Showing posts with label Nigeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigeria. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2026

International Media and Information Literacy Institute

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

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Recent articles: One-shots; Students and AI; Teaching referencing

looking out over some grass and flowers to a misty sea and sky with a tree and bench semi-silouetted at the water edge

The latest issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship (vol 52 issue 4) includes the following (priced, unless it says they are open access):
 - Exploring alternative approaches to the one-shot by Elizabeth Borges, Faith Rusk (open access)
- Teaching citation in the age of generative AI: Rethinking research literacy, academic integrity, and epistemic responsibility by Dag Øivind Madsen, Emmanuel Sirimal Silva (open access)
- ‘I shouldn't be saying this’: Library-based student confessions about AI, cheating, and academic integrity by Sarah T. Zipf, Tiffany Petricini, Steve Borrelli
- University libraries in the age of generative AI: Perceptions and usage among students in developing countries by Bolaji David Oladokun, Diana Atuase, Gloria Tachie-Donkor, Tshepho Lydia Mosweu, Panorea Gaitanou
Go to https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship/vol/52/issue/4 
Photo by Sheila Webber taken in Second Life, July 2026

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

New items: Graduate students; Outreach; AI Literacy; Digital Reference Services; Google classroom

numerous dandelion seed heads against a green grass bank in sunlight with buildings in teh background

These are all open access.
- Desilets, M.R. & Pendell, K. (2026) Building Connections with Graduate Students Through Credit-Bearing Instruction. RUSQ: A Journal of Reference and User Experience, 61(3), 15-27. https://doi.org/10.5860/rusq.61.3.8668 
- Mixon, N, Johnson, A. & Taylor, J,. (2026). Microsites as Outreach Tools: A Case for Targeted Engagement in Academic Libraries. RUSQ: A Journal of Reference and User Experience, 61(3), 5-8. https://doi.org/10.5860/rusq.61.3.8666 
- Li, L. & Coates, K. (2026). Navigating the Generative AI Wave: AI Literacy Instruction in Academic Libraries Today.  https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/lib-facpresent/313 [a powerpoint presentation about the approach specifically at Georgia Southern University Libraries, USA]
- The Infosphere: Nigerian Journal of Knowledge and Information Studies: Vol. 1 No. 1 & 2 (2026) contains, for example: March, M. & Yusuf, D. Information Literacy and Digital Reference Services in Academic Libraries in Nigeria https://journals.fuotuoke.edu.ng/index.php/njkis/ 
- Saleh, S. (2026) Implications of Online Learning Environment and Google Classroom https://dapp.orvium.io/deposits/69a5ca66e6caf72bc3f50de7/view [This is a student work but looks interesting]
Photo by Sheila Webber: dandelion heads, May 2026

Friday, March 06, 2026

Recent articles: AI and more AI; data literacy; research guides

a branch with small white blossoms against a bakground of greenery

The latest complete issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship is vol 52 issue 1. This is a priced publication, but at time of writng the ones which aren't open access are badged "complimentary" which I think means they are free for a limited period. The issue includes:
- McCrary, Q.D. (2026). Are we ghosts in the machine? AI, agency, and the future of libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(1), Article 103181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103181 (Open access) "Without intervention, students risk becoming passive passengers in their own research process, potentially undermining the traditional goals of information literacy grounded in autonomy and deliberate practice."
- Ayinde, L. et al. (2026). Adoption of artificial intelligence in academic libraries: A systematic review of current practices, challenges, and research opportunities. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(1), Article 103185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103185 (Open access)
- Boetje, J. et al. (2026). Validating design principles for teaching information problem solving in higher education: Academic librarians' perspectives. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(1), Article 103183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103183 (Open access).
- Lugya, F.K. (2026). Enhancing access and efficiency: The role of library research guides in supporting academic success at Busitema University. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(1), Article 103189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103189
-  Kavak, A. & Gültekin, V. (2026). Examining the relationship between digital competencies and artificial intelligence literacy of academic librarians in Türkiye.  The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(1), Article 103191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103191 - Lo, L.S. (2026). The CARE approach for academic librarians: From search first to answer first with generative AI. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(1), Article 103186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103186
- Mann, E.Z. (2026). Making data literacy accessible: A pilot study of academic library and community collaboration for citizen data literacy. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(1), Article 103166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103166
- Fernández-Pascual, R. et al. (2026). Exploring undergraduates' self-efficacy in information, media, and data literacies: An integrated approach using the ACRL framework's threshold concepts. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(1), Article 103192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103192 (open access)
Photo by Sheila Webber: sign of spring, March 2026

