How children's health literacy can shape the future of global health

An interesting podcast on children's health literacy. It is the first in a series from Children for Health. Dr Lilanga Hasini Batawalage, CEO of Children for Health discusses How children's health literacy can shape the future of global health with Dr Gaya Gamhewage, Director of Communications at the World Health Organization. Topics include "Children’s health literacy and why it extends beyond access to information" and indeed ways in which information is communicated. 
Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V067dqy5hnk
Photo by Sheila Webber: the black cat in the Botanics, July 2026

iConference proceedings published

The proceedings of the iConference (held in March-April 2026) have been published as a special issue of open access journal Information Research (volume 31 no. iconf(2026). There's lots about AI! Papers include:
- Beyond the loop: a research agenda towards a framework for critical AI literacy in the AI-assisted literature review by Dipesh Jalui, Mary Tate, Jocelyn Cranefield 
- Disability misinformation on Facebook: a comparison of LLM-based fact-checking tools by Ian Prazak, Leah Padovani, Yool Lim, Julia (Hsin-Ping) Hsu, Myeong Lee 
- Shared agency in information behaviour research: Human–Nonhuman interactions by Niloofar Solhjoo, Jia Tina Du, Yazdan Mansourian 
- The role of misinformation in elder fraud: a conceptual framework by Jiangping Chen, Milo P. Ono 
- Breaking the mold of knowledge imposition: reconstruct the digital literacy education model in academic libraries under the Scottish enlightenment by ZhenJia Fan, YiMei He
 - Reframing creative learning: a conceptual framework for design literacy in the GenAI era by Asif H Zeshan, Xiao Hu 
- Dimensions of information search strategies: a study of blind and visually impaired users in mobile digital library environments by Iris Xie, Wonchan Choi, Hyun Seung Lee, Ning Chiao Wang, Bo Hyun Hong 
- Seeking the mission and opportunities for LIS in the AI era: a systematic review of empirical research on teenagers' artificial intelligence literacy (TAIL) by Jing Liu, Jiajing Ma, Guoye Sun, Shu Fan
 - Inclusive media and information literacy (IMIL): Building a framework for an age of preparedness and responsibilisation by Hanna Carlsson, Lisa Engström, Lisa Olsson Dahlquist 
- Scaffolding resilience: the influence of an iSchool’s media and information literacy courses by Frey Aura Galario, Dan Anthony Dorado, Benedict Salazar Olgado 
- ‘Ugh, it’s a difficult topic’: Positionality statements as information use in information and library science research by Alex H. Poole, Ashley Todd-Diaz
Go to https://publicera.kb.se/ir/issue/view/5744
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry blossom cluster, April 2026

Preparing young voters in today’s online information environment

The UK government plans to lower the voting age to 16 (you can already vote in Scottish and Welsh parliamentary and local elections at 16 if you are qualified to vote in Scotland/ Wales) so there is interest in how this younger cohort of voters might engage with information relevant to voting decisions. 
Earlier in the year a report was published by Internet Matters and Full Fact. Internet matters is a not-for-profit that works "collaboratively with our partners to support our joint vision of a safer, happier connected world for children and young people" (partners include Tiktok, Amazon Kids, Sky). Full Fact is the fact checking organisation. 
The report uses "November 2025 data from Internet Matters Pulse ... based on a survey of 573 children aged 13-17 and 801 parents of children aged 13-17 based in the UK") and also previous Internet Matters research. 
The report identifies that this age group encounters political information online, their confidence that they can evaluate it is in the 50%s and when asked about their peers' confidence, that is rated even lower. A small majority are concerened about the veracity of what politicians say and about the impact on misinformation on election results. A large majority of young people think that schools, parents / carers, Government, and social media companies all have responsibility to support them in being more informed voters (they were not asked whether they felt they had a responsibility to develop themselves). The report makes recommendations for various stakeholders, including about media and digital literacy. Sadly, librarians/ libraries are not mentioned.
Internet Matters. (2026, February 8). Preparing young voters in a complex, attention-driven information environment. https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/research/preparing-young-people-to-vote-in-a-complex-attention-driven-environment/
Photo by Sheila Webber: spring branches, April 2026

