last time. e.g. AI impact on democracy; Politics; AI impact on local culture: presentations are here.
For their project they have research questions about the IPILM concept and the learning success of students. For the first aspect - they have run IPILM for 7 years and with no funding. They just did per and post surveys and asked learners to write reflections. They only had 1 student dropout after onboarding. The students said they were motivated. 10 out of 19 respondents had had group conflicts, which were addressed by course tutors. The learners judged course structure as good and teaching support as very good. For learning outcomes, they assessed IL and intercultural competency pre- and post-course. There was not a significant increase in IL but was in intercultural competence. This all seemed to show that the IPILM was feasible and enjoyed by the students.

Part 2 of - News literacy session #WLIC2022

This is part 2 of my notes from the WLIC session on News Literacy: Fighting Mis/Disinformation at Your Library this morning (part 1 is here).
The next speaker was Ebele Nkiru Anyaoku, University of Abuja, Nigeria and the paper was coauthored by Ngozi P. Osuchukwu, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria. The paper was Librarians use of information literacy strategic tools for teaching students in Nigerian universities to combat fake news and information. The speaker outlined the problem of information disorders and its impact on wellbeing: fake news spreads fear and panic and can be literally fatal if people believe health myths and false health information. Young people are certainly at risk since they access online information through social media through the day, and may not be able to identify fake news. People need a critical mindset, search skills and knowledge about quality information sources and finally the ability to evaluate information. There is an officially approved information literacy course which is used by people in Nigerian universities called GST 121 Use of Library and Study Skills. Therefore they carried out a research study to investigate whether the material being used to teach it were meeting the course's aims. They carried out document analysis and analysed websites. The review showed there was no module on fake news. They did discover media and informatiteracy modules and analysed the content. The percentage (about 11%) of material on evaluation was not sufficient, with more material on search etc. Also the library websites more broadly did not have material countering, and warning against, fake news. They recommend that e.g. fact checking, evaluating, spotting fake news should be included in modules, with revision of the GST121 course, and also the library websites should be upgraded. The paper for this talk is at https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/1961 

The next talk was Fighting Against Fake News: a Study of Central University Libraries in India presented by Mahender Pratap Singh, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, India. As with other speakers, he emphasised the role of librarians in combatting misinformation. The speaker presented research (a questionnaire survey carried out during the pandemic) into the role of librarians and their strategies in combatting fake news. The participants were from Central Universitiy libraries, and more than half the libraries responded. The respondents identified fake news as harmful. They did identify roles for librarians in identifying fake news and fact checking, and said there were offering information literacy training. A major problem was lack of support from their institution. Suggestions made by the presenter ranged from those aimed at librarians up to those aimed at government. They included institutions taking disciplinary action against those spreading fake news, and also government policies to raise awareness and control fake news. The paper is here https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/1965 

Finally we had a presentation on Vietnam academic libraries and fake news on social networks: revealing the truth and solving the problem by Lan Nguyen Thi Kim, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Hanoi, Vietnam. She presented some general statistics about the population and their use of internet and socal media. They had carried out a survey about how university librarians were dealing with fake news. There were 505 valid responses to the survey that they conducted. They found that those with former training and better education were better at discerning the truth and more careful when shring information. The paper is here https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/1963

Student-led Media and Information Literacy workshops in India #MILCLICKS

I just received this report from Dr. Anubhuti Yadav via the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Alliance, describing student-led MIL workshops organised by the Advertising and Public Relations Department of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Media and Information Literacy India Network (MILIN). Both the students leading the workshops and the participants identified the benefits of the initiative.

