IFLA report: How do we hook them once we've got them to look?

This report on a talk by Cathy Palmer continues blog posts from the 76th IFLA General Conference and Assembly, held 10-15 August 2010, in Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference site is at http://www.ifla.org/en/ifla76. There is a podcast of this talk here, courtesy of Niels Damgaard. The full text paper is:
Ferry, C, Johnson, C and Palmer, C.(University of California, Irvine, California, USA) Proof of concept: the fatal first click. How do we hook them once we've got them to look?
http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/74-ferry-en.pdf

Only Cathy Palmer was present. She firstly talked about what a "proof of concept" is, i.e. a “use of evidence which demonstrates that a model or innovative approach to solving a problem is viable, can be done with the resurces available, and solves the problem that it aims to solve.
Cathy explained that a proof of concept approaches encourages the use of data. therefore she gave us some of the statistics they have gathered. In a typical day have two instruction sessions (55 people), 8000 physica; visits, 360 reference questions, but 25000 visits to websites. Most visitors are therefore virtual: so tehlibrarians want to want to transform casual users into dedicated users.
She emphasised data aspect, because IT colleagues sometimes need convincing about what the problems with the website are.
Digital reference also enabled them to gather and analyse transcripts of reference interviews, so they can see what people are asking about. They identified the top 10 reference transcript questioins; the top three were: find an article, books, login to licensened resources. They also use Google analytics so they could look at page views, visits, jump off points etc. However you can’t know WHAT people are doing (e.g. spending a long time on a page could mean positive use, but the users may just be getting baffled) They have analysed searches from the online catalogue to see what they are looking for, what are they calling it and what do they use.
Cathy then gave examples of interventions that have arisen from the project.
1) Make it easy to ask a librarian. The chat function is now at top of page and on many pages, which includes live caht and one-on-one consultations
2) Embed the chat widget into pages that staff refer to, to make it easier to start the chat
3) Creating a popup window for people that need to be authenticated (recognising their IP address, and popping up the alert) questions about this went down 30% in first 6 weeks after making the change
4) Using google search traffic results so they can identify the words people are using to serach and use them as synonyms
5) Make some decision trees to help people to work through more complex library procedures
6) There was the idea of the "Pop up librarian" (a virtual guide"), but this has paused after quesions about who would cover the online librarian
7) Digital concierge to cover some common problems (they are exploring this)
The next stage is evaluation and they are movingforward with that

IFLA reports: E-learning

I've still got a couple of items from the IFLA/ World Library and Information Conference that took place in August in Milan, Italy (the photo is taken in Milan Castle, no. 1 in my "spot thre cat" series, watch out for more). I took a lot of notes at the e-learning session but I'm not sure all of them are relevant, so I'll just note two, but link to all the papers at the end.
Lesley Farmer talked about Library e-learning spaces. She distinguished between formal/ informal learning and virtual learning (which could be either). She also talked about meanings of space, including space inside people's minds and "needing space". She listed some different approaches to teaching, and also aspects of learning spaces e.g. that they facilitate peer to peer and group learning, or support individual work, or are immersive, or include simulation. Lesley referred to supporting theories e.g. social costructivist, situated learning, environmental psychology, Vygostky's ideas and Kolb's experiential learning theory (his learning cycle).
Lesley identified that you need different environments "to support knowledge sharing" in different ways e.g. delivering, applying, communicating information, or decision making. These ideas apply in e-learning as in other kinds of learning. She identified the need for flexibility, decentralisation (moving between venues etc.), ergonomic comfort, making the environment stimulating to the senses (sight, sound), and having ubiquitous technology (e.g. enough power sockets - unlike the conference centre!)
Some features that she felt fostered "community-based learning" were communication surfaces (such as smartboards, walls you can write on etc.), open areas with flexible furniture and joint work space & flexible lighting. I will say that at Sheffield, there are spaces like this in our Information Commons (http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/learning-spaces) although not enough of them!
Peter Wynne presented instead of Bob Glass. He was looking at whether LIS professionals were getting enough ICT and elearning training and what the picture was in the UK. Their university, Manchester Metropolitan, is part of Web-based Information Science Education (WISE) , which offers online short courses ("a method of filling spare capacity"): http://www.wiseeducation.org/. They did a small online survey, with 10 higher education libraries and 3 public library authorities responding. There were huge differences in training budgets an informal response from a public library was "what training budget?" Many said that library staff training budgets had remained static or decreased. The most popular area for training was Web 2.0, elearning packages, and information literacy. The skills gaps did not seem to be with new graduates, so it seemed like it was established staff rather than recent recruits who needed training.