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) workshop

Photo by Sheila Webber of an enormous climbing white rose which has nearly reached the top of a cypress tree in June 2024
A report of a workshop in Kano, Nigeria, organised by AFRICMIL to urge "women and people with disabilities to join the fight against corruption, emphasizing their important roles in combating corruption and promoting accountability in Nigeria."
Mansir, A.I. (2024, June 28). AFRICMIL encourages women, PWDs to support fight against corruption. https://solacebase.com/africmil-encourages-womenpwds-to-support-fight/
Photo by Sheila Webber: enormous climbing white rose, June 2024

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Knowledge hiding

Photo by Sheila Webber of a bee on a cherry blossom in April 2024

An interesting article about knowldge hiding. It is related to teaching in higher education, and as well as relevant to teaching IL in HE I think it is also useful to reflect on this behaviour in other contexts.
Omotayo, F. O., & Akintibubo, A. O. (2024). Knowledge hiding in the academia: Individual and social factors predicting knowledge hiding behaviour of undergraduates of a Nigerian university. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 56(1), 145-163. https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006221133564 "The results show that the individual factors (distrust and psychological ownership), as well as the social factors (negative or lack of mutual reciprocity, lack of social interaction and lack of social identification), predicted the KHB of the students. The study concluded that the undergraduates engaged in knowledge hiding in so many ways and for many reasons. The individual factors of the students, as well as the social factors surrounding them, predicted their KHB. " They categorise strategies in three ways: Playing dumb (e.g. "During knowledge sharing sessions in class, I pretend I do not know the question even though I do", Evasive hiding (e.g. "I always agree to share my knowledge but never really intend to") and Rationalised hiding (e.g. "When ask about something, I explain that I would like to tell him/her but was not supposed to.")
This is a priced article, I'm afraid. An open access article that reviews the literature on knowledge hoarding and hiding is this one.
Photo by Sheila Webber: bee on a cherry blossom, April 2024

Thursday, March 16, 2023

New articles: Data cultures; Older adults' proxies; e-health literacy

There is is a new issue (volume 28 issue 1, 2023) of the open access journal Information Research. It includes:
- Data Cultures: a scoping literature review by Gillian Oliver, Jocelyn Cranefield, Spencer Lilley, Matthew Lewellen ("This paper reports the outcomes from a literature review of the concept of data cultures as the first step in extending the body of knowledge relating to information culture in the information science domain and raising awareness of the need for further research.")
- Internet use and e-health literacy among tuberculosis patients in the Directly Observed Therapy Centre, Lagos State, Nigeria by Olalekan Moses Olayemi, Timothy Shola Abolarinwa
- Social Media by Proxy: how older adults work within their ‘social networks’ to engage with social media by Gemma Webster, Frances VC Ryan
Go to https://informationr.net/infres/issue/view/28-1

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

New articles: Information behaviour of farmers; Health Literacy; AI and information; Personal Information Management; Information & visual disability

The latest issue of IFLA Journal (Volume 48, No. 4, 2022) is published open access at https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/2317 There are lots of interesting articles, covering library issues in many different countries, but picking out ones more relevant to this blog:
- An assessment of health information literacy among women in rural Lake Zone, Tanzania by Mohamed Kassim and Faraja Ndumbaro
- Knowledge mapping and visualization of personal information management literature, 1988–2020 by Williams Ezinwa Nwagwu and Chidiebube Blossom Williams
- A model of access to information among Nigerian rice farmers by Ugonna Benedette Fidelugwuowo
- Information needs and delivery channels: Experimental evidence from Cambodian smallholders by Selina Bruns, Oliver Mußhoff and Pascal Ströhlein
- Factors influencing the use of agricultural information by Vietnamese farmers by Hung Gia Hoang, Duc Van Nguyen and Douglas Drysdale
- Framework for the provision of information to the visually impaired in academic libraries in compliance with the Marrakesh Treaty by Samuel Macharia Were, Japhet N. Otike and Emily K. Bosire
Photo by Sheila Webber: lovely autumn beech tree, November 2022

