Today is World Book and Copyright Day, celebrated each year on 23 April - see https://www.unesco.org/en/days/world-book-and-copyright
"marking the death of several renowned authors, including William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega" on 23 April. A good day to celebrate freedom to read, to share readings and to oppose book bans.
Image by The Reading Agency
1. Lonely book Club. An activity in the ACRL Information Literacy Framework sandbox from Sarah Hood (learners identify a book they think might be lonely, and then the task is to match the lonely book up with its ideal book pairing). https://sandbox.acrl.org/resources/lonely-book-club
2. Blind dates with books seems a popular idea (you wrap the book up, so you can't see what the author or title are, and you may add some information about what type of book it is, and encourage people to go on a blind date with one of the books). See e.g. here or here (it's also a thing for those selling books e.g. here).
3. Take your favourite book on a date (including making it a Valentine card) https://www.brockport.edu/live/news/6216-book-lovers-unite-at-a-book-lovers-valentines-day
Image created by Sheila Webber on Midjourney AI
The latest issue has been published (Vol. 29 No. 2, 2024) of open access journal Information Research. This is the final issue with Professor Emeritus Tom Wilson as Editor in Chief. He founded the journal in 1995, and it a tribute to his hard work and inspiration that it remains a high quality publication with no charges for either author or reader.
He notes in his editorial
"I thought when I started the journal that the new technologies would bring about major changes in the scholarly publishing arena: it was now possible for a single academic, like myself, to create a new journal independently of the commercial publishers who dominated the field, much to the economic costs of academic institutions. Sadly, that potential future has not been realised and the commercial publishers are as much in control as ever, and there are even fewer, as a result of mergers and acquisitions.
"There are obvious reasons for this: on one hand academics have increased teaching loads and pressure to research and publish, and the institutions are (at least in the UK) "marketised" and in competition, with a reduction in the possibilities of cooperation. On the other hand, governments are more interested in preserving their publishing industries than in genuine freedom of information. They would rather see publishing companies making massive profits from their so-called "open access" policies than support the development of genuinely open access in universities. How "open" can publishing be if authors and/or their institutions are required to pay?"
There are two parts to this issue: regular contents and also the proceedings of the 15th ISIC conference. I will cover the latter in a future post. The regular peer-reviewed papers include:
- Reasons to fight: preliminary results on motivations to combat fake news by Wenting Yu
- ‘Alexa, play metal’: exploring music selection and personal information management via voice assistants by Jochen Steffens, Jesse David Dinneen, Sascha Donner, Tom Potthoff
- Cognitive authorities of COVID-19 information: educational differences and outcomes of trust in health experts and social media influencers in Finland
Sanna Malinen, Aki Koivula
- Developing expertise and managing inaccessibility: a study of reading by listening practices among students with blindness or vision impairment by Anna Lundh
- Health information-seeking on Reddit, by people who use opioids by Margaret Sullivan, Jonah Hancock, George Shaw, Chaoqun Ni
- Approaching information-seeking habits and their contextual features by Reijo Savolainen
Go to https://informationr.net/infres/issue/view/37
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bandstand (June 2024) in Sheffield, original home of Information Research (that is: the university, not the bandstand)
I need to catch up on articles from the Journal of Academic Librarianship (a priced publication)! The last 2 issues of Volume 49 (2023), include the following:
- Miller, K. Kaufmann, K. & Trnka, R.E. (2023). Measuring outcomes:
Information literacy instruction assessment in a cross-institutional
study. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(6), article 102796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102796.
- Chomintra, M. (2023) Assessing the use of critical literacies in mis/disinformation literacy instruction. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(5), article 102762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102762.
Rather curiously this article posits in the abstract that "The approaches to mis/disinformation in libraries and information studies have largely been grounded in two forms of literacy education; media literacy and digital literacy" but it is interesting in taking selected lesson plans uploaded to the ACRL sandbox and project CORA and doing a text analysis, including for Equity diversity inclusion and social justice terms.
- Chyne, R.C., Khongtim, J. & Wann, T. (2023). Evaluation of social media information among college students: An information literacy approach using CCOW. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 49(5), article 102771. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102771.