Recent articles: information behaviour on Tiktok; Misinformation in Brazil; genAI and feeling

These are all open access
- Hendrickx, J. (2024). ‘Normal news is boring’: How young adults encounter and experience news on Instagram and TikTok. New Media & Society, 27(10), 5736-5754. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241255955
- Hassoun, A., Borenstein, G., Osborn, K., McAuliffe, J., & Goldberg, B. (2024). Sowing “seeds of doubt”: Cottage industries of election and medical misinformation in Brazil and the United States. New Media & Society, 27(10), 5710-5735. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241255379
- Given, L. M., Polkinghorne, S., & Ridgway, A. (2025). ‘I think I misspoke earlier. My bad!’: Exploring how generative artificial intelligence tools exploit society’s feeling rules. New Media & Society, 27(10), 5525-5545. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251338276
Photo by Sheila Webber: spot the squirrel, October 2025

New media and Information Literacy toolkit from UNESCO

UNESCO just launched a publication aimed organisations supporting young people - Journey through the MILtiverse: media and information literacy toolkit for youth organizations.
It is partly quizzes and partly self-auditing questions, and starts by asking the leaders/staff in the organisation to identify their organisation's mission, definition of MIL etc. It is divided into "missions" concerning different aspacts of MIL.
"this toolkit is for all youth organizations seeking to make MIL a central part of their approach. It includes model policies and strategies, checklists, educational tips, and other resources needed to bring MIL to life within your organization."
It looks to me like something that would be well-suited to making into an online version, but I don't know whether they have that in mind.
Acero Pulgarin, S., Martinovic, M., González-Gil, N. & Santamaría Virviescas, A. (2024). Journey through the MILtiverse: media and information literacy toolkit for youth organizations. UNESCO https://doi.org/10.58338/APOC5995

New articles: Latin America; Misinformation; Mindfulness; Critical evaluation; AI & #infolit frameworks; #infolit for English students

The latest issue of open access Journal of Information Literacy Vol. 18 No. 2 (2024) includes:
- Past, present and future of information literacy in Latin America by Alejandro Uribe-Tirado, Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo
- A mindfulness-based information literacy framework for the current information environment by Matthew N. Hannah, Jennifer Hoewe, Hanna Sistek, Taeik Kim, Dan Goldwasser
- Chaos creator: Misinformation inoculation in information literacy instruction by Mandi Goodsett
- Cultivating critical information evaluation through motivational confidence: An exploratory crosswalk analysis by Samantha LeGrand, Victoria Dawkins
- The early development of information literacy instruction for young people as revealed by six volumes by Andrew Shenton
- Integrating basic artificial intelligence literacy with media and information literacy in higher education by Miriam Wanjiku Ndungu
- Three shots are better than one: Establishing and evaluating the English library instruction pilot by Amy McLay Paterson, Benjamin Mitchell, Stirling Prentice, Elizabeth Rennie
Go to https://journals.cilip.org.uk/jil/issue/view/50
Photo by Sheila Webber: Botanic Gardens, October 2024

Youth Data Literacy

The Pratt Institute, USA, received a US National Science Foundation award to develop resources to support Youth Data Literacy, with involvement from the young people "for use in after-school STEM programs at the public library". The resources include a Youthy Activity Guide, and results of a survey for how teen like to learn. https://sites.google.com/pratt.edu/data-activism-for-youth/home?authuser=0

