IL in Germany

Thomas Hapke blogs about an issue of BIT online (German language publication) which has a number of articles about information literacy: Wilfried Sühl-Strohmenger talks about goals and curricula of classes in soem German universities; Luzian Weisel talsk about the need to develop information literacy in schools and in cooperation with public libraries, and Gabriela Blum compares initiatives in Germany and the USA. The issue is only available to subscribers at http://www.b-i-t-online.de/ but the editorial is freely online:

Fuhlrott, R. (2007) "Informationskompetenz und Soziale Software - oder Auswirkungen des Sputnikschocks von vor 50 Jahren" [Information literacy and social software: or the fallout from the sputnik shock from 50 years ago] BIT online. (3) http://www.b-i-t-online.de/heft/2007-03-edit.htm

IL in disciplines

I prepared some material for a discussion in Second Life about information literacy in different disciplines. It was mostly notes, but I added a few references and resources, including:

ACRL’s Information Literacy in the disciplines page. (This has pages for a number of disciplines, with links to any discipline-specific IL frameworks and a selection of discipline-specific articles. There are also links to “accrediting bodies” which are specific to the USA) http://www.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/
is/projectsacrl/infolitdisciplines/index.cfm)

INTUTE’s tutorial on information literacy in different subject areas: http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/

Manuel, K. (2003) Selective Bibliography on Discipline-Based Information Literacy & Library Instruction. New Mexico State University Library. http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/disciplinaryIL.htm

Jones, C. et al (2004) Academic Use of Digital Resources: Disciplinary Differences and the Issue of Progression. (An example of a research article exploring disciplinary differences in use of e-resources) http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/
past/nlc2004/proceedings/symposia/symposium9/
jones_et_al.htm

I also cited our research e.g. Webber, S., Boon, S. and Johnston, B. (2005) A comparison of UK academics’ conceptions of information literacy in two disciplines: English and Marketing. _Library and information research_, 29 (93), 4-15. http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/
bysubject/research/publications/
journal/archive/lir93/article93b.htm
Photo by Sheila Webber: Intro week is this week - today was talking to new students.

E-learning

For those interested in e-learning, In Their Own Words "synthesises key findings from the the JISC Learner Experiences [i.e. of e-learning] studies, drawing together themes from the Phase 1 reports and the 5 Learner Voice video case studies." You can download the booklet which summarises findings from previous research etc. and you can alo view or download 5 short videos which have different learners talking about some aspect of learning technology e.g. use of videos and the web for a law student, use of a simulation for nursing students. You can also get a CD-ROM. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/
programmes/elearning_pedagogy/intheirownwords
Photo by Sheila Webber: reading room, nationallibrary, Copenhagen, August 2007.

Resources for lifelong learners

Jimmy Atkinson emailed me to publicise a page of useful annotated links published on OEDb: Online ducation Database on 18 September. It is called The Self-Directed Student Toolbox: 100 Web Resources for Lifelong Learners and has links to do with: Adult Education Guides, Audio and Video, Blogs, Career, Disabilities, Distance Education, Finances, Resources, School Skills, Travel. The web address is http://oedb.org/library/
beginning-online-learning/
the-self-directed-student-toolbox-
100-web-resources-for-lifelong-learners

Photo by Sheila Webber: Flat white, Sydney. July 2004.

Otis libraries

Thanks to Yazdan Mansourian who emailed me about the Otis Libraries information literacy page. It has a series of headings and links to a few relevant explanations and resources: as Yazdan says, an example of a concise library website which includes some multimedia. http://library.otis.edu/
informationliteracy.html

Photo by Sheila Webber: Apple leaf, Hailsham, September 2007

Potential students' use of ICT

Thanks to Andy Powell for highlighting this JISC study into UK students' expectations about information technology at university. There were 3 discussion groups totalling 27 students plus 500 respondents to an online questionnaire. Instant messaging and sites like Facebook/Myspace were most used. "In the qualitative discussions, the internet emerges as a research resource more than anything, whether for schoolwork or information in general (news, gossip)." The students expect certain IT facilities to be available as a matter of course.

"HEIs need to bear in mind the ubiquity of social networking – 88% of online respondents use these websites, although only in a social context. Respondents found it hard to imagine using social networking sites for coursework or study, and had reservations about this when presented with the scenario. Universities therefore need to explain how social networking tools relate to learning, if they choose to use these methods "

Ipsos MORI. (2007) Student Expectations Study: Key findings from online research and discussion evenings held in June 2007 for the Joint Information Systems Committee. JISC.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/
publications/studentexpectations.pdf

Photo by Sheila Webber: Little Mermaid, Copenhagen, August 2007.