"At the time of the pandemic when people were struggling with Misinformation and disinformation around COVID 19, students of ADPR conducted workshops on MIL with the emphasis on Fact checking and verification and helped them in developing skills to verify the content they consume. Students were limited to their homes at the time of lockdown and all their learning were happening through online classes. These workshops were planned and designed to make their classes more engaging and meaningful. These workshops also instilled sense of purpose amongst these students by contributing constructively to the community at the time of crisis.
"Seventy workshops were conducted from December 2020 to March 2021 by the students in both online and offline mode in Delhi and NCR region, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bhubneshwar, Prayagraj, Haridwar, Lucknow, Mathura, Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bhopal, Betul, Jamshedpur and Ganganagar. More than 800 people were trained in Media and Information Literacy in these workshops. The demography of the workshop participants was diverse. It comprised of college students (45.2%) followed by family members of the students at 9.5 %. This was closely followed by professionals at 7.1%.
"To ensure participation in the MIL Workshop students mostly spoke to the individuals personally and asked them to participate (59.5%). This was followed by collaborating with the colleges at 9.5%, connecting through social media at 7.1% or speaking to the principal or head of the college or school directly, collaborating with an NGO and visiting a café and speaking to the people there. The key points which were discussed during the workshop were how to access information from reliable sources and how to analyze information whether it is true or fake. Some students also discussed how to create content responsibly for the social media."
More news about MILIN is available at https://twitter.com/MILIN_INDIA and https://www.facebook.com/MediaInformationLiteracyIndiaNetwork
Photo by Sheila Webber: white rose, May 2021

Papers from #wlic2018 : Green literacy; social networking; Refugees; infolit for rural communities

I won't be attending the World Library and Information Conference (WLIC, the IFLA conference) this year, but as usual I, and everyone else, can make use of the valuable library of full-text papers from the conference. Also as usual, most of them are already uploaded and available. The conference covers a huge range of librarianship and information subjects, from around the world. I will present links to the full text papers related to information literacy and information behaviour in two blog posts: here are the first items. If you are going to WLIC - 24 to 30 August 2018 - you will of course be able to attend the talks themselves.
- WIOROGÓRSKA, Zuzanna (2018) Information literacy of undergraduate Vietnamese students viewed from the perspective of cultural context. 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/2153
- HAUKE, Petra (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
- OBODORUKU, Benedicta (2018) Refugees’ Information Seeking in Nyarugusu Camp, Tanzania. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2018 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Transform Libraries, Transform Societies in Session 137 - Africa. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2139
- IBRAHIM, Yazid and AB. RASHID, Zuliana (2018) Making This World A Better Place through Information Literacy: In4skill Campaign for Rural Communities. 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/2148
- FADELINA, Raisa (2018) Instagram as a media to get information: a case study at Grhatama Pustaka Special Region of Yogyakarta. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2018 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Transform Libraries, Transform Societies in Session 126 - Joint Division I and Division IV. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2119
- MUNSHI, Shamim Aktar (2018) Social Networking Sites, the Lifeline among the Students and Librarians: Information Needs, Marketing and Promotion. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2018 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Transform Libraries, Transform Societies in Session 126 - Joint Division I and Division IV. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2125
- WALSH, Benjamin (2018) Public library and private space: Homeless queer youth navigating information access and identity in Toronto. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2018 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Transform Libraries, Transform Societies in Session 114 - Metropolitan Libraries. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2144
Photo by Sheila Webber: Palace Pier, Brighton, July 2018

2 million page views for the Information Literacy Weblog

This is the first of two self-congratulatory posts ;-) This blog hit the two million page view mark last week. I hope this means that people still find the blog useful! I continue the blog (started in 2005) partly because I like blogging, and the blog is useful to me as a reference database about information literacy. However I certainly wouldn't continue without some evidence that other people find it useful too! So thanks to those who continue to view the blog and mention it to others! However, so this post isn't just about this blog, two international news items:

- Baines, S. (2017, October 14). Digital danger - Youth urged to be careful of social media footprints they create. [An article flagging up some of themes of the forthcoming Global Media and Information Literacy conference being held in Jamaica 25-26 October, which I will be attending] http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20171014/digital-danger-youth-urged-be-careful-social-media-footprints-they

- The Tribune. (2017, October 13). Media can play only complimentary role in achieving sustainable development: VC. [Highlights a message from a Media and information Literacy seminar taking place in India this week] http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/chandigarh/media-can-play-only-complimentary-role-in-achieving-sustainable-development-vc/482089.html