Global Media and Information Literacy Week Youth Hackathon 2024

Following on from yesterday's post, once again Global Media and Information Literacy week includes a youth hackathon. Teams of 3-6 members aged between 18 and 30 years old can register, with the registration deadline 18 August 2024 and the deadline for submissions 8 September 2024.
"The participants will focus on one of the following topics to design innovative solution and scheme their proposals:
- "Empowering youth to become active participants in shaping the digital spaces they inhabit, finding ways to promote public interest information rather than passive consumers of information.
- "Exploring innovative solutions to address the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence.
- "Exploring receptive and effective approaches to Media and Information Literacy Education and Capacity Building through Peer education and Feeding Education.
- "Activating Youth Organizations to be agents of change through collaborating with digital content creators."
The proposed solutions can be Games; Applications/Websites; Radio programmes/Podcasts; Educational toolkits; Creative community-based interventions (non-technology focused) or other forms.
The submission takes the form of a 3 minute video plus a descripton of the solution. More information at https://www.unesco.org/en/weeks/media-information-literacy/youth-hackathon-2024
Photo by Sheila Webber: takeaway coffee on the beach, Bournemouth, June 2024

Youth leader training in the Philippines

Rappler, #FactsFirstPH and Deutsche Welle are sponsoring training of youth leaders from Luzon and Mindanao (the Philippines) in media and information literacy in July/August 2024, in a programme called Movers for Facts. After the training they are expected to follow up by hosting workshops or creating media for their communities.There is a "a focus on countering disinformation. Participants will gain a better understanding of the current media landscape and work together to promote digital resilience against disinformation in their own communities. "

Rappler. (2024, June 28). Rappler, Deutsche Welle to train youth leaders to promote media literacy. https://www.rappler.com/moveph/deutsche-welle-training-youth-leaders-promote-media-literacy/ (you have to register (free) to see the whole story, though initially I saw the whole thing without registering; not sure how/why)
Photo by Sheila Webber: sandy beach, Bournemouth, June 2024

#LILAC24 I have no idea who I’d even ask": information literacy and dissemination amongst young recently arrived adult immigrants in Montreal, Canada

Pam McKinney here live blogging from the final day of the LILAC conference in Leeds, UK. The first session I'm attending is being led by Marianne Chiu-Lezeau from Montreal University. Marianne has a background as an anthropologist, and this research is an attempt to blend anthropology with information science.  It is an ethnographic approach, a snapshot of some young people's experiences.  Montreal is a francophone city, and has a recent history of immigration with many people on "temporary status" which has implications for access to health, public funds etc. The project sought to understand the information-seeking process of young adult immigrants aged between 18 and 25, interviewing 29 young people and 17 social workers/ community workers. Young adults had a big variety of immigration needs, central life skills but also needs associated with finding themselves and making friends, finding housing, accessing a food bank, how to stay connected with loved ones. Many participants were disoriented, they didn't understand very well "how things work", and there was a a sense of being lost. The information they look for to support decisions they make can have dramatic effects on their lives.  For example, courses taken at university can affect visa status.

Many young people do lots of research, and while some found it easy to find information, others found it very difficult to reconcile their many competing information needs. Young people had a mistrustful relationship with authority and felt they had a problematic relationship with official information and institutions. Some felt they weren't able to ask for help, even though they knew they needed it. Cross-border social media networks were really important, and Facebook groups and WhatsApp groups were really important spaces to share information and ask for advice. Diaspora networks across borders were useful sources of information and provided detailed local knowledge. However, the fluid nature of regulations and laws around immigration meant that knowledge could quickly become out of date. Personal recommendations for trusted contacts were really important, and certain individuals were seen to be "good" people to seek advice from. Information poverty was a big problem, and the disorientation that affected participants and the complexity of their information needs meant that the trusted relationship meant that it was possible to ask for help.