Presentation on Californian IL

Yesterday I attended a presentation in Second Life (the virtual world) which was originally given at the LOEX conference. This was Esther Grassian & Marsha Schnirring on "Teaching in a TeaHouse". They were principally talking about a survey they had done of libraries in California, to find out what kinds of information literacy education were taking place.
They started by talking about LILI (http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/lili/ ) "an acronym for a group of librarians from various types of libraries, investigating information literacy definitions, standards and instruction in California" and in fact the LILI website has the results of the survey.
The audio and chat log from the session are already posted to http://virtualbridges.net/and the PowerPoint presentation is likely to be available on Slideshare. I couldn't find it just now - you might be interested in Esther Grassian's other presentations, though (e.g. “Why Use Anything But Google?” Information Literacy for Teachers/Faculty) just search http:///www.slideshare.com/ for Grassian. However, I found what I think is the right presentation at http://www.csusm.edu/acarr/
materials/TeachinginaTeaHouseFinal.ppt

LOEX 2008

Thanks to Christine Kickels for notifying the LOEX 2008 registration date. It is February 8, 2008 at 1pm (EST) - so stand by your keyboards then as it books out very quickly. LOEX is the major information literacy conference in the USA. They are now accepting proposals, the deadline for them is Friday, November 16, 2007. http://www.loexconference.org/

ALFIN Red

Another thing I have almost missed out on is a website building on the already excellent ALFIN (Spanish) information literacy blog. ALFIN Red at http://www.alfinred.org/ arose from a declaration on Information Literacy in Spain that called for the creation of a forum for development and discussion of information literacy. This site has been created as a project for 6 months, finishing officially in September. The site is still principally focused on the blog with some additional documents: I couldn't explore the "intranet" section, though. (All material in Spanish)

A recent post on the ALFIN blog links to a series of Spanish articles on information literacy which are available as e-prints:

Campal García, Mª F. (2006) "Dossier: Practicando ALFIN." Educación y biblioteca, nov-dec. (156), 48-141. http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00010964/

Photo by Sheila Webber: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 2006.

Libraries Without Walls

I hope to be getting back to more normal blogging again, and apologies for letting Sunday's post on the UNESCO database go a couple of days with the uninformative title "photos". In the meantime, Moira Bent has been doing some interesting posts from the Libraries Without Walls conference that she is attending in Greece, several posts a day which is better than I manage nowadays! There are posts on the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 19th September so far.

Photo by Sheila Webber, Copenhagen, August 2007.

UNESCO database

There is a new database from UNESCO, which has information on the Information for All Programme projects (IFAP). "It contains basic information on projects, up to date information on their implementation, statistical data as well as some concrete stories demonstrating how access to information and knowledge can change people’s lives." This includes some Information Literacy projects that UNESCO has funded e.g. "Development of Information Literacy through School Libraries in Southeast Asian Countries"
http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/ifapprojects/page.cgi?d=1
Photo by Sheila Webber: Helicopter, Copenhagen, August 2007.

Librarians' value

Just a short news item:
Thompson, L. (2007) "Key to literacy, librarians now 'highly endangered'". Seattle times, 15 September. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/
snohomishcountynews/2003881008_librarians12n0.html
(talks about how librarians are still important for literacy and information literacy)

SCONUL WGIL

Last Friday I attended a meeting of the SCONUL Working Group on Information Literacy. There is information about the Group at http://www.sconul.ac.uk/
groups/information_literacy/ including downloads of the Seven Pillars model. We are rewriting the narrative that goes with the 7 Pillars (with a short explanation about each pillar) and I will blog when it goes up. There is a new Chair for the Group, Jan Howden, Associate Director Learning Support, Glasgow Caledonian University.
My blogging is a bit intermittant at the moment since I am staying with my mother who broke her arm and it is a case of hunt the internet cafe.
Photo by Sheila Webber: National Library, Copenhagen, August 2007.