Health literacy education of women in an urban slum: Sheila blogs from #ecil2017

Allison Frances Wren presented a paper (coauthored with Priyanka Idicula, Amy Davies, Rob Davies) on The Impact of Health Literacy Education on Womens’ Perceptions and Understanding of Maternal Health in a Kochi Urban Slum at European Conference on Information Literacy. The speaker was presenting results of the initial phase of a project (funded by Hardie Wren), and the first pahse was finding out about the women and their lives. Data was collected about various beliefs, behaviours and things such as income. For example, as regards menstruation, many of them said that mothers would not talk to their daughters about this, and in many ways it was seen as unclean. 80% said that they had heard of contraception, but did not use it (this could be connected with a former forced contraception programme).The slide shown above means that there were good signs/practice in terms of diet, avoiding smoking and alcohol, education and breastfeeding (but not so much with the things listed on the right).
The next phases involves health clinics and monthly classes: this is underway. Barriers to participation include "slum wars" (not attending events in other districts). It was emphasised how understanding the context was vital.
,

Capacity Building Workshop on Media and Information Literacy for Youth

A UNESCO-Supported Capacity Building Workshop on Media and Information Literacy for youth and Youth-led Organizations in India was held 17-19 October 2016 at Punjabi University, Patiala, India. The aim of the workshop was to provide an intensive overview of media and information literacy (MIL) knowledge, skills, and attitudes, aimed at people leading youth organisations and initiatives.
The workshop web page is here http://punjabiuniversity.ac.in/pbiuniweb/MIL/CB_Workshop_final.htm and a report in The Tribune [India] is at http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/chandigarh/education/workshop-held/311332.html. The workshop is organized as part of a pilot initiative led by UNESCO: MIL Capacity Building for Youth Organizations in India, Kenya and Nigeria.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Abeystwyth, October 2016

Health literacy; in India, in urban North American #wlic2013

Today at the IFLA conference I caught most of Maitrayee Ghosh's paper on Health literacy for all- an investigation into consortia and partnership amongst libraries to promote health care information in India. In it she gave a perspective on health literacy in India where there is a divide between the elite, who have good-quality care and are reasonably health literate, and the much larger number who do not have access to good quality care and furthermore experience significant barriers to their health literacy. The speaker said that 100% of communications from doctors were in English, a language which many of the patients didn't understand (in response to a question the speaker said the solution isn't as straightforward as one might think, since althoughHindi is the official language, there are about 2000 languages in India). 85% of women bring along a more literate family member. Under these circumstances, things like reading instructions for medicines are problematic.
The speaker described some initiatives to help with health literacy e.g. Mumbai's Health Education Library for People (HELP) (although again, that is in English) The speaker outlined some models (e.g. a "Health Literacy and women" diagram) and identified a lack of ccordination and collaboration: she proposed some collaborations that could be formed by librarians. The full paper is at http://library.ifla.org/161/7/123-ghosh-en.pdf

I didn't hear it, but this paper from the same session also looks particularly interesting:
Dalrymple, Prudence W., Rogers, Michelle, Turner, Kathleen and Green, Mary (2013) "Partnering to encourage health information seeking by patients in an urban clinic". Paper presented at: IFLA World Library and Information Congress, 17 - 23 August 2013, Singapore. http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/83 "This paper will report on work informed by the theoretical framework put forth by Don Nutbeam, a public health researcher who views health information seeking as a fundamental component in achieving health literacy and ultimately, improved health outcomes. In this pilot project, a multidisciplinary team that included librarians worked together to develop and test the feasibility of a mobile phone application aimed at increasing health information seeking by expectant mothers. It will also distinguish between “ a partnership” and “a collaboration” and will suggest that effective work in health literacy may require roles for librarians that differ from those traditionally assumed in delivering health information services."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Singapore, dusk, August 2013

School libraries empower future citizens: a model to impart civic literacy in Indian schools #wlic2013