There is a complicated funding environment, and this meant that it wasn't always possible for advice workers to give the support they wanted to, that the new people would need.  Counsellors were terrified of giving the wrong advice because if they gave the wrong information this could lead to someone being deported from the country. Policymakers assume that immigrants are either studying or at work, but this isn't true and these people are much harder to reach. There's a need for digital tools as young people are seeking information in a digital environment.  Digital tools would also mean that information could be updated quickly.  However it was acknowledged that there is a digital divide, and some young people don't have computers, low literacy is a problem. 

The recommendations coming out from the project covered macro, meso and micro level recommendations, recognising that working only at a local level will only be effective with systemic change. Recommendations were co-created with young adults and service providers. At a micro level, it is about fostering mutual aid, and for practitioners to take a holistic approach to supporting service users.  At a meso level, it is about providing services in multiple languages, and offering digital outreach in spaces that are frequented by young people.  programs are needed that answer concrete needs e.g. how does the higher education system work. Information must be shared between different providers and an effective referral system so that young people don't have to repeat their story many times.  This was a fascinating presentation which showed that the issues that young people in Montreal face are similar to the problems faced by immigrants in the UK.

Y-skills publications

"The EC-funded research network ySKILLS aimed to identify the actors and factors that undermine or promote the wellbeing of children aged 12–17 in a digital age". There is a list of publications here: https://yskills.eu/publications/
The summary report outlining recommendations and principles concerning digital skills and literacy and children's rights is:
Livingstone, S., Stoilova, M., & Rahali, M. (2023). Realising children’s rights in the digital age: The role of digital skills. ySKILLS. https://zenodo.org/records/10201528

Developing online research skills; Young people creating texts and literacy #ECIL2023

Continuing liveblogging from ECIL (from Sheila) Tuulikki Alamettälä (University of Oulu, Finland) talked about Developing Online Research Skills in a Lower Secondary School: The Viewpoint of Students. She identified that onlne research skills have been described in different ways (information literacy, digital literacy) but she used “online research skills” as she was specifically focusing on searching done online. These skills can be challenging for young people to learn, and also teachers are not always confident in teaching them.
Alamettälä then outlined Kuhlthau’s model of Guided Inquiry as a process to develop information literacy, inquiry learning and social skills. The stages of Guided Inquiry are: open, immerse, explore, identify, gather, create, share and evaluate. The process has students as discoverers and co-creators of knowledge, and sharing is an important part. For this intervention, Alamettälä collaborated with language and history teachers, and they incorporated the Guided Inquiry (GI) process into the curriculum. The teachers introduced inquiry logs and emphasised the first part of the GI process. There were 3 classes, 58 students, aged 13-15. There were 3 interventions at different stages of the students' pathway through school.
Alamettälä used a quasi-experimental design (with pre and post tests), including a control group of students. Teachers were able to integrate some of the elements of Guided Inquiry and it was in accord with a learner-focused approach in Finnish education.
While the GI group did better in a post-test shortly after finishing it, a follow up a while later did not show a difference between GI group and control group. Alamettälä also reported further results not included in reporting her doctoral research previously, involving questionnaires after the 3 interventions. Some points were that there were differences in reactions to the three interventions, which could be attributed to a variety of factors such as novelty, the way the activity was introduced by the teacher, the exact nature and requirements of each intervention. The most challenging part was seen as sharing in presentations.
Looking at statistical correlations, one finding was that if the student engaged with instructions (about what to do in class) then there was a more positive feeling about learning experience. Conclusions included that the teachers were able to use GI as a source of inspiration and incorporate some of it into teaching. The model also seemed to work for the students as they were able to engage with the interventions and didn’t experience major challenges.
The last paper in a session about “New Generation education” was Fearing for Their Lives: Implications of Children and Youth as Generators of Informational Texts and Literacy from Barbara McNeil (University of Regina, Canada). The focus was If I go missing by Brianna, a 14 year old indigenous girl (Jonnie et al., 2019). McNeil referred to Lupton’s phenomenographic research which discovered three conceptions of information literacy: as backing up an argument; developing an argument; in the process of learning as a social responsibility. This is an example of the last conception.
McNeil then talked about facts and campaigns to do with missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, particularly in Canada (e.g. that they are statistically more likely to be abused and murdered). These are not new concerns, but not much has been done about the situation. The graphic novel by Brianna Jonnie and colleagues is a response to this situation, and McNeil showed us pages from the novel and highlighted particular parts of the book, for example how the images and words aim to disrupt ideas about indigenous women, and indict the police and their lack of action and insight.
McNeil showed how the novel was educating us about what the situation was, what was being done wrong by the public, police, media etc. and what should be done by the media and police. McNeil identified how the book was humanising indigenous women and girls, urging people to humanise the women and girls if they went missing (not treating them as a stereotyped statistic).
In terms of implications – this young woman had evidenced her information literacy in her production of a multimodal publication and evidenced her power. McNeil urged us to enable young people to exercise power by using information literacy and developing information literacy to take action and protest – “honestly and openly confronting” bias, injustices and misrepresentation. Thus they can be empowered in civic engagement, and also learn collaboration and other skills such as the use of storytelling and advocacy. The book by Jonnie can be used as as example and evidence of the ability to apply information literacy in this active way.