These are the links to the papers
- LESLEY FARMER (California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, USA)Library e-learning spaces. http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla75/214-farmer-en.pdf
- BOB GLASS (Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK)Training for Information Professionals in ICT's, e-learning and related issues: what can library schools do to help (not the paper that was actually delivered!) http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla75/214-glass-en.pdf
- BAU-MEI CHENG E-learning for the librarians in Taiwan: the experience at the National Central Library's E-learning campus http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla75/214-cheng-en.pdf
- IDA A. JOINER (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pittsburg, USA)
If we 'e' it, will they come? Lifelong e-learning at a large urban public library? http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla75/214-joiner-en.pdf

IFLA Reports: Integrating tradition: Kenanow and information literacy

One of the posters at the IFLA/ World Library and Information Conference was Integrating tradition: Kenanow and information literacy. Presenter was Shannon McAlorum of University College of the North, Canada ( a little more information on her is here, and she is pictured on the right). This was an interesting poster about using indigenous ways of learning and knowing to engage people from that community.

The central circle on the poster gives her starting proposition that “Using pedagogical methods grounded in tradition and develped by Cree of Northern Manitoba will increase the rate at which Cree students perceive and adapt to new information literacy techniques”. Both strengths and weaknesses emerged, as is listed on the poster (click it to see larger size, note the copyright for the content is Shannon's).

IFLA Reports: Poster on faculty cooperation

I'm resuming reports on last week's IFLA/ World Library and Information Conference that took place in Milan, Italy. There was a large and interesting poster area in the exhibition. One of the posters was by Tayo Nagasawa (Higher Education Development Centre, Mie University, Japan). Her poster was Factors in developing partnerships between faculty members and librarians in higher education. She had studied the situation at two institutions in the USA (Earlham College and the University of Michigan) and categorised successful approaches in developing good relationships with academics. She lists them under two headings: Proactive approaches and Customised support. A nice touch was that she left a space on the poster for people to add comments on things that did and didn’t work for them, on post it notes that she provided.

A few people had some kind of interactive element on their posters and this was referred to in the IFLA closing ceremony as evidence of “Posters 2.0”!
You can see, above, Ms Nagasawa talking to someone by her poster and, below, the "post it" area of her poster. I was positive I had taken a picture of the whole poster, but I can't find it - sorry about that. I'll therefore add a bit more detail. The proactive approaches she listed were; librarians as facilitators, needs-oriented support for the community; support for faculty members, and informal comunication. The Customised support was: research assignments (librarians concentrate on support for classes with assignments involving research or problem solving); support regarding specific topics, and support at teachable moment.

IFLA Reports: Information Literacy logo session

This is the last long report from the IFLA/ World Library and Information Conference taking place in Milan, Italy, but I'll be doing a few shorter ones e.g. of a couple of posters.

This was a session on Wednesday focusing on use of the international UNESCO/IFLA information literacy logo (shown here). This logo was identified through a competition and judged by an international panel (including me). The logo website is at http://www.infolitglobal.info/logo/ and you can download it in various formats and with "information literacy" in several languages. The idea is that people worldwide start using it, so that awareness of information literacy grows, and people also find it useful as a simple logo for branding.
Linda Goff started by explaining how the logo was chosen and gave an example of how she was using it as part of a big poster she has up in her university. She then handed over to Jesus Lau who talked about How to brand and market information literacy with the information literacy logo. He and Linda have been developing a marketing toolkit for the logo. This is not yet available, but I will blog it when it is.

