16th March: talk and Journal Club in Second Life @ #vwbpe

The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference takes place in the virtual world, Second Life, starting now and continuing until Saturday. I have been involved in several ways, and tomorrow I'm doing a couple of events. You need a SL avatar and the SL browser on your computer to participate.
1. Presentation with Ridvan Ata: Teaching and learning in Second Life as Part of a Blended approach: reflections and lessons learnt. This takes place on Friday 16th March at 11am SL time, which is 6pm UK time (see http://tinyurl.com/7y7yjxf for times elsewhere). The location is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CAVE/225/220/25

2. There is also a virtual journal club meeting on Friday 16th March:
When: 16th March, 1pm SL time (8pm UK time, see see http://tinyurl.com/7ulvad2 for times elsewhere)
Where: The virtual world, Second Life. http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduCommons%20Alpha/171/51/40/
What: Marshall Dozier (Edinburgh University Library) will lead discussion on: Young, P. and Vilelle, L. (2011) “The Prevalence and Practices of Academic Library Journal Clubs” http://hdl.handle.net/10760/15531 [authors’ preprint] Published in: The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37 (2), 130-136.

This is taking place on our exhibition stand about Running a Journal Club in Second Life (pictured above) which you can visit anytime now, and next week. The location is http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduCommons%20Alpha/171/46/25/

Lecciones aprendidas en programas de Alfabetización Informacional en Iberoamérica

There is the final programme for the conference Lecciones aprendidas en programas de Alfabetización Informacional en Iberoamérica (Lessons Learned in Information Literacy Programmes in Latin America), taking place 17-19 April as part of Congreso INFO 2012 in Havana, Cuba. The INFO conference website is at http://www.congreso-info.cu/ and the Information Literacy programme is at http://groups.google.com/group/alfin-iberoamerica/browse_thread/thread/d20823bf4fe16e00
Photo by Sheila Webber: Beech tree, Sheffield, March 2012.

LILAC booking closes 20th March

Booking for the UK information literacy conference, LILAC closes on 20th March 2012. The conference is to be held at Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland, 11-13 April 2012. Those who have booked can now register for the parallel sessions.

Report: Search Search Engine Use 2012

A new report from the Pew Internet project is:
Purcell, K., Brenner, J. and Rainie, L. (2012) Search Engine Use 2012. Washington: Pew Research Center.
The sample of Americans consisted of 2,253 adults, who were surveyed via telephone interview in Jan/Feb 2012. Apart from the fact that use of search engines has increased and the dominance of Google has increased, a few findings are:
"65% say… It’s a BAD thing if a search engine collected information about your searches and then used it to rank your future search results, because it may limit the information you get online and what search results you see. 29% say… It’s a GOOD thing if a search engine collected information about your searches and then used it to rank your future search results, because it gives you results that are more relevant to you"
"91% of search engine users say they always or most of the time find the information they are seeking when they use search engines. 73% of search engine users say that most or all the information they find as they use search engines is accurate and trustworthy. 66% of search engine users say search engines are a fair and unbiased source of information."
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Search-Engine-Use-2012.aspx

Photo by Sheila Webber: Nigel's room, photoshopped, March 2012.

Medical information specialist as a teacher

In the Journal of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries (EAHIL), 2011, Vol. 7, issue 3, there are articles based on prize winning presentations and posters from the previous EAHIL Workshop. These include:
- Medical information specialist as a teacher: teaching searching skills: by L. Lodenius and M. Honkanen (reports on the findings from a survey of information professionals in Finnish medical schools)
- Keeping students engaged by simulating continuing medical education; by D. Storie
The whole issue is here: http://www.eahil.net/journal/journal_2011_vol7_n3.pdf and the journal home page is here http://www.eahil.net/journal/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Daffodils, Sheffield, March 2012

LILAC award nominations announced

Nominees for Information Literacy Practitioner of the Year award are: Emily Allbon, Law Librarian, City University Library; Judy Atkinson, LIS Manager, Royal College of Nursing; Emma Coonan, Research Skills and Development Librarian, Cambridge University Library; Christopher Gibson, Faculty Team Librarian, John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester; Andrew Walsh, Academic Librarian, University of Huddersfield.