Next talk I'm blogging at the IFLA World library and Information Conference in Singapore is School libraries empower future citizens: a model to impart civic literacy in Indian schools from Rashmi Kumbar (Adani Vidya Mandir, Sarkhej, Ahmedabad, India)
The speaker starting by identifying the meaning of civic literacy in India, quoting Gandhi in emphasising the value of mass education. She outlined the education structure and identified that there are different curricula in schools that might be followed. There are "6 fundamental rights" in Indian democracy and also fundamental citizen duties, but there is a feeling that people may have lost the understanding of civic rights and duties and the work of their forbears in achieving democracy.
In the speaker's school pupils come from less privileged backgrounds, education is free and there are good facilities. There is a junior and senior library and they have 2 library periods a week. They have interesting practices including use of bibliotherapy. There proposed model for civic literacy is called Squaring the circle: to understand value of democracy, be aware of rights and duties, and instill the right approach to citizenship. Collaboration with teachers is encouraged and they want some whole school activities. Activities should give clarity about citizenship and civic literacy, and the activities may also be taken up by subject teachers.

The model involves finding solutions to difficult problems. The guiding principles are Awareness, Alacrity "brisk and cheerful readiness", Action, and Achievement (documentation and recognition is seen as motivating here).

As an example of an activity, the campaign on civic literacies is introduced, pupils form groups and choose a news topic and two weeks later they have to present an analysis of their reading and thinking. Meanwhile resources are also displayed in the library, pupils are supported in developing their ability to write up and present their findings. Presentation sessions are done in regular school assemblies.
As with other presentations at IFLA in this civic literacies session, there was a lot more detail than I can capture. A few details are - seniors mentoring juniors - using national days and festivals - exercises to "adopt a civil right". I will add the link to the paper when it is available.

Elsevier focus on information literacy

Short articles on information literacy by Elsevier customers feature in the latest issue of their newsletter, Library Connect. There are stories from various countries e.g. "Information competence development for Lithuanian academic community" and "Back to basics: Sheetal Tank [an Indian librarian] builds an information literacy program to address core skill levels." There is a blog entry listing the individual articles here and the pdf of the whole issue is at http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/sites/default/files/lcn1003.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn leaf, October 2012

Communications in Information Literacy

The latest issue of Communications in Information Literacy (Vol 4, No 1 (2010) is out. The contents are as follows:
Zauha, J. Teaching matters: Developing as a Teacher/Librarian [Column]: Rules of Engagement: Best Practices for Connecting with Students
Meszaros, M. Who’s in Charge Here? Authority, Authoritativeness, and the Undergraduate Researcher
Hight, M. Unlearn What You Have Learned: Digital Disorganization and Information Literacy Instruction
Bowles-Terry, M., Hensley, M. and Hinchliffe, L. Best Practices for Online Video Tutorials: A Study of Student Preferences and Understanding
McLure, M. and Munro, K. Research for Design: Exploring Student and Instructor Attitudes toward Accessing Library Resources and Services from Course Management Systems (CMS)
Larsen, P., Izenstark, A and Burkhardt, J. Aiming for Assessment: Notes from the Start of an Information Literacy Course Assessment
Singh, N. User Education and Information Literacy in Agricultural Universities of India
Bobish, G. Instruction 2.0 - What are we actually doing?
CIL's homepage is here http://www.comminfolit.org/index.php/cil
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn reflections, Prague, September 2010

More online papers from IFLA: health, agriculture

A second batch of papers online from the World Library and Information Conference (or IFLA conference) which takes place 10-15 August..
- Shamin Renwick (University of the West Indies, Agriculture and Life Sciences Division, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago) Current trends in agricultural information services for farmers in Trinidad and Tobago/Caribbean
http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/85-renwick-en.pdf
- Liangzhi Yu (Nankai University, Department of Information Resource Management Tianjin, China) Information worlds of Chinese farmers and their implications for agricultural information services: a fresh look at ways to deliver effective services
http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/85-yu-en.pdf
- Lynn Woolfrey (DataFirst Resource Unit, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa) Skills development to assist data usage for policymaking in Africa
http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/86-woolfrey-en.pdf