Jesus started by talking about marketing, and giving a short introduction to that. As a shortcut, I will link to my own website that introduces marketing. I haven't updated it for a while, so the links may not work, but the main thing is the pages on key marketing aspects, and those are still valid (and short!). So, if you don't know what marketing is, feel free to divert to http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/marketing/ at this point.

Jesus went on to talk more specifically about information literacy and marketing. He encouraged people to think of problems and objectives in terms of marketing e.g. segmenting your market according to their characteristics and needs, looking at the place of delivery and whether it meets requirements and expectations etc. He talked hrough stages of identifying needs, refining your information literacy "service" and communicating your message. I would add that you also need to think of educational aspects, when you start doing indepth information literacy work, as you may want to challenge and change ideas through your teaching (not just please people!)

Branding is particularly relevant for the information literacy logo. It means creating a strong connection between the logo, the marketing efforts and the IL "service" you provide. Branding needs to be consistent and persistent to be successful, so Jesus suggested putting it on business cards, banners, pens, flyers, website etc., so people recognise it and understand its meaning. There will be some templates in the toolkit that he is producing. Jesus talked about getting your promotional message right and using appropriate channels, including social media such as Twitter. He advocated using the mass media (e.g. using free opportunities, sending press releases and getting on local radio). Don't neglect also to publish anything appropriate in the Infolit global directory (http://www.infolitglobal.info/)

If many people use it internationally, theinformation literacy logo will make it easier to communicate about information literacy, including with people and organisations you want to influence. The goal is to make it internationally familiar like the "i" for information symbol.

There was then a session for people to exchange ideas about marketing using the logo. I was deliquent and was talking to people about other things (other information literacy things, I hasten to add). However I have used the logo; you can see it on this blog's home page and also on teh CILR Ning, it is on the Information Literacy in Second Life calendar and I used it on posters for the recent information literacy seminar. However, I realised that we haven't really used it inside my university.

Just a couple of ideas from other people at the session: A medical librarian putting forward the slogan "we save lives with information literacy"; using the logo to create awareness with administrators; another slogan "As to me, all I know is that what I want to know, I get from IL" (after Socrates); someone from Cote d'Ivoire talking about using it on material from a training session. I and Lisa Hinchliffe suggested on setting up an online shop on one of the internet stores, with information literacy branded t-shirts, bags etc. and we are going to see if we can do that (I think the issue will be working out an account that doesn't infringe some IFLA bye-law).

There was a call to translate the logo toolkit, and more translations of the phrase "information literacy" were gathered. I will also point to these when they go online.

IFLA reports: Libraries driving access to knowledge

Yesterday I attended the brainstorming session of the IFLA President-Elect, Ellen Tise (South Africa), on her presidential theme: Libraries driving Access to Knowledge (A2K). Each IFLA president introduces a theme, and in this case the development is supported by a working group, discussion sessions and other input from members. It is important since apart from the President taking action, normally the Presidential theme influences strategy and conference themes. And this in turn is important since IFLA is recognised as the international library body, so can have some impact on international organisations and policies, although it still has to lobby hard.
There was a presidential brainstorming session last year, and points Ellen drew from that were:
- “knowledge is foundational to all spheres of life;
- “knowledge is produced when information is absorbed, processed and internalised by individuals;
- “knowledge is critical for the growth of society.”
In terms of libraries, she identified a number of points, including that libraries are critical providers of information; have an important role to play in the creation of new knowledge and are a vital institution for creation, development and sustainability of knowledge societies
Four key enablers of Libraries driving access to knowledge had been identified. The first one is User-oriented A2K (Access to Knowledge) actions. I think this is the most important point, and not just because it mentions information literacy! The sub-points were:
• bringing libraries and resources to their users
• empowering users through information literacy, social networking etc
• enabling access to info
• facilitating the full participation of all citizens in societal activities
The 2nd enabler was taking a strong advocacy role; the 3rd was creating partnerships including other societal stakeholders and private/public institutions and the 4th was fostering library as place and space (including providing “wow” experiences, and providing a safe, trusted space.)
After this Pascal Sanz (France) introduced a mindmap which had been created by students of Ana Maria Tamaro (University of Parma, Italy). They are taking a digital libraries programme run between universities in three countries, which has 20 students from 17 countries. They used free concept mapping software http://bubble.us/, blog and email to communicate. Their IFLA Presidential theme 2009 blog is public and is here: http://ifladill2009.wordpress.com/. You can see the mindmap and their discussion.
They decided that the main concepts were: information, knowledge, library, access and data; each term was assigned to a group, and then went through drafts to reach version presented here. LINK (I hope) I think that this was a nice example of collaborative ideas development, and formed an excellent starting point for considering the overall theme. In terms of information literacy,though, it seems a little out on a limb in this mindmap, and I would say IL is more than competencies.