Information collected by Google

I see from the Google Friends newsletter there is a video on Youtube which explains what kinds of information Google collects when you search it e.g. cookies. It is straightforward, with a female talking head and some writing on a flip chart, but nicely done and could provide a starting point for discussion on data privacy. Some of the comments are also thought-provoking (I wasn't thinking of the "She's hot!" comment, but I suppose that indicates that the video will appeal to a wide audience ;-)
Google Search Privacy: Plain and Simple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLgJYBRzUXY

Information Literacy: IFLA/ UNESCO

I was not able to attend the IFLA conference this year, but there were as usual interesting IL activities there. There is a report about a pre-conference workshop in:
Botswana daily news archive (2007) "Information literacy alleviates poverty." 16 August. http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/
news.cgi?d=20070816&
i=Information_literacy_alleviates_poverty

They also launched a competition for an international logo to symbolise information literacy globally (a challenge!)- for information go to the website at http://www.infolitglobal.info/
I notice that the site has been redesigned for the better since I last visited, with links to the latest additions to the resource directory etc., key publications and translations highlighted and so forth.

I have also highlighted already the programme page for the 2007 IFLA conference which has full text of papers, sometimes in several languages, but I think there are some further papers added since I mentioned it a few months ago http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/Programme2007.htm
Photo by Sheila Webber: Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, August 2007.

IL test

There is a news story about an information literacy test run at Purdue University (USA) as a competition with prizes (in the university newspaper)
Mahasneh, N (2007) "Competition exercises critical thinking, Internet navigation skills." The exponent, 30 August. http://www.purdueexponent.com/
?module=article&story_id=6793 Note that whilst the organiser said "we need people to be thinking critically now, more than ever", the winner says how "I was prepared to hit Google as hard as possible."

Photo by Sheila Webber: Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, August 2007.

IL in the CE European countries

There is a workshop on IL in the CE European countries within the conference programme of the The International Conference on Lifelong Learning in the City-Region, being held at the University of Pécs, Hungary, 23-25 September, 2007. It will be led by Ralph Catts and Ludmilla Ticha. More information at http://www.pascal2007conf.pte.hu/index.htm

Discussion on librarians' image

On September 4th there was a discussion How should Librarians present themselves in Second Life, Facebook, My Space etc? in the office of the Centre for Information Literacy Research in Second Life (SL), the virtual world. Lyn Parker of Sheffield University Library (Maggie Kohime in SL) led the discussion and 10 people were present (plus a few lurkers looking over shoulders in Real Life apparently ;-) The transcript of the session is in two parts at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=124 and http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=125

Maggie is on the far left of the photo summing up discussion. There is a fuller description at http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com/
2007/09/librarians-in-sl.html

Social networking in teens

Thanks to Gerry McKiernan who once again has highlighted an interesting report. It's a study sponsored by Microsoft, News Corp (owners of MySpace) and Verizon. "A new study released today by the National School Boards Association and Grunwald Associates LLC exploring the online behaviors of U.S. teens and ‘tweens shows that 96 percent of students with online access use social networking technologies, such as chatting, text messaging, blogging, and visiting online communities such as Facebook, MySpace, and Webkinz. Further, students report that one of the most common topics of conversation on the social networking scene is education."
It's obviously more about educational opportunities and challenges, rather than information literacy, as well as only surveying in the USA. However, the issue of creating and sharing material appropriately (ethically, legally etc.) is prominent (where one would think IL education had a role). One finding is "Pay attention to the nonconformists. The survey findings identify this group of students as highly engaged and skilled at social networking and as an influential leadership cadre among their peers."
National School Boards Association. (2007) Creating snd connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social — and Educational — Networking. Alexandria: NSBA. http://www.nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pdf

Photo by Sheila Webber: Lakeside, Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 2007.

Short courses on learning and teaching

The Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development offers online courses between four and six weeks long They include:
Assessment: lightening the load, while increasing the learning (10 October - 19 November 2007); Dealing with student plagiarism (13 February - 14 March 2008); Engaging learning with social software (7 November - 7 December 2007); Enquiry based learning (4 June - 4 July 2008). For more info: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/online

Photo by Sheila Webber: Ride, Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, August 2007

Australian School Library conference

The Australian School Library Association Conference, 2-5 October 2007 , in Adelaide, Australia, includes sessions on Information Literacy, e.g.
Barbara Combes, Lecturer, School of Computer and Information Science, Edith Cowan University, WA. Techno savvy or just techno oriented? How do the ‘Net Generation’ search for information?"A report on the initial findings of a PhD research project which is examining the information seeking behaviour of the Net Generation (children born after 1985)."
Alison Pick, Head of Information Services, Wenona School and Helen Schutz, Santa Sabina College, NSW. Raising profiles: an investigation into teacher awareness of information literacy; and successful strategies for increasing understanding
Marie O'Brien, Manager, Library Services, ELTHAM College of Education, VIC.
Learning through play - It doesn't stop in primary school: building meaningful relationships through cross-age projects using knowledge era information literacies "In this project Grade 5 and 6 students, under the guidance of the Teacher Librarian, design the games and the Year 11 and 12 Information Technology students, under the guidance of the IT teacher, build them."
http://www.asla.org.au/pd/conference/

Photo by Sheila Webber: Punk tree, Melaleuca leucadendra, Adelaide botanic gardens, 2004.