Wednesday, October 05, 2022

New articles: Information behaviour in HCI; Social networking & HIV/AIDS; Information resources in Nigerian libraries

There is a new issue of the open access journal Information Research (volume 27 issue 3). It includes:
- Harriet U. Igbo, Ijeoma J. Ibegbulam, Brendan E. Asogwa, and Nwabuisi T. Imo. Provision of digital information resources in Nigerian university libraries
- Hamid R. Jamali and Majid Nabavi. The use of information behaviour research in human-computer interactionThe use of information behaviour research in human-computer interaction
- Azam Bazrafshani, Sirous Panahi, Hamid Sharifi, and Effat Merghati-Khoei. Drivers and barriers of using online social networking technologies among people living with HIV/AIDS in Iran
- Bradley Wade Bishop and Hannah R. Collier. Fitness for use of data: scientists' heuristics of discovery and reuse behaviour framed by the FAIR Data Principles
Go to http://informationr.net/ir/27-3/infres273.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: "Lost item" series: lost plush owl, October 2022

Monday, August 15, 2022

Media and Information Literacy news

A couple of UNESCO-related news items. Firstly, various news outlets have reported on Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, saying why he thinks that Media and Information Literacy (MIL) is important. This is as plans go ahead for Nigeria hosting the in-person Global MIL Week conference in October 2022.
Oyedeji, N. (2022, 7 August). UNESCO confab to boost war against fake news, misinformation – Lai Mohammed. https://factcheckhub.com/unesco-confab-to-boost-war-against-fake-news-misinformation-lai-mohammed/ 

Secondly, there is a short report on a training session organised by UN Lebanon via UNESCO, for 15 young people, to help youth combat hate speech and misinformation under the Youth Countering Hate Speech and Misinformation project
Lebanese youth learn to stand up to hate speech. (2022, 12 August). https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/08/1124502
I also came across a series of short Youtube videos from UNESCO Beirut Office Verified - Youth Countering Hate Speech and Disinformation - the first one is here (n.b. I haven't viewed them) https://youtu.be/KGfbCwszh1Y

Photo by Sheila Webber: my hydrangea, August 2022

Friday, July 29, 2022

Omani libraries & SDGs; Staff digital divide; Impact of having a PhD; Wikimedia in the classroom #WLIC2022

The IFLA SET Conference today ended with some short presentations, and I'll give a few notes from each of them. 

(1) Omani Libraries and Their Role in Supporting the Achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals from Saif Aljabri (presenter) and Waleed AlBadi, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. Theycarried out a survey in public and academic libraries in Oman, with about 44 responses, to find out how librarians are dealing with the SDGs. 27% were aware of the goals, 57% said they needed more information, and the others were not aware of he SDGs. 39% believed that libraries are a major contributors to SDGs, 21% had carried out activities connected with the SDGs in their libraries. The obstacles they identified included administrative and financial obstacles, that librarians were not ready to work with SDGs, and that there were legislative obstacles. Ideas for activities from participants included workshops for students, awareness sessions and brochures, educational workshops. The authors had designed an online training course for librarians which included ways of developing the SDGs. 

(2) Bridging the Staff Digital Divide in the Library Workplace with EDIA [Equity Diversity Inclusion and Accessibility] by Joan Weeks, Library of Congress, United States. She highlighted that when staff came back after the lockdown phase of the pandemic, it became evident that there was a digital divide amongst staff in the library themselves. Problems included: slow bandwidth or crashes; lack of support; legacy software; access to devices; steroetyped expectations. Examples of equity in staff development included one on one instruction on how to use Libguides, weekly discussions, and planning exchange of experience. Diversity issues included - instructors needing to review the learning context to ensure that people could see themselves reflected in the material or learning. Inclusion strategies included encouraging people to identify skill gaps and supporting staff in filling them, and allowing people who are inexperienced in using platforms like Zoom to pracice using it in an informal context. The speaker also mentioned universal design and the importance of this for accessibility. 