Panellists talked about the presidential theme in relation to specific interests. Kai Ekholm talked about the work of FAIFE (Free Access to Information & Freedom of Expression); Winston Tabb related it to intellectual property matters, and the access problems caused by this. He pointed out that the constant extension of the copyright term means that fewer items are out of copyright, and copyright holders are ken to enforce further restrictions. He emphasised that IFLA is in favour of copyright, but feels that the balance has moved away from the rights of users. They have developed 12 principles that embody what libraries need to be able to do their job. Another issue that was raised in questions was that of patrimony (e.g. important works and documents) being bought/ taken out of the home country. Further, someone else talked about the problems when many different people are contributing material to a web resource; issues of who should own it and issues of open access.
Theresa Hackett talked about http://www.eifl.net/ which works with developing and transition countries. There are financial barriers, and eIFL negotiates with publishers for access; it also helps with technical barriers: this often means making partnerships, and cooperation is important; there is communal development of library systems (including language interfaces); Theresa also mentioned copyright restrictions and actions to give access.
Mike Crandall introduced the ICT4D (ICT for development) movement, which has emerged from the IT sector, and hasn’t connected with libraries much yet. This seems rather a no-brainer in terms of potential for cooperation. Deborah Jacobs (Director of the global library program at the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation) advised spending more time advocating libraries to stakeholders. Christoph Bruch (Max Planck Institut) talked about Open Access, including plans to build up a digital environment to share and exchange research knowledge, in cooperation with numerous organisations.


After a coffee break there was a discussion in groups about each of the enablers. I joined with others who wanted to talk about Enabler 1, User-oriented A2K (Access to Knowledge). We were supposed to just identify activities or achievements related to this, but we first revisited what “user” meant and whether “user” was really the right word. In the end we opted for “people”, who have multiple roles and should be actively involved in identifying their wants and needs (so they are central).
One of our group came up with “The people are the library” and “The library are the people”, so our poster (that’s my writing, apologies if you cannot read it) has some of roles of people, and some aspects of the library, and the lines in the middle are activities undertaken both by librarians and other people.

There are some examples in circles on the map e.g. 8-10 year old children in Hoorn (Netherlands) being library workers (lending books, providing information), examples of youth libraries from Stockholm and Aarhus (with young people planning and determining the physical spaces and services), and the example from Vietnam, with still-important information literacy training for users.
The groups’ posters will be incorporated into the students’ mindmap and put up on their blog.

At the end Ellen Tise gave her personal priorities for her presidential year. I may need to amend this bit, as I left the paper I scribbled this on, back at the hotel. If I remember correctly, her priorities were enabling access to print to the visually impaired, and advocacy.
The photos are of Jesus Lau (Mexico), who chaired the whole session, wearing his “Access to Knowledge” hat and with a banner of the four enablers round his neck; and our poster.