Social networking

Thanks to Gerry McKiernan for alerting me to a report published in April by Forrester research which they did for MySpace. It was a market research survey carried out in the USA and asked about types of media/entertainment/communication devices used, how people felt about MySpace in particular. It being commissioned by MySpace you don't find out what people think specifically e.g. of Facebook ;-) The research included asking people to do collages representing their feelings about life with/without MySpace and asking them about brands (some people want companies like Nike to be their Friends .... hmm)
Fox Interactive (2007) Never ending friending: a journey into social networking.
http://blogs.forrester.com/
Never_Ending_Frieding_April_2007.pdf (there IS that typo in the web address - frieding - BTW)

Photo by Sheila Webber: Peveril Castle, Peak District, August 2007.

Information visualisation

I was looking at the top hits for information literacy on http://del.icio.us/, and one of the top ones was at http://www.visual-literacy.org/ , Visual Literacy: An E-Learning Tutorial on Visualization for Communication, Engineering and Business, an outcome of a European research project. There are materials on Business and communication and Engineering and communication online from modules in these areas. You can look at them as a guest and I think that guest who register can also work through interactive tutorial material, but I didn't try to do that. The conetent includes a small information visualisation wiki. I notice that Edward Tufte's books are still there as classics. The cataloguer in me also notes that they list Harris, R. Information Graphics: a comprehensive illustrated reference. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195135326, with 2 different publication dates (1999 and 2000). The OUP site says 2000.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Nettles, Hailsham, July 2007.

Company blog evaluation

Via Jill Walker Rettberg at http://jilltxt.net/ I came across a blog which evaluates corporate blogs: from a marketing perspective, but there is a good deal of overlap with the way you would evaluate it as a business source. One of the assignments that Bill Johnston and I used to use at Strathclyde was to evaluate a company website from multiple perspectives: (if I remember correctly) a marketing perspective, from the perspective of a job-seeker, and a usability perspective: each brings out some fresh aspects and it is interesting to compare them. Anyway, Jill's reference is to Mack Collier's Company blog check feature: there is a collection to previous entries here http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2006/07/company-blog-checkup-series.html and at time of writing the latest one was here: http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2007/08/company-blog-checkup-turkey-hill.html You could ask students to do their own evaluation of the blogs from an information or marketing perspective, and get them to compare with Collier's views.

Google blogs

A reminder about about Google's main blog at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/, which also links to the loads of more specialist blogs they do, including the Librarian central blog aimed at librarians at http://librariancentral.blogspot.com/ and the Google news blog (about the Google news search) http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Beetles on a sort of cow parsley, Hailsham, July 2007.

LILAC 2008

LILAC 2008 (The Librarians Information Literacy Annual Conference) willtake place at Liverpool John Moores University, 17th - 19th March 2008.Further details will follow shortly.

Students use of web in Aboriginal studies

The latest issue of Webology has an emphasis on folksonomies and something on Web 2.0. There is also an article:
Aitken, W. (2007). "Use of Web in Tertiary Research and Education." Webology, 4 (2). http://www.webology.ir/2007/v4n2/a42.html
This is interesting in actually putting the case for use of the web by students. It describes the example of undergraduates in Aboriginal Studies (in Australia), who were originally discouraged from using the web, but this author explains the advantages. One of the things she raises is how discovering and reflecting on what search terms do, and don't, work can be valuable (e.g. that government agencies talk about air quality rather than air pollution). She also talks about how the usage of words such as "aboriginal" and "indigenous" in websites is interesting to study in itself, with social/political implications.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Passageway, Witham Road, Sheffield, Aug 2007.