Green Libraries through a children's literature festival #cilipconf23

I'm still at the CILIP 2023 conference in Birmingham, UK at a session on Climate change and climate justice, and here is a quick liveblog. Adele Karwat (Service Manager, Libraries & Archives, Blackburn Central Library) started by giving an overview of the Blackburn with Darwen authority - for example 21.3% of the population is under 15. The authority has a Climate Emergency Action Plan, and library input has tended to be around everyday things, such as using electricity. They saw their annual Children's Literature Festival as an opportunity to do something more impactful.
Karwat highlighted the contribution of author & poet Christina Gabbitas to the festival (including a Save us from plastic poem). They used the CILIP Green Library fund, and they involved other authors in the festival, reaching over 2000 children. As an example, BB Taylor used Morris the Millipede to get across messages about environmental impact and what you can do to help creatures survive. They had input from the Council on themes to do with recylcing etc. There was also a competition to do with children writing about saving the planet.
The project enabled a lot of positive outcomes including: shared family learning; enabling book gifting; being an acknowledged distibution point for environmental knowledge; raising the library profile; having good partnership with the school, Council etc; empowering children. Thus it developed the environmental literacy of the library, and also contributed to the Councils's strategic goals. There were of course costs, so the CILIP funding was very useful. This is a video of primary school children reciting Gabbitas' poem Save us from plastic https://youtu.be/k90z7cNBAQ8 Another useful link is CILIP's Green Libraries Manifesto
Image by Sheila Webber with Midjourney, I gave up trying to get an image using a "library" prompt as Midjourney's iamge of libraries is so conventional

LIS Student Research Showcase: recording

On 27 Apr 2023 OneHEmindsets and the Scottish Academic Libraries Cooperative Training Group (SALCTG) hosted an online research showcase with current and recently graduated students of Library and Information Science (LIS), or related programmes. The recording is now at https://youtu.be/1eE39mX_z_Q It starts with introductions to CILIP Scotland, SALCTG and the Scottish new professionals group. Then there are 4 presentations
- Exploring scholarly mental models and information behaviour in disciplinary contexts: Hye Lim Nam, Glasgow University
- LoveLibraries-Hashtags and folksonomies in public library Instagram accounts: Chloe Hartley,  Robert Gordon University
- Facing the challenge of embedding digital ethics in organisational culture: Tricia White, Napier University).
- Creating Zinemaking resources for Scottish librarians working with young people: Fiona Johnston, Robert Gordon University (this was prerecorded)

Image created by Sheila Webber using Midjourney, with the prompt librarians disciplines hashtags in the format of a zine - since this doesn't look like a zine this was a failed prompt, but I did like this image