IFLA report: Libraries promoting twenty-first century literacies (3)

This is the 3rd and final report from Monday's 21st Century literacies session at the IFLA/ World Library and Information Conference taking place in Milan, Italy. There were three speakers, and again I will link to their full papers (click the titles). Firstly Patrick Lo spoke about Effects of Online Audio-Book Resources on Library Usage and Reading Preferences and Practices of Young Learners in an Elementary School Library Setting in Hong Kong. This was his doctoral research, about use of online audio books and use of the school library. The sample were 11-12 years olds who were already good readers. He administered two sets of questionnaires, at a 5 month interval. 260 out of a possible 310 questionnaires were returned. Children were encouraged to use the Naxos spoken word online library, and there was log data from this resource. The online books were used book in school and at home, and there is information on length of sessions etc. in the paper. Contrary to hopes, frequency of use of library was slightly decreased, and students did not see the library as more fun after using the books.
The next speaker, Leone Tiemensma (Midrand Graduate Institute, South Africa) spoke on Visual literacy: to comics or not to comics? How libraries can promote literacy using comics. She talked about the long history of comics and cartoons and also its characteristics. She also talked about some of the ways in which comics support developing literacy and the ability to construct meaning (e.g. the pictures are part of describing context and meaning and these have to be decoded). Specifically in South Africa, there is reluctance to engage with texts, and graphic novels can provide way of engaging with ideas, history, literature. Also there is the fact that there are people with different first languages and this also puts the emphasis on using pictures to cross boundaries. English is lingua franca, everyone has to know it and it is seen (e.g. by parents) as the language you use to get on in life. Comics present English in a less daunting and more engaging way (from that perspective, Tiemensma was seeing it as a starting point; something you move on from - some others felt it was a destination for adults, too). Less than 50% of schools have libraries.
The third paper was Promote Popular Cultural Literacy throughout the Countryside in China from Huang Qunqing and Xu Yixing. The presenter started by defining this concept as a state or condition of studying or enjoying cultural works that are popular with most people. The are 1.3 billion Chinese living in rural places, spread through 56 nationalities with many cultural traditions, and part of this may be a preference for watching rather than reading. From a survey in 2000, playing cards or watching TV were most popular, with low use of/access to libraries. There differences between urban and rural areas. The cultural project started in 20002 and has already reached 60% of people. It involves public libraries and they offer e-books, films, stage and fine arts, sightseeing, lectures music, and with particular attention to videos (with centres offering satellite receivers and projectors). There is a lot more detail in her paper.
The discussion this time started with questions of how to organise graphic novels, since one of my Masters students has found out that “in no order at all” is generally the answer. A French delegate said it was the same in her library. She had an interesting point, which was that arabic-reading populations in parts of France prefer manga (Japanese graphic novels) since Japanese is read right-to-left, the same as arabic (manga usually keeps this layout even in translation), so the layout is familiar. Lesley Farmer talked about some ways she uses graphic novels etc. e.g. getting people to create cartoons about their experience of a graphic novel. There were also discussions about who chooses material that goes out on cultural initiatives.
So this was the end of the session! It was a great job from the session chairs, as it was a complex timetable, and most of the speakers had to be kept to 10 minutes. After all this I was ready for a cup of coffee ;-)
The pictures show Lesley Farmer chairing our group, and one of the posters in the exhibition, from Heike vom Orde

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.