Analysis of bibliographies of business students

Thanks to Michael Lorenzen for alerting me to a free article:
Hurst, S. and Leonard, J. (2007) "Garbage In, Garbage Out: The Effect of Library Instruction on the Quality of Students’ Term Papers." Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship, 8 (1) . http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/
content/v08n01/hurst_s01.htm

This was a study of a business class in a US university. There were 2 groups of students, one group did receive training in how to use library resources and one didn't. They were producing an analytical report on a company, and library resources included a market research and financial databases. The group that had received training cited more library resources and the group that didn't had more students who just cited web sites. However, the average grade for the two groups was almost identical (identically high in fact, but I think that is more normal in the US?)
Obviously, there's the issue of what the students DO with the information, not just what they find... "... the papers were graded on multiple criteria and not explicitly according to the number or types of resources cited. The assignment itself also did not necessitate the use of scholarly sources as much as it required students to analyze a company and discuss its actions. The papers were graded based primarily on this analysis and how well the students explained and defended their recommendations. Thus, although good research should lead to improved analysis, the research itself was not specifically graded as a component of the paper. Therefore there was not as much benefit to those citing or using library resources as might have occurred with a different type of assignment."
I would have liked to have seen a fuller explanation of the assignment and the learning outcomes for the class at the start of this paper. I have set similar assignments to the one mentioned, and I also would put a high value on the students' ability to demonstrate their ability to analyse and synthesise the information, and present their argument and conclusions persuasively. Not surprisingly, I do, though, specify that students must use particular sources and that they will lose marks if they don't.
I'd be interested to know what the "internet" sources were too - that could mean students using excellent free directory & trade sites, and official trade and statistics sites, or students relying on the company's own websites and a few media sites. If the "untrained" group had a good number of students just using the latter I'm a bit surprised they didn't get worse marks, since a good analysis has to be based on credible evidence (even if you aren't marking the actual bibliography).

Photo by Sheila Webber: Berries, Hailsham, July 2007

Academic integrity

The 3rd Asia-Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity will be held at the University of South Australia in December 2007, and the conference organisers are inviting nominations for the awards of Best Original Academic Integrity Resource and also Best Annotated Bibliography of Online Academic Integrity Resources. The successful candidates will be given a grant to cover registration forthe conference. Further details and nomination forms can be found at http://www.unisa.edu.au/educationalintegrity/
conference/awards.asp The conference website can also be found at http://www.unisa.edu.au/
educationalintegrity/conference/
Photo by Sheila Webber: view from Peveril Castle, August 2007

For German-speaking archivists

A bit off-topic, but couldn't resist this. A video featuring 2 lecturers from Potsdam (Germany) talking about why archivists are important and exciting. I thought it was rather cool and liked the way they weren't defensive about it. http://www.maerkischeallgemeine.de/
cms/beitrag/10960924/5735271/

Photo by Sheila Webber: Damsons: the stewed ones are as picked in the wood shown a few days ago.

Librarians cited in Australian teaching awards

Picked up from the ALIA list: The Carrick Institute Citations for Outstanding contributions to Student Learning included librarians who have demonstrated excellence in information literacy in Australian universities.
Murdoch University: Merrilee Albatis, Pam Mathews, Margaret Solosy, Soun Wong: For the development and delivery of a flexible program to enhance student information literacy, embedded within the first year degree structure
Queensland University of Technology: Judith Peacock: For developing and leading systemic and sustainable models of intentional information literacy learning which empowers students as independent, discerning and masterful users of information
The University of Sydney: Jacqueline Hicks: For specialised expertise in supporting the diverse learning and information literacy needs of students across a range of subject areas and candidature levels

I see there was also a team in Information Studies at Curtin University who were mentioned. Congratulations to all and there is info on the Carrick Institute website: http://www.carrickinstitute.edu.au/carrick/go/home/awards

Phot by Sheila Webber: Shop in Paddington, Sydney, Australia, July 2004.

Netskills courses

Netskills workshops are at various places in the UK and Ireland in October 2007. e.g.
University College Dublin: e-Learning Design & Development
Henley Management College: e-Learning Essentials
University of Manchester: Detecting and Deterring Plagiarism: Information Skills: Is Google Enough?
Newcastle University : Certificate in Training Design and Delivery
See http://www.netskills.ac.uk/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Near Speedwell cavern, Peak District, August 2007.

Information Literacy/Second Life

We have had two discussion sessions in the Centre for Information Literacy Research's home in Second Life, the virtual world. The first was explaining the Information Literacy Research map (there is a writeup including a link to the poster here). The second was on "search" in Second Life. The 3rd is on 4th September 2007 at 4-pm UK time (08.00 SL time) and Lyn Parker will be leading a discussion on librarian image in SL.