CCOW = Credentials, Claims, Objectives, Worldview. "The findings highlighted significant differences in the evaluation of social media information following the implementation of the CCOW information literacy approach."
- Dahlqvist, C.(2023). Cognitive and motivational qualities of task instruction: Cognitive appraisals and achievement emotions of Swedish primary teacher students. The Journal of Academic Librarianship,
49(6), article 102797. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102797.
- Johnson, B. & Reed, E. (2023) The impact of cultural capital on searching as strategic exploration in incoming first-year students. The Journal of Academic Librarianship,49(6), article 102807,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102807.
- Yu, C. (2023). Integrating Information Literacy and Academic Writing: Developing a Self-Assessment Scale of Information-Based Academic Writing. The Journal of Academic Librarianship,49(6), article
102804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102804.
- Shehata, A. & Eldakar,M. (2023). Scholarly communication practices and attitudes of Egyptian junior researchers: An exploratory study. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(6), article 102811,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102811.
- Matthews, J. & Johnson, A. (2023). Preferring print: The planned behavior and preferences of first-generation college students in the academic library. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(6), article 102813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102813.
Firstly, The Importance of Higher-Level Reading: A Manifesto, launched at the Frankfurst Book Fair - you can sign this manifesto if you agreed with your argument that higher-level reading (sustained reading etc.) is "our most powerful tool for analytic and strategic thinking". Go to https://readingmanifesto.org/#. Also they link to an article:
Schüller-Zwierlein, A., Mangen, A., Kovač, M. & van der Weel, A. (2022). Why higher-level reading is important. First Monday, 27(9). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/12770/10709 "While digital technologies offer much potential for new forms of reading, recent empirical research shows that the digital environment is having a negative impact on reading, in particular on long-form reading and reading comprehension. It also remains unclear whether the transition to digital media actually lives up to its promise of improving learning outcomes. Recent studies of various kinds indicate a decline of crucial higher-level reading competencies and practices, such as critical and conscious reading, slow reading, non-strategic reading and long-form reading. Current educational policy, meanwhile, relies heavily on monocultural standardized testing of basic reading capabilities and on growing use of digital technologies. Reading education, assessment, research and policy-making should focus more on higher-level reading practices in both adults and children in order to understand the development of reading skills and practices in an age increasingly dependent on a ubiquitous digital infrastructure."
Photo by Sheila Webber: in the gardens of the Musée de Montmartre, November 2023
Today is the global World Book and Copyright Day with the theme of Indigenous Languages. IFLA has a post on this https://www.ifla.org/news/ifla-celebrates-world-book-day-with-a-spotlight-on-indigenous-languages/ highlighting the IFLA Statement on Indigenous Traditional Knowledge.
Given the theme, I will highlight the open access book by Rachel Chong - Indigenous Information Literacy, which "outlines best principles for working with Indigenous print and oral sources in academic research": https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/indigenousinformationliteracy/
23rd April was chosen by UNESCO as World Book Day as it is the date on which William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died.
As a final link, my Twitter my eye was caught by a post by Visit Norway with some facts about Norwegian, books authors and readers - nice to see a tourist agency highlighting books and reading!
In the UK and Ireland today is World Book Day (the rest of the world celebrates it on 23 April!) The home page is here https://www.worldbookday.com/celebrate-world-book-day/ and if you are involved in reading development you may find some of the downloadable resources useful. I'll also highlight the post on my department's blog, contributed by some of my colleagues, in which they identify favourite books https://information-studies.blogspot.com/2023/03/world-book-day-2023.html
A new book from ACRL is: Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians, edited by Hannah Gascho Rempel and Rachel Hamelers. It is a 2-Volume set: Volume 1 consists of Reading in the Disciplines and Reading for Specific Populations. Volume 2 has main sections: Reading Beyond Scholarly Texts; Reading to Evaluate; and Reading in the World.