IFLA report: Libraries promoting twenty-first century literacies (1)

Another report from the IFLA/ World Library and Information Conference taking place in Milan, Italy. The main session for information literacy is today, a session organised jointly by the Information Literacy and Literacy & Reading Sections of IFLA. I will blog it in a few sections. The structure was to have a few talks and then a short time for discussion in groups: so this is a report on the first of three sets. The speakers did not have very long, but the papers are all online full text and I will link to them as I go along. The photographs are from the "librarians take over La Scala" event yesterday evening (a special concert at the La Scala opera house).
Susie Andretta (London Metropolitan University) started the session as keynote. She called her talk Transliteracy: a walk on the wild side. She made sure that she did not just started by mentioning the practical problems of transliteracy: in the setup here the video clips did not work properly, concluding “Microsoft doesn’t believe in transliteracy” (though I am not sure Milan conference centre is transliterate either, since my seating was determined by the one power socket in the room that wasn’t on the podium).
Susie played an audio clip of Sue Thomas defining transliteracy as the ability to read write, and interact across a range of media. The emphasis is on being able to move between media, and also the emphasis is on content creation. Susie illustrated this with an advert which shows a small child using different media to send a photo of his rabbit to his aunt (one of the “I’m a pc” Windows ads). She also showed a video of the Mindspot project in Aarhus, which is a youth library project, which includes young people (“mindspotters”) as part of the team. See also http://www.mindspot.dk/ Again, this is not a new idea (I remember the Yoker Youth Library in Glasgow, that was using similar principles of collaboration and user centredness), but it is incorporating the possibilities for technology and new communities/ activities.
Susie then gave quick sketches of four librarians who she interviewed to identify what transliteracy might mean to them (you can see more detail in teh full paper that I linked above). The first was Michael Stephens, a library & information academic from the USA. The 2nd was Bernadette Daley Swanson, who I know as HVX Silverstar in Second Life (this links to her video of me, apologies for self-promotion) and she was talking to Susie about the issue of intellectual property in virtual worlds. The third person was one of Susie’s students who is particularly keen on blogging, and sees that as a way of extending the reach of the service (interaction, current awareness etc.)
The third librarian was a collections manager in the UK, who started by saying that she wasn’t transliterate. However, it emerged that she belonged to the London and Information Knowledge Exchange, which uses a lot of social networking tools and therefore she was using them effectively to expand her professional network.
This was a very good presentation to start things off, and nice to have audio and video used. My position is still that this could still be termed information literacy, if you have a holistic vision of what information is. However, the aspect of moving between types of information and communication is an intersting thing to highlight, and think about whether this is something really new and what you might to to help people be information/trans-literate in this way
The next talk was from Sean Cordes (Western Illinois University): Broad horizons, the role of multimodal literacy in 21st century library instruction. He emphasised the way technology and need to interact is pervasive and won’t go away. Sean mentioned the number of literacies that people talk about e.g. multicultural literacies, and specifically multimodal literacies as the ability to manage and communicate across a range of media. He identified this as being pretty much like "transliteracy". He also referred to Foucault’s conceptins of “technologies” - of power, self, production ands sign systems, and that these can be interpreted in terms of the library user’s needs. He gave example of a grid in which people look at an object of interest (he used the term "text") and identify manifestations and then see whether these manifestations include video, gestures etc. (See his paper for lots more detail!)Final speaker in this group was Mark Hepworth (University of Loughborough, UK), presenting a joint paper with Julie Brittain (Institute of Development Studies, UK): A method for the design, delivery and evaluation of an information literacy programme for development workers studying Participation, Power and Social Change. They were looking at ways of designing an intervention to develop the information literacy of development workers (students studying social change etc.). The first stage was gaining participation from the key people: academics, other staff, learners and librarians. This was an essential stage in terms of embedding it into the curriculum (rather than an add-on) and getting buy-in. This involved understanding the wants and needs of each of the different groups. The intervention started by asking the learners to map the domain (subect), starting to get comfortable with the language and nature of the subject. They used flip charts, and there was a lot of interaction, and they also had to reflect on the process. Students then reflected on the information landscape, thinking of it as a journey - thinking of the types of information, the difficulties they might encounter on the journey. They then spent time on understanding the norms and forms of communication in the field. This happened over 3 half-days.
They did do diagnostic test (to help the students reflect on their understanding, and help identify improvements for next time). This showed that some students benefited more than others. The mind mapping and processing were found particularly valuable. More time was needed for discussion, critical reflection and using online sources (practical sessions).
My own reflection: This has something in common with activities that we do with our first year information management students, to help them map their understanding of the discipine at different stages and engage with the process of research. Ironically, perhaps, at the moment the information literacy aspect of this is not brought out strongly at that stage, and I think we could do this a bit more.
There was time for one question after these 3 talks, and Linda Goff raised the issue of how not all students are at the same level in terms of text literacy or digital literacies. Sean identified the same points that we have done (in surveys in my Department), i.e. that students are very familiar with a few tools like Facebook, but are unfamiliar with a good number of other tools. Other panellists also agreed, and they identified need to support, encourage peer learning, and acknowledge the anxieties of people having problems. Susie also stressed the point that if you use technologies, which cause anxiety etc., you have to be sure that is actually pedagogically necessary. She gave the example of learners rejecting use of blogs, when they were very happy just using email.
The small group discussion after this covered a number of points. I put my laptop down at that point and didn't take any notes .... (I think) people agreed about the importance of context (i.e. the context of someone learning to be trans/information literate), the need for more librarian education in use of technologies in some countries, and we had some discussion around the use of the word "text" (i.e. as used by Sean).
Readers may be relieved to know that the other (next) two write-ups from this session will be shorter!