There is an account of the second, "search", session on my SL blog, including a link to the full transcript of the session, and some web links. The blog entry for the 2nd session is here (n.b. my SL blog is in a slightly Bridget-Jonesy sort of style, though I tone it down a bit for the more serious entries like this). As a result of the session I'm starting a wiki (i.e. on search in SL), which I will be "encouraging" my students to contribute to, if nothing else. I'll announce the web address when it has some content in it.

There is a big Second Life conference; SLCC about to start in Chicago, USA, and the proceedings of the educational track have already been published free at http://www.simteach.com/slccedu07proceedings.pdf. It is useful reading for anyone considering teaching in SL. It includes one case study from a librarian Library Services on the Teen Grid [that's the teenagers' version of SL] by Kelly Czarnecki (Technology Education Librarian, ImaginOn, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County) and a one-pager about activities on Info Island. The conference is also being streamed onto the web and inworld. The first photo shows me at the inworld poster session: I will be asking students to undertake enquiry into information in SL, so this poster on research in SL was interesting.
James Dearnley from Loughborough is moderating a session in Chicago, however I am getting to another SL meeting ... in London on the 20th Sept which will focus on the JISC/Eduserv-funded SL projects. I haven't got a JISC project but I have won the money for a SL island to use next academic year. The 2nd photo shows me at the poster display on Eduserv Island advertising this seminar

I will continue to use the Sheila Yoshikawa (that's me) blog for most SL material and provide summaries here now and then. [Added 24 Aug] The Report on the First Year of Operation
of the Alliance Second Life Library 2.0 Project also known as the Alliance Information Archipelago has just been published at: http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/pdf/07sllreport.pdf

Google article

In the latest First monday, an article reporting on a research study carried out at Saint Mary’s College of California into student use of information resources:
Head, A. (2007) "Beyond Google: How do students conduct academic research?First Monday, 12 (8). http://firstmonday.org/
issues/issue12_8/head/index.html
"Using student discussion groups, content analysis, and a student survey, our results suggest students may not be as reliant on public Internet sites as previous research has reported. Instead, students in our study used a hybrid approach for conducting course–related research. A majority of students leveraged both online and offline sources to overcome challenges with finding, selecting, and evaluating resources and gauging professors’ expectations for quality research."

Photo by Sheila Webber: Sloes, Hailsham, Sussex, August 2007.

Subject-specific IL classes

There is a list (with links to class outlines in many cases) of subject-specific information literacy classes at North American universities, posted last week on Lauren's Library blog: http://laurenpressley.com/library/?p=380

Photo by Sheila Webber: Possibly cuckoo pint?? Hailsham, August 2007.

LOEX 2008

The 2008 LOEX (US information literacy) conference is on May 1-3, 2008 Doubletree Chicago-Oakbrook Hotel, Oak Brook, Illinois. The theme is Librarian as architect - more info at http://www.loexconference.org/
index.htm This conference usually sells out within minutes of opening for bookings, so keep an eye on when registration starts (that date hasn't yet been announced).
Photo by Sheila Webber: Blackberries in the hedgerow, Cuckoo walk, Hailsham, August 2007.

USE 2008

USE-2008. From Information Provision to Knowledge Production will be held 23-25 June, 2008 at the University of Oulu, Finland. this conference addresses "issues related to theoretical conceptions and empirical applications of research on information use in knowledge production processes at different levels of activity in society." There is a call for papers on topics including: theoretical and empirical issues of information use; methodologies in knowledge behaviour, practices and use, including aspects of information literacy. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2007. More information at http://www.oulu.fi/silo/use2008/

Phot bySheila Webber: Cuckoo walk, Hailsham, August 2007. The purple blobs on the ground are fallen damsons, I think.

US higher education survey results

Interesting article online in the latest College and Research Libraries news - results from a US national student survey:
Gratch-Lindauer, B. (2007) "Information literacy-related student behaviors: Results from the NSSE items." College and Research Libraries news, 68 (7).
"In the November 2005 C&RL News, the Institute for Information Literacy’s College Students Surveys Project Group1 reported their activities and progress in developing information literacy-related items to be included on the 2006 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) as experimental items. Ten items were included and administered to 12,044 students at 33 institutions on the 2006 NSSE." Unfortunately actual tables are not in the onlinbe version, though you can email the author to request them. Still, the narrative explains that there were some positive correlations between high scores in some of the library/info literacy items and the student satisfaction/acievemnt items. "The findings are very encouraging and overall support modest to high significant positive relationships between the two information literacy scales and eight scales derived from NSSE items, particularly among seniors with gains in practical competence and general education."
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/
acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2007/
julyaugust07/infolitstudent.cfm

Photo by Sheila Webber: Speckled wood butterfly, Hailsham, July 2007

Information literacy/ youtube

Since I last looked, there are a lot more videos about information literacy on Youtube, of various interest and quality. This one on Art History publications (done by an art history lecturer) is quite good in explaining in detail the difference between different kinds of publications: scholarly, professional etc. http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=k-2hziLTSyU

Photo by Sheila Webber: the orchid on my windowsill is now in full bloom, August 2007.