(3) Impact of LIS Professionals with Doctorates on Library Services from Eva Hornung, CDETB Curriculum Development Unit, Ireland. She reported on some research she did for a Masters in Higher Education. She started with a review of international literature, and found a mixed picture (e.g. in the USA it makes a difference as you can get tenure, but there was no research from some other countries). She used phenomenography as a research approach (to identify variations in experience). She had 10 interviews with librarians, 10 with employers plus focus group with people who worked with librarians with PhDs. The categories that were discovered were: (1) Changing perception of the library (having someone with a PhD changes how people view the library, and it enables researchers to connect better with the librarian); (2) being an expert; (3) growing as a person. The dimensions of variation (which are important in all the categories but whose meaning change in each category) were: motivation; skills; benefits (who benefits); personal attributes. 

(4) New Learning New Skill for Strategized LIS Training: Wikimedia in the Classroom from Ngozi Perpetua Osuchukwu (presenter), Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Nigeria, and Ebele Nkiru Anyaoku, Library, University of Abuja FCT, Nigeria. The speaker identified that LIS workers needed media, information and digital literacies, and these are also things that are developed by working with Wikipedia. For example it can be used by - editing articles, adding pictures, adding sources. Osuchukwu identified how many libraries are adopting Wikipedia. The speakers worked with a group of of 22 librarians. 70% of them were not aware beforehand of the role of library and information professionals with wikipedia but then their awareness was raised and afterwards they started getting involved, for example, in the Africa Wikipedia library day. The speaker also identified that there were grants and lots of opportunities to use it in library work.

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

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

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

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.

Thursday, June 09, 2022

New articles: First years; OERs; Decolonising; CCOW; Flipped; Informed research; COVID-19 & information literacy

There is a new issue (volume 16 no. 1) of the open-access Journal of Information Literacy. The articles are as follows (here are also book reviews and reports on the LILAC conference).
- A difference that matters: Disability activism, scholarship and community: Alison Hicks (editorial)
- Unsettling information literacy: Exploring critical approaches with academic researchers for decolonising the university: Frances Marsh
- Integrating information practices into everyday teaching: Jonathan William Phillips, Andrew Whitworth
- Reading between the lines: An examination of first-year university students’ perceptions of and confidence with information literacy: Beverly J Dann, Anne Drabble, Janet Martin
- Instructional elements in an online information literacy Open Educational Resource (OER) and their influence on learner achievement, satisfaction, and self-efficacy: Max Sommer, John Hampton, Angela M. Kohnen, Albert D. Ritzhaupt
- Faces of informed research: Enabling research collaboration: Clarence Maybee, Susan Gasson, Christine Susan Bruce, Mary Somerville
- An investigation into information literacy education in library schools in Nigeria: Monica Eberechukwu Eze, Doris Emetarom Aduba
- Have a CCOW: A CRAAP alternative for the internet age: Anthony Bernard Tardiff
- Intentional librarian-student interactions during COVID-19: Heather A. Dalal, Leslin H. Charles, Megan Dempsey, Cara Berg, Rebecca D. Bushby, Joan Dalrymple
- Using coaching techniques to teach information literacy to first year English undergraduates Sarah Wolfenden
- Improving information literacy and academic skills tuition through flipped online delivery: Laurence Morris, Lindsey McDermott
- Technical practices used by information literacy and media information literacy services to enable academic libraries to handle the COVID-19 pandemic: Eugenia de los Angeles Ortega-Martínez, César Saavedra-Alamillas
- The development and use of online information literacy activities to engage first year health students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Gillian Siddall
Go to https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/issue/view/235

Photo by Sheila Webber: poppy, bee, May 2022

Monday, March 14, 2022

New articles: Engineering students; Cognitive authority; E-learning adoption; Entrepreneurs in China; EFL students

Priced journal Libri has published Volume 72 Issue 1 which includes:
- Fostering Knowledge Sharing Behavior Among Pakistani Engineering Students: Role of Individual and Classroom Related Factors by Muhammad Safdar, Syeda Hina Batool, Khalid Mahmood
- Cognitive Authority as an Instance of Informational and Expert Power by Reijo Savolainen
- Technological Readiness and Computer Self-efficacy as Predictors of E-learning Adoption by LIS Students in Nigeria by Omorodion Okuonghae, Magnus Osahon Igbinovia, John Oluwaseye Adebayo
- Information Inequality among Entrepreneurs in Rural China by Zhenjia Fan, Pnina Fichman
- Digital Literacy of EFL Students: An Empirical Study in Vietnamese Universities by Lan Anh Thuy Nguyen, Anita Habók
Go to https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/libr/72/1/html