It costs US $120.00 (ALA Member $108.00) and its ISBN is 978-0-8389-3961-1
More information here https://www.alastore.ala.org/content/teaching-critical-reading-skills-strategies-academic-librarians-2-volume-set
Photo by Sheila Webber: Aberystwyth, January 2023
The latest complete issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship (a priced publication), Volume 48 issue 4 (July 2022) has a COVID-19 focus and includes, amongst other articles, the following:
- Automated Epistemology: Bots, Computational Propaganda & Information Literacy Instruction by Ian O'Hara
- “First years' information literacy backpacks: What's already packed or not packed?” by Joyce Kasman Valenza et al.
- Health sciences librarian research and instruction services in pandemic information environments by Deborah H. Charbonneau, Emily Vardell
- Reading Format Attitudes in the Time of COVID by Diane Mizrachi, Alicia M. Salaz
- Effectiveness of Virtual Reference Services in Academic Libraries: A Qualitative Study Based on the 5E Learning Model by Angel Lok Yi Tsang, Dickson K.W. Chiu
- Transformation of libraries during Covid-19 pandemic: A systematic review by Murtaza Ashiq, Farhat Jabeen, Khalid Mahmood
- Students with disabilities and library services: Blending accommodation and universal design by Casey Alexander Roberson, Trisha Barefield, Eric Griffith
Also a refreshing read is COVID-19 doesn't change anything: Neoliberalism, generation-ism, academic library buildings, and lazy rivers by John Buschman
Go to https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship/vol/48/issue/4
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherries on my tree July 2022
Today is World Book and Copyright day https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/worldbookday. It is celebrated on 23 April as this marks "the deaths of the writers William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega."
The latest issue of the open access College & Research Libraries News (volume 82 number 7, July/August 2021) includes
- Teaching in the digital library: A partnership between teaching librarians and digital library staff by Matthew Weirick Johnson, Salma Abumeeiz, Elizabeth McAulay
- From concept to creation: Shaping inquiry culture on campus with a co-curricular panel by Jennifer Jarson, Kate Morgan ("Our experience developing a co-curricular, interdisciplinary panel discussion series spotlights how librarians and instructional designers shape inquiry culture on campus through programming.")
- You can improve: Using the Framework in How to Read workshops by Erin Weber ("Information literacy is inseparable from reading literacy, but neither are a basic or innate skill. Both take time, practice, repetition, and a host of willing instructors ready to engage in critical discussions about reading strategies. This is particularly true for first-generation, non-traditional, and marginalized students. Instruction librarians are uniquely positioned to promote and teach reading comprehension in a broader context of literacy, including information literacy.")
Go to https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/issue/view/1603/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: haul from teh farmers' market, August 2021 (first of the plums and last of the cherries)
Today was World Book Day in the UK and Ireland (most of the rest of the world celebrates it on 23 April). The website is here https://www.worldbookday.com/ and includes various resources including free audio books.
The latest issue (Volume 14 No 2) of open access Journal of Information Literacy has been published. The articles are:
- Be kind: Teaching for information literacy in a pandemic era by Alison Hicks (Editorial)
- Students’ approaches when researching complex geographical conflicts using the internet by Eva Engelen, Alexandra Budke (the participants were secondary school students in Germany)
- How to teach digital reading? by Fei Victor Lim, Weimin Toh
- Information literacy outreach between universities and schools by Sharon Wagg, Pam McKinney (a case study using situational analysis of a programme)
- Information literacy instruction in public libraries by Miriam Louise Matteson, Beate Gersch ("Key findings were that public librarians incorporate a range of IL concepts in their interactions with patrons, across a wide variety of expressed information needs, with most of the instruction directed toward helping patrons plan their information tasks, access information, and judge information. Secondary themes showed that although librarians believed strongly in the value and importance of providing instruction, individual and situational factors presented barriers to effective instruction.")
- Developing information literacy skills in elementary students [10-12 years] using the web-based Inquiry Strategies for the Information Society of the Twenty-First (ISIS-21) Century by Anne C. Wade, Larysa Lysenko,Philip C. Abrami
- Innovative digital tools in EBP [evidence based practice] and information literacy education for undergraduate nursing students by Bryan Chan, Ruth Wei
Go to https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/issue/view/221
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn anemone, November 2020