The nominees for the Credo Reference Digital Award for Information Literacy are:
- The 23 Things Project Group for the 23 Things programme
- Julie Adams, Andrea Hatton and Kathleen Morgan for RefZone
- The CPD23 Project Team led by Niamh Page for the CPD23: 23 Things for Professional Development Training Course.
- Uma Devalapalli for the Patricia Bowen Library & Knowledge Service Current Awareness Portal
- Carol Elston, Jade Kelsall and Dave Burns for the Flying Start Project.
- Carol Elston, Jade Kelsall, Michelle Schneider and Lizzie Caperon for the Library Guide – an online introduction to the library
- Jade Kelsall and Michelle Schneider for the Plagiarism Tutorial
- Ella Mitchell, Simone Okolo, Erica Plowman, Sue Harrison and Cathy Walsh for the Info skills online tool
- Skills@Library Team, University of Leeds for the Skills@Library lecturer pages
- Jennifer Wilson, Susan Smith, Karen Fisher and Alison Park for the Little Book of Info Skills Online

The winner of the sponsored student place is Thasya Elliott, who is a Learning Resource Centre Assistant at Haringey Sixth Form Centre and is studying on the MA Information Management course at London Metropolitan University.
The winners will be announced at the LILAC conference in April.

Picture of lilac taken in Second Life

Summer School in User Studies

The Department of Information Sciences, University of Zadar, Croatia is hosting a summer school 11-14 April 2012. "It targets Croatian and international Ph.D. students studying theories and studies of information needs and use, information literacy and reading, and learning concepts and strategies in the digital environment." "The programme is organised around three sub-themes: Users’ information behaviour, Literacy and reading in the digital environment, and Learning and education in the digital age." More info at http://ozk.unizd.hr/ssus/

Information literacy, e-learning and the changing role of the librarian

Jane Secker gave a talk to students here in the Sheffield iSchool last week, as part of the Academic & Research Libraries module. She also put it up on Slideshare:

Information literacy, e learning and the changing role of the librarian

View more PowerPoint from Jane Secker

Information for Civic Literacy: call for papers

An IFLA pre-conference, taking place 8-10 August 2012 in Riga, Latvia, is Information for Civic Literacy. It is organised by the Access to Information Network - Africa (ATINA) & Information Literacy Section & Africa Section of IFLA. It is hosted by the Riga Central Library and the National Library of Latvia, in collaboration with the Education, Culture and Sports Department of the Riga City Council.
The conference "will explore the role of information professionals, educators and public actors in promoting civic literacy and informed public choices by citizens. This is not a matter of advocating particular political or public policy positions, but of education for responsible citizenship through the ways in which we provide information for citizens' decision making in the public forum." This can include issues such as: reference and information services to encourage democratic choice & citizen participation; "awareness of selective information delivery, propaganda and media bias as a new component of information literacy training"; helping citizens source information about governments etc.
"Special areas of interest to the conference include the development of civic literacy in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, as well as increasing professional and public awareness of information control and manipulation in the Western democracies."
Proposals for papers should be submitted by e-mail (subject line "Riga 2012 proposal"), deadline 15 March 2012, sent to Frank Kirkwood, kirkwood.professional@sympatico.ca, copied to Denise Rosemary Nicholson, denise.nicholson@wits.ac.za ; Antonin Benoît Diouf, antoninbenoit@gmail.com ; Dalia Naujokaitis, dalia@sympatico.ca ; Franziska Wein, franziska.wein@uni-erfurt.de
Include: Abstract in English (250 words) summarizing the paper or other proposed program element (panel, exhibition, interactive discussion); Speaker's name, professional affiliation, postal address, telephone numbers, e-mail address and brief biographical note.
If selected, papers may be submitted and delivered in English, or in French, Spanish, German, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian or Estonian with an accompanying English translation. Authors must be prepared to give presentations in person at the satellite meeting in Riga.
An online conference registration form and other detailed info is at http://www.lnb.lv/iflariga2012
Photo by Sheila Webber: snowdrops, Sheffield Botanic Gardens, February 2012

Social Media: Strategies in Higher Education

A new free book: Cheal, C., Coughlin, J., & Moore, S. (Eds) (2012) Transformation in Teaching: Social Media: Strategies in Higher Education. Informing Science Press.
This is not specifically about information literacy, but some of the chapters are particularly relevant. It includes chapters about a variety of Web 2.0 applications, and also some on using Second Life in education. The digital version can be found free at GoogleBooks, Informing Science and Amazon. The links and the table of contents are here: http://www2.oakland.edu/elis/book.cfm Chapters include:
- Taxonomy of Web 2.0 Applications with Educational Potential
- YouTube: Beyond Lectures and Papers in Leadership Education
- Diigo: Social Bookmarking in a Professional Communication Course
- GLEAN: Social Learning for Business Students
- Facebook vs. Web Courseware: A Comparison
- Twitter: Integration into Developmental English and Technology
- Chat: Transforming the Social Work Classroom