Photo by Sheila Webber: walk in the woods, Chapelgarth, March 2022

Monday, May 24, 2021

New articles: fake news in Nigeria; anxiety management; social media use in COVID; personal librarians; reference desk

The latest issue of priced publication Reference Services Review is Volume 49 Issue 1. It includes:
- Information literacy competence in curtailing fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic among undergraduates in Nigeria by Magnus Osahon Igbinovia, Omorodion Okuonghae, John Oluwaseye Adebayo
- COVID-19 and library social media use by Alexandros Koulouris, Eftichia Vraimaki, Maria Koloniari
- Fulfilling information needs by classifying complex patron needs by Charles R. Senteio, Kaitlin E. Montague, Stacy Brody, Kristen B. Matteucci
- Communication-based approaches to library reference services: anxiety-uncertainty management as a model for communication breakdowns by Brady Lund
- Personal connections: one library’s history of personal librarian by Elise Ferer ("the “intent of a personal librarian program is to build long-term, one-on-one connections that allow students to have the confidence and resources to be successful in the skill sets that librarians particularly seek to instill in them”)
- Is the reference desk used for reference interviews by Idunn Bøyum, Katriina Byström, Nils Pharo
- Referring academic library chat reference patrons: how subject librarians decide by Paula R. Dempsey Go to https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0090-7324/vol/49/iss/1

Photo by Sheila Webber: fallen cherry blossom  and bluebells, April 2021

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Recent articles: Science literacy; Copyright literacy; Imposter syndrome; Students sharing info during COVID19

Howell, E.L., & Brossard, D. (2021) (Mis)informed about what? What it means to be a science-literate citizen in a digital world. PNAS, 118 (15) e1912436117. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912436117 Another literacy - though "science literacy" has been a concept for a while. The authors say that these abilities include: "1) Understanding how science is produced, and what that means for how science relates to broader society, or “civic science literacy”; 2) understanding how science information appears and moves through media systems, or “digital media science literacy”; and 3) understanding how people interpret science information when they come across it, or “cognitive science literacy.”" 

Adams, K. (2021, February 10). Combatting Imposter Syndrome with Comradery and Critical Pedagogy [blog post]. https://acrlog.org/2021/02/10/combatting-imposter-syndrome-with-comradery-and-critical-pedagogy/

The latest issue of the open access IFLA journal (Volume 47 Number 1 March 2021) includes:
- Information-seeking behaviour of science and technology researchers in Nigeria: A survey of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi by Olayinka Babayemi Makinde, Glenrose Velile Jiyane and Tinashe Mugwisi
- Copyright literacy of library and information science professionals in Bangladesh by Zakir Hossain ("The results of this study suggest that librarians overall are at least somewhat familiar with a wide range of copyright issues and topics. The findings suggest that in Bangladesh there is a need for improvement."
Download the whole-issue pdf at http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/publications/ifla-journal/ifla-journal-47-1_2021.pdf

Hashim, L. et al. (2020). Students’ Intention to Share Information Via Social Media: A Case Study of Covid-19 Pandemic. Indonesian Journal of Science & Technology,  5(2), 236-245. https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/ijost/article/view/24586
Photo by Sheila Webber: hawthorn blossom, May 2021

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Recent articles: disinformation, infodemics and COVID19; reporters' information practices; information encountering

First a few from the priced publication Online Information Review:
(Early online publication) Information sources, practices and barriers: a situated and context-bound model of Pakistani electronic media reporters by Tauseef Hussain, Syeda Hina Batool, Amara Malik, Syed Waqas Hussain, Khalid Mahmood https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-07-2020-0308
(Early online publication) A cross-national diagnosis of infodemics: comparing the topical and temporal features of misinformation around COVID-19 in China, India, the US, Germany and France by Jing Zeng, Chung-hong Chan https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-09-2020-0417
In the most recent "published" issue Online Information Review, Volume 45 Issue 1
- Research information encountering and keeping behaviour of post-graduate students of social sciences in an online environment by Waqar Ahmad Awan, Kanwal Ameen, Saira Hanif Soroya
- User motivation in fake news sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic: an application of the uses and gratification theory by Oberiri Destiny Apuke, Bahiyah Omar