Recent articles: Misinformation; Privacy literacy; Credibility

The latest issue of open access IFLA Journal (Volume 49, No. 1, March 2023) includes
- Strategies for checking misinformation: An approach from the Global South by Anup Kumar Das and Manorama Tripathi
- Croatian adolescents’ credibility judgments in making everyday life decisions by Alica Kolarić
- A review of international education literature: Interdisciplinary and discovery challenges by Shanna Saubert and Liz Cooper
Full issue available at: https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/2540

Hartman-Caverly, S., Chisholm, A., & Glenn, A. (2023). Digital Shred: Case Study of a Remote Privacy Literacy Collaboration. College & Research Libraries, 84(2), 238. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.84.2.238 "This qualitative, evaluative case study details the conceptual framing, development, delivery, and assessment of a privacy literacy workshop called Digital Shred. The workshop is a multi-institutional effort offered initially in-person in fall 2019 and adapted to virtual delivery in fall 2020. The conceptual framework underlying the workshop includes reputation management, behavioral surplus, data doubles, data governance, and information security damage assessments. " 
Photo by Sheila Webber: winter spring sky, March 2023

Maintaining a Safer Online World for Children and Young Adults in Libraries

A new report from IFLA was just published: Creating and Maintaining a Safer Online World for Children and Young Adults in Libraries: A Report on the 2021 Safer Internet Day Baseline Survey for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
"This report provides the results of a baseline survey of safe internet practices in libraries for children and young adults around the world. This survey was created by members of IFLA’s Libraries for Children and Young Adults (C&YA) Section, with the goal of finding out: What would help librarians create and maintain a safer online world for children and young people?" The carried out a survey of librarians, with 482 responses. Most respondents were putting " significant effort into educating children and young adults on how to use the internet safely" and examples of how they are doing that are given, as well as the issues that librarians face.
"A key message for decision makers, resource allocators and policy makers is that as librarians provide a point of intervention with children and young adults there is a need for continuing professional development and training opportunities, some of which could be sourced via IFLA and the wider library community, perhaps in partnership with the SID [Safer Internet Day] organisation. Another theme was about resources, which also extended to organisational issues in the work environment including calls for better software and good network connections. There was a perceived need for international guidelines and policy support from national library associations" Go to https://repository.ifla.org/bitstream/123456789/2537/1/ifla-professional-report-138-en.pdf

ConnectedLib Toolkit

Not specifically information literacy, but the ConnectedLib project has created useful material that can help with engaging with a local community, in particular concerning services to young people. "With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) [in the USA], the ConnectedLib Toolkit helps librarians incorporate digital media into their work with youth to promote connections across learning contexts."
They have created a toolkit at https://connectedlib.github.io/ (with sections: The Connected Learning Mindset; Community-Centered Services; Youth Development; Mentoring; Capacity; Civic Engagement; Assessment & Evaluation; Designing Connected Learning Services).
There is a free virtual conference on 15-16 March 2023, aimed at library staff in rural and small libraries. If you are interested in participating you have to fill out this form by 15 December 2022. Since this is a USA initiative and the form only gives an option to fill in "State" and not "country" it may be the conference is only for people based in the USA, but it doesn't state that explicitly.

Climate Action in Libraries: Creating a More Sustainable Future by Engaging and Inspiring Youth #WLIC2022

The last formal session I attended at WLIC in Dublin was Climate Action in Libraries: Creating a More Sustainable Future by Engaging and Inspiring Youth, organised by the IFLA Environment, Sustainability and Libraries Section, Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section. There were six short talks 

 1. The Libraries Inspiring Young People toward Sustainable Futures: A Danish Example from Søren Dahl Mortensen, Odense Central Library, Denmark. The focus of their project was sustainability and also new ways of lending. They decided to make recycling kits for lending out, asking young people about what should be in the kit. The first is a DIY kit has tools and guides useful for when you move away frm home e.g. drill, tool box, instructions so people can do practical things like put up pictures and shelves. The 2nd is a Party Kit with popcorn/candyfloss machine, lights etc. There is also an Outdoor kit, a food/gastronomy kit and a Scrap Sculpture kit. There were discussions abut whether these were things for libraries to do, but the answer is, yes they are! 