New articles

In June2007, a number of new articles were published in Library philosophy and practice: http://www.webpages.uidaho.
edu/~mbolin/lpp2007.htm
John J. Doherty: No Shhing: Giving Voice to the Silenced: An Essay in Support of Critical Information Literacy.
Amrita Madray: Developing Students' Awareness of Plagiarism: Crisis and Opportunities
Shilpa Shanbhag: Door-in-the-face: Understandings of Scholarship for Academic Instruction Librarians
S. Ovadia: Digg.com and Socially-Driven Authority. "For librarians, the challenge is not so much helping patrons to find materials, because products like Digg and Google making finding materials relatively straightforward, but teaching patrons to evaluate what they are finding and how they were found"...
Mariana Regalado: Research Authority in the Age of Google: Equilibrium Sought
Genevieve Williams: Unclear on the Context: Refocusing on Information Literacy's Evaluative Component in the Age of Google
Photo by Sheila Webber: Rose, Sheffield, August 2007.

German book on "teaching library"

From Thomas Hapke's blog (link on the right) I see that there has been a new book published about the "teaching library", in German, namely:
Krauß-Leichert, U. (Ed.) Teaching Library: eine Kernaufgabe für Bibliotheken. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2007. I'll translate the title as Teaching Library: a key responsibility for libraries.
The book contains chapters on: introducing the concept; identifying current developments; looking at the library's role in an e-learning context (this chapter is by Thomas himself); standards and models of information literacy; planning for teaching and incorprating library instruction in the curriculum; learning to teach; IL at the university of Konstanz; thoughts about pedagogy. (NB as I said, this is German-language: If you want to order it I recommend ww.amazon.de)

Photo by Sheila Webber: Spanish sandals in the sun in Sheffield, Aug 2007.

LASSIE literature review

ALISS (Association of Librarians and Information Professionals in the Social Sciences) has published on its website, http://www.alissnet.org.uk/:
Secker, J. (2007) LASSIE: Libraries and Social Software in Education: Social Software, Libraries and distance learners: literature review: Draft version for comment. London: London School of Economics and Political Science.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Flowers (alstromeria) in my vase, today.

IL discussions in SL

Three events are planned so far for the Information Literacy Group in Second Life, the virtual world. All will be held in the Centre for Information Literacy Research Office (coordinates: Eduserv Island 200 240 43 – the SLURL is http://tinyurl.com/28ef2t). They will be informal discussions, with virtual refreshments available ;-) In each case there is a discussion leader to get things started. Mon 13 Aug: 04.00-05.00 Second Life time (12-13.00 UK time) “The information literacy research map”
Mon 20 Aug: 13.00-14.00 SL time (21-22.00 UK time) “Search within Second Life: challenge or disaster?” (both these first 2 led by me)
Tues 4 Sept: 08.00-09.00 SL time (16-17.00 UK time) “How should librarians present themselves in SL, Facebook etc., with a professional or personal face?" (led by Lyn Parker, Sheffield University Library)

INTUTE tutorials

Intute has just released 8 Internet tutorials for the Arts and Humanities: Internet for Architecture ; Internet for Art and Design; Internet for Media and Communication; Internet for English; Internet for Fashion and Beauty; Internet for History and Philosophy of Science (HPS); Internet for Learning Languages; Internet for Music. This is part of a major programme of change to update and revise all the tutorials in the Virtual Training Suite in time for the new UK academic year (which starts at the end of September). For all the tutorials go to http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/

Photo by Sheila Webber: Dress and hair pin (using "cutout" effect in photoshop) July 2007.

LOEX materials

There are some presentations and handouts available from the LOEX (US information literacy) 2007 conference, held in May. Presentations with both ppt and handout available include From Guest Lecturer to Assignment Consultant: Exploring New Roles for the Teaching Librarian and Keeping Up With the YouTube Generation: Collaborating with Student Video Bloggers to Enhance Library Instruction. http://www.csusm.edu/acarr/materials/

One of the links from this page is to a wiki on Media literacy http://literacies.pbwiki.com/

Photo by Sheila Webber: Band before concert in the Retiro Park, Madrid, July 2007.