In the open access journal Indonesian Journal of Science and Technology (vol. 5 issue 2): Students’ Intention to Share Information Via Social Media: A Case Study of Covid-19 Pandemic by Suhaizal Hashim, Alias Masek, Nurhanim Saadah Abdullah, Aini Nazura Paimin, Wan Hanim Nadrah Wan Muda https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/ijost/article/view/24586

Photo by Sheila Webber: broom in flower, February 2021

Monday, December 21, 2020

Recent articles: student skills; faculty and OERs; Boolean search; scholarly information seeking; COVID

The latest issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship (priced) (Volume 46 issue 6) includes: 

- Toward a conceptual framework for scholarly information seeking by Sarah Rose Fitzgerald 

- Impact of library instruction on the development of student skills in synthesis and source attribution: A model for academic program assessment by Sarah P.C. Dahlen, Ryne Leuzinger (open access) 

- Incentivizing faculty for open educational resources (OER) adoption and open textbook authoring by Lily Todorinova, Zara T. Wilkinson 

- Boolean redux: Performance of advanced versus simple boolean searches and implications for upper-level instruction by M. Sara Lowe, Sean M. Stone, Bronwen K. Maxson, Eric Snajdr, Willie Miller 

- Implementing an information literacy course: Impact on undergraduate medical students' abilities and attitudes by Baris Sezer 

- Library support for student mental health and well-being in the UK: Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by Andrew Cox, Liz Brewster (open access) 

- Covid – 19 pandemic and the future of Nigeria's university system: The quest for libraries' relevance by Goodluck Ifijeh, Felicia Yusuf (open access) 

- The role of Roman Urdu in multilingual information retrieval: A regional study by Zanab Safdar, Ruqia Safdar Bajwa, Shafiq Hussain, Haslinda Binti Abdullah, ... Umar Draz 

Go to https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship/vol/46/issue/6

Friday, January 03, 2020

Recent articles: Attitudes to IL; Computational thinking and IL

Ata, R. & Yıldırım, K. (2020). Analysis of the Relation Between Computational Thinking and New Media Literacy Skills of First-Year Engineering Students. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 29(1), 5-20. [priced] https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/208637/ "The study first aimed to reveal self-reported computational thinking and new media literacy skill levels of first-year engineering students with various demographics such as gender, departments, and internet use frequency. It was then aimed to test whether there is a significant relation between computational skills and new media literacy skills. The study group consisted of 112 engineering candidates who were enrolled at the engineering faculty of a university in Mugla city in Turkey. ... Findings suggest that engineering student participants consider their computational thinking and new media literacy skills to be sufficient. In addition, while the variables such as gender and department were not found to be affecting to the computational thinking and new media literacy levels, internet use frequency was found to be affecting. Furthermore, the study results indicated that the relationship between participant’ computational thinking and new media literacy level is statistically significant and positive."

Adekunle, A. et al. (2019). Attitude of Undergraduate Students to Information Literacy: Bowen University Experience. Journal of Balkan Libraries Union, 6(1), 1-11. [open access] http://eprints.rclis.org/39346/1/Article1_Attitude%20of%20Undergraduate%20Students%20to%20Information%20Literacy%20Bowen%20University%20Experience.pdf "The study investigated the rationale behind undergraduates’ apathy for information literacy (IL) programme at Bowen University, Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study and a multi-stage sampling method was used to select a sample size of five hundred participants spread across disciplines and levels of study. ... Results show that students’ attitude to information literacy significantly influences their information literacy skill and students’ perception of information literacy significantly influences their information literacy skills. Although perception of IL does not predict influence of IL on students, attitude to IL determines the influence of IL on students’ information literacy skills. The study further revealed that the erroneous equation of technology literacy with information literacy was largely responsible for students' lukewarm disposition to information literacy."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Xmas wreaths of South London 3, December 2019