There is a session on health information, including:
- Sue Thomas (Health Promotion Library, Department for Public Health and Health Professions, Welsh Assembly Government, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom) Small steps to a healthier nation: providing and delivering health information across Wales
http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/100-thomas-en.pdf
- Jagtar Singh (Department of Library and Information Science, Punjabi University, Patiala, India) and Dilara Begum (East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh) Student awareness of health information initiatives of the Governments of India and Bangladesh: a study of Punjabi University, Patiala and East West University, Dhaka
http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/100-singh-en.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Dahlia, Southover Gardens, July 2010

IFLA report: Libraries promoting twenty-first century literacies (2)

Continuing my reports from the IFLA/ World Library and Information Conference taking place in Milan, Italy and specifically giving the 2nd report on yesterday's session organised jointly by the Information Literacy and Literacy & Reading Sections of IFLA. I took shorter notes than for the 1st section: basically the whole session was 3 and quarter hours with no coffee breaks and although there were NO draggy bits and time flew by, I think my brain and fingers were tiring after a while. As before, the full papers are online and I have linked to them through the paper titles.
First talk in 2nd segment was from Saiquil Islam (BRAC, Bangladesh), talking about Community Learning Centre (CLC): Developing a learning society in Bangladesh. Literacy rate in Bangladesh is 47% and net enrolment is in secondary schools is 53%. There are ess than 100 public libraries for 144 million people. There is an information divide between urban/rural, rich/poor, women/men, and access to internet is not common. BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee ) has 121,000 staff and covers programmes in Education, health, social empowerment, and legal empowerment. It launched CLCs in 1995 and they are multipurpose: for example mobile library (in a rickshaw), children's corner, skill traing and socio-cultural activities.

The community itself has to contribute to found them and keep them going, and there are now 2,170 CLCs (so by far outnumbering conventional libraries).

All the librarians are women, which is a valuable new role for females in rural areas, and 1m people outside previous library catchment are being reached, about half women. This shows that the community is willing to support these needs, but not yet enough, because this still only covers a minority of the population. There was a question about - what happens to the library service: it seems that libraries (those outside the CLCs) were seen as more limited and specific in function, and not able to reach out to much of the population.
Secondly Kim Moody (Queensland University of Technology) talked about A constructivist approach to media literacy education: the role of the library. She started by defining media literacy, notably as the “ability to access, undertsand evaluate and create media content” (European Commission, 2007). She did a postal survey of 586 people in Brisbane, looking at whether people who were sceptical about the media used different media from those who trusted it. It turned out they used pretty much the same sources. So then she thought how the use of media may be more related to the specific need. Therefore the ability to identify your own needs should be part of media literacy and implies a constructivist approach to teaching media literacy.

This leads to a second point, the need to have more media literacy training aimed at adults (rather than, as at present, mostly aimed at children), both because they have different needs and because the media changes over time (i.e. through people’s lives). Obviously this all ties in with the spirit of the Alexandria proclamation etc.

I would also say that the SCONUL 7 Pillars of information literacy includes (as do some other framworks) "Recognising the information need" which I would interpret as including the ability to identify what kind of media is suited to your needs. Someone stated that they felt this "recognising" was not so relevant in a situation where media is being pushed at you. However,I feel that even in that situation, conscious competence in identifying whether or not something matches a need is helpful.

In response to a question, Kim said that North American studies had shown that there were differences in media uses between the sceptical and trusting. She thought that the difference between America and Australia might be to do with the differences in media ownership, with only a couple of owners dominating the Australian scene. The Gallup report at http://www.gallup.com/poll/103300/quality-integrity-worlds-media-questioned.aspx was circulated during the discussion time, and it shows some interesting differences in attitude towards the media between countries.