2. Coatian Libraries Engaging Youth in Sustainable Practices from Alica Kolaric, University of Zadar, Croatia . The speaker identified that there were lots of library initiatives and she highlighted some of them. (1) "we sow and plant" sowing and monitoring growth of plants (2) Celebration of World Bee Day (3) Children learning about local meadow plants (planting some more bee-friendly plants) and bees (4) Creating a picture book with stories from local folk tales and ecological messages (5) Making a wooden composter (6) Ecologically themed puppet show (7) Stribor Forest project, an instructive trail - the library collaborating with a local hiking group (8) Book shelves aith ecologically themed books (9) Lavender days - children harvesting this local crop and making lavender bags etc. in the library (10) Eco themed storytelling (11) Green library project in Zagreb with exhibitions, walks etc. 

 3. Training for Teachers and Librarians About Sustainability Through Picture Books and Comics. An Example from the Bibliothéque Nationale de France (BnF) from Emilie Bettega, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, France. She provided a full text paper here https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/1998 She highlighted that the new Bibliothéque Nationale building contains in the middle an urban forest with cute animals! There is a reading room for sustainable development and also a section of the website devoted to sustainable development. They collaborate with the EAC on training teachers about how to use picture books and comics in sustainability education. Also they collaborated with Cite des sciences et industrie, and a key part of this was enabling teachers to help pupils create their own comics, learning how to use an app that supports creation of comics. This led in turn to the idea of having training for librarians. 

 4. Youth and Environmental Emotions Project – Public Libraries Supporting Youth to Treat and Express Their Emotions and Views Concerning Environmental Issues from Veera Visuri, Helsinki City Library, Finland. There also is a paper for this https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/1957. This started from the fact that young people are experiencing climate anxiety and thinking about the role of public libraries in countering this anxiety. The project involved libraries in 4 cities: main target groups were people aged 13-20 an also librarians (who can continue the work). They carried out a survey to get the young people's own ideas. There were lots different ideas (see the picture above) in libraries, some also in schools and youth centres. They also used social media e.g. TikEok, Instagram, Youtube etc. on themes such as tips, environmental feelings. They had campaigns which solicited questions and then experts answered them in videos. Providing the information, events etc. where the young people were situated was important (physical and virtual places). They are publishing a practical guide to events and activities, to support people organising these. 

5. Tales, Videos, Games and Environmental Education to Engage Children and Young Adults: Looking for Funny Approaches to get Involved With SDGs from RECIDA (Spain) from Rosario Toril Moreno, National Centre of Environmental Education, National Parks Autonomous Agency, Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Spain (coauthored with her collagues). There is a full text paper here https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/1962. RECIDA is a network of green libraries with working groups for different projects. Their website is http://www.recida.net and they participate in a lot of social media platforms. They loan collections, suitcases with different materials in them, have mobile libraries and run things like environmental storytelling. They have incorporated SDGs into readings that teachers can use, and create videos e.g. on how to take care of animals and the forest. They have created games e.g. SDG escape room. They encourage young people to carry out investigations and activities e.g. creating gardens, monitoring air quality. 

 6. Green Initiatives Towards a Sustainable Future: Insights From Libraries in Kenya from Arnold Mwanzu, Aga Khan University, Kenya. His paper is here https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/1956. As not much was known what was being done in Kenyan libraries to address these green issues, they did some research. They used interviews, observation and document review and looked at libraries in a variety of sectors. May librarians were not familiar with the concept of green libraries, but in fact they were carrying out green library practices. Examples are rain harvesting, using natural lighting, tree planting inside the library (all had planting either or inside the library, and sometimes students were involved), discouraging printing and generally using less paper, using solar energy. Young people are involved in greening events (e.g. collaborating with a school on tree planting). They propose more involvement of young people, having performance evaluation for the green aspect of libraries and maintaining the green library standards.