WILU 2008

The 2008 WILU (Canadian information literacy) conference will take place in Kelowna, British Columbia, May 14-16, 2008. There is a website at http://www.library.ubc.ca/wilu2008/ though at the moment it only has a contact email.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Rowan berries, Sheffield, August 2007.

Teaching portfolios

Registration opens on October 1st for the ACRL Online Seminar Teaching portfolios for Librarians, being held October 29-November 16, 2007. The course is delivered through WebCT. http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlproftools/portfolios.cfm

Recent articles

.. that caught my eye recently

Vol. 12 issue 4 of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (free online) includes various articles on use of social networks including students' use of facebook; also articles on blogging, including on on the differences between male and female British bloggers http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/

Bennett, S. (2007) "Campus Cultures Fostering Information Literacy." portal: Libraries and the Academy, 7 (2), 147-167. (available to subscribers only). "The 2004 and 2005–06 workshops sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and the National Institute for Technology & Liberal Education have generated much data that can be used to describe aspects of the campus cultures at some 130 institutions that foster information literacy. These data are particularly informative regarding collaboration among faculty and academic support staff, curricular reform, the role of chief academic officers, library space design, and the deployment of campus networks and electronic information resources."

Yuen, T.J. and Majid, M.S. "Knowledge sharing patterns of undergraduate students in Singapore." Library review, 56 (6), 485-494. (available to subscribers only). I think this is interesting as students do share information with each other and I think we could help them to do this in a more effective and information literate way - which would also include open discussion about what the boundaries are between knowledge sharing and cheating. I think this latter issue can be genuinely confusing for students.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Honeysuckle, Sheffield, August 2007.

Trails wiki

The TRAILS project was mentioned in an earlier post. There is also a wiki where people can find and add lesson plans for information literacy. This is at http://ilfortrails9.wikispaces.com/

Photo by Sheila Webber: Rose in early morning, Sheffield, July 2007.

CILR launched

Just a quick post to say that the Centre for Information Literacy Research was launched successfully today in Second Life, the virtual world. Eduserv have kindly given us office space. I will link the press release to this entry later and here is the link to the Centre's website again: http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/cilr/ and the SL office at http://tinyurl.com/28ef2t (coordinates Eduserv Island 200, 240, 43).

I was please to be joined by 5 colleagues from Sheffield University including Professor Nigel Ford (Nigl Forder in SL), who is Deputy Director of the Centre, and Lyn Parker from the Library.

There were also two representatives from Eduserv, with Andy Powell (Art Fossett) providing a welcoming speech. You can read some of his words on his blog. Additionally there were four people from other institutions, and there were some interesting conversations (as well as a of the usual few SL mishaps: I have written more on my SL blog).

CILR launch today

This week we launched the Centre for Information Literacy Research (CILR), here at the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, UK. We hope it will be a focal point both for developing our own research agenda and working with others. We already have strategic alliances with researchers at Robert Gordon University, Strathclyde University, Queensland University of Technology and CILASS. The website is at http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/cilr/

CILR does not have a separate physical office at present, however from 1.30pm today (3rd August) UK time it will have an office in Second Life (the virtual world), courtesy of Eduserv. I have been busy fitting it up with basic furniture, virtual refreshments and so forth, and if you visit at the launch or afterwards you will see we already have a freebie namely a virtual teddy bear. The address in Second Life is Eduserv Island 200, 240, 43, http://tinyurl.com/28ef2t . If you have a SL avatar and can go inworld at 1.30pm UK time (that's 05.30 SL time) then do please join us. I will say more after the launch.

International Lifelong Learning Conference

The 5th International Lifelong Learning Conference will be held 16-19 June 2008 at Rydges Resort, Yeppoon, Queensland. The theme is Lifelong Learning: Reflecting on Successes and Framing Futures. Potential authors, presenters and workshop conveners are invited to submit abstracts (maximum of 300 words) addressing the Conference theme. The closing date for the submission of abstracts is 7 September 2007.Abstracts for refereed papers, presentations, workshops and symposia sessions will be assessed by the Program Committee and authors will benotified of the result by the end of September 2007. The Conference offers a variety of options: Submission and presentation of a refereed paper; Presentation of a non-refereed paper; Presentation of a workshop; Presentation of a symposium session.

For more information on the Call for Abstracts visit the 2008 Lifelong Learning Conference website at: http://lifelonglearning.cqu.edu.au/2008/