The discussion in my group afterwards was concerned with the challenges of educating adults in media literacy, since there are issues of values and attachment (e.g. feeling that a newspaper expresses your values, so not appreciating someone telling you it is not trustworthy). There was also discussion of the different media situations in different countries and what impact that had. I forgot to say before that my discussion group was facilitated ably by Lesley Farmer.

The photos show two of the poster presenters preparing yesterday, and the entrance door of the conference centre.

IL at Punjabi University

There is a report on an information literacy event held at Punjabi University, Patiala, India, organised by their Department Library and Information Science
Ahuja, G. (2009) "Library is a best friend of a man, says Dr.Jaspal Singh." Punjab newsline, 5 August. http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/17887/38/
Dr Singh is Vice Chancellor of Punjabi University.

New articles

(All from priced journals)
Crawford, J. and Irving, C. (2009) "Information literacy in the workplace: A qualitative exploratory study." Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 41, 29-38.

Singh, S. (2009)"Catalytic role of information literacy in educational change: a case study of University of Delhi." Library Management, 30 (3), 163-175. (Thanks to Hazel for spotting this one)

Walsh, A. (2009) "Information literacy assessment: Where do we start?" Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 41, 19-28. (Identifies different modes of assessment described in the literature).
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield, Feb 2009 (it isn't actually snowy anymore)

Empowering 8

The Society for the Advancement of Library and Information Science (SALIS), in collaboration with UNESCO and B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Engineering College, organized the International Conference on Knowledge Networking in ICT Era 22-24 January 2009 in Chennai, India. It included a special session on information and media literacy, and several presentations have been put together in one pdf, plus some short papers at the end, in particular focusing ion india and information /media literacy. The web address is: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/
28265/12341778449special_session_presentations.pdf/
special_session_presentations.pdf
An information literacy framework that I was reminded about was the Empowering 8 framework. This was developed through workshops in Sri Lanka and India in 2004/5. The 8 elements are: Identify, explore, select, organise, create, present, assess, apply. Empowering 8 is mentioned also in the following:

Wijetunge, P. and Alahakoon, U. (2005) "Empowering 8: the Information Literacy model developed in Sri Lanka to underpin changing education paradigms of Sri Lanka." Sri Lanka Journal of Librarianship & Information Management, 1 (1), 31-41. http://www.cmb.ac.lk/academic/
institutes/nilis/reports/InformationLiteracy.pdf

Wijetunge, P. (2008) "Improving Information Skills of the Postgraduate Students of NILIS University of Colombo: A Case Study." DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 28 (2), 18-27. (NILIS was set up to train teacher-librarians) http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/
index.php/djlit/article/viewFile/273/180

Seneviratne, W. (2007) "Framework to measure Community Information Literacy among rural citizens in Sri Lanka: building of a CIL Model." Sri Lankan Journal of Librarianship and Information Management, 3 (1), 14-24.
http://www.cmb.ac.lk/academic/institutes/nilis/reports/wathmanel.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield, Feb 2009

TTT in India

Here is a report on the Indian Train the Trainer events that were inaugurated on Wednesday and finished today. This is the UNESCO-sponsored series to train people to train in information literacy. "The Workshop was inaugurated by Dr Amrik Singh, educationist and former Vice Chancellor of Punjabi University. In his address, he stressed the importance of information literacy training at school level and of the need to promote wider use of knowledge and information through informal channels" There is a report, and a link to the website, plus pictures at
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27746&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry leaves, Autumn 2004

Information literacy in an Indian city

UNESCO has published Information Literacy Competency and Readership Study of Five Specific Localities in Urban, Industrial and Semi-Urban Areas of Kolkata Metropolitan City. This reports on a study carried out by the Department of Library and Information Science, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, in association with UNESCO. "The study sought to identify and critically examine the information literary competency and reading habits of mixed habitants, having contrasting professions or vocations. ... The report concludes that the number of men who do not read regularly far exceeds the number of women in the same category, and that women are more prone to use libraries for satisfaction of their reading needs. Among the non-print media, television attracted most respondents. The study also demonstrated that, despite the electronic media boom, reading still survives." For the report go to http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26726&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html