New articles: hate speech

The new issue of the open access journal Comunicar (vol 30 no. 71, 2022) has a focus on Hate speech in communication: Research and proposals. Articles are in English and Spanish - if you want to change the language, click the flag on the top right of the screen (e.g. a Union Jack for English). Articles are:
- Adolescents’ motivations to perpetrate hate speech and links with social norms by Sebastian Wachs, Potsdam (Germany), Alexander Wettstein, Berna (Switzerland), Ludwig Bilz, Senftenberg (Germany) & Manuel Gámez-Guadix, Madrid (Spain).
- Hate speech and social acceptance of migrants in Europe: Analysis of tweets with geolocation by Carlos Arcila-Calderón, Salamanca (Spain), Patricia Sánchez-Holgado, Salamanca (Spain), Cristina Quintana-Moreno, Salamanca (Spain), Javier-J. Amores, Salamanca (Spain) & David Blanco-Herrero, Salamanca (Spain).
- Hate speech analysis as a function of ideology: Emotional and cognitive effects by Natalia Abuín-Vences, Madrid (Spain), Ubaldo Cuesta-Cambra, Madrid (Spain), José-Ignacio Niño-González, Madrid (Spain) & Carolina Bengochea-González, Madrid (Spain).
- A systematic literature review of the representations of migration in Brazil and the United Kingdom by Isabella Gonçalves, Mainz (Germany) & Yossi David, Mainz (Germany).
- When negativity is the fuel. Bots and Political Polarization in the COVID-19 debate by José-Manuel Robles, Madrid (Spain), Juan-Antonio Guevara, Madrid (Spain), Belén Casas-Mas, Madrid (Spain) & Daniel Gómez, Madrid (Spain).
- Twitter and human trafficking: Purposes, actors and topics in the Spanish-speaking scene by Alba Sierra-Rodríguez, Granada (Spain), Wenceslao Arroyo-Machado, Granada (Spain) & Domingo Barroso-Hurtado, Cáceres (Spain).
- Special Education Teacher’s professional development through digital storytelling by Ozgur Yasar-Akyar, Ankara (Turkey), Cinthia Rosa-Feliz, Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Solomon Sunday-Oyelere, Luleå (Sweden), Darwin Muñoz, Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) & Gıyasettin Demirhan, Ankara (Turkey).
- Detection of traits in students with suicidal tendencies on Internet applying Web Mining by Iván Castillo-Zúñiga, Aguascalientes (Mexico), Francisco-Javier Luna-Rosas, Aguascalientes (Mexico) & Jaime-Iván López-Veyna, Zacatecas (Mexico).
- Booktokers: Generating and sharing book content on TikTok by Nataly Guiñez-Cabrera, Chillán (Chile) & Katherine Mansilla-Obando, Santiago (Chile).
- The relationship of Twitter with teacher credibility and motivation in university students by Facundo Froment, Sevilla (Spain), Alfonso-Javier García-González, Sevilla (Spain) & Julio Cabero-Almenara, Sevilla (Spain).
Go to https://www.revistacomunicar.com/index.php?contenido=revista&numero=71&idioma=en Photo by Sheila Webber: trees, Chapelgarth, March 2022

Data Literacy with, for, and by Youth

An interesting project that was mentioned at the ASIS&T conference that took place earlier this week is Data Literacy with, for, and by Youth which has produced some resources that can be used in developing people's data literacy. Young people were involved in co-designing them. You can download the materials in one pdf, or as individual sheets. They cover topics such as surveillance, algorithms and data privacy https://sites.google.com/pratt.edu/data-activism-for-youth/home

Photo by Sheila Webber: Weston Park, October 2021