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Twitter stream at http://twitter.com/search?q=%23ifla2009

Bloggers:

- German volunteer blogging in German and English at BibliothekarInnen sind uncool (meaning: librarians (of both genders) are uncool) http://bibliothekaresinduncool.wordpress.com/ and also has a Flickr stream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifla09milan/show/

- Nicolás Robinson García at http://entreolasdeinformacion.blogspot.com/ (in Spanish)

- Javier Leiva Aguilera at http://www.javierleiva.info/ (in Spanish)

- Plinius (Tord Høivik) at http://pliny.wordpress.com/ (in English and Norwegian)

- and I notice there was a post on the ALA blog about the US caucus last night http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/2009/08/22
/americans-kick-off-ifla-in-milan-with-caucus/

Photo by Sheila Webber: Pigeon approaches the Duomo.

IFLA conference: 1st report

I am lucky enough to be in Milan for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) World Library and Information conference. This is a truly international association and conference. I am just starting as a member of the Information Literacy Section committee of IFLA (website is here: http://www.ifla.org/en/information-literacy) (I used to be on the Management and Marketing section committee). There are 20 members, from different countries/continents, though Europe is particularly well represented. Ruth Stubbings (Vice-Chair, CILIP CSG Information Literacy Group) is the other person from the UK.
Today was a day for meetings of the various IFLA committees and boards, and I attended the first of the IFLA IL Section meetings (there is also one at the end of the conference). Sylvie Chevillotte was chairing her last meeting, handing over to Maria Carme Torres. Antonio Calderón Rehecho remains Secretary and The Information Officer is Albert K. Boekhorst. IFLA recently restructured their website, so Albert has had to put older material into that structure. Dalia Naujokaitis (from Canada) and I are going to work with Albert on web communications. Lisa Hinchliffe offered to take over production of the Section's newsletter from Linda Goff (pictured above), who has come to the end of her time on the committee.
We were reminded that the IFLA Guidelines on Information Literacy have now been translated into a number of languages, most recently Greek. There was a lot of discussion about the satellite information literacy event for next year. Next year's IFLA conference was going to be in Brisbane, but it has been switched to Gothenburg, a somewhat controversial decision which has meant that existing Australian plans had to be abandoned.
Tomorrow is the opening session, and a chance to have a look at posters, I think. On Monday there is a session on literacies, with several speakers, and on Wednesday there will be a session about using the Information Literacy logo (see http://www.infolitglobal.info/logo/). I will blog these and other sessions that have some relevance to IL. I probably won't be doing much liveblogging, though, as wifi costs 10 Euros for 4 hours, and there don't seem to be many power points to plug in my laptop during long sessions, either. However, otherwise the conference venue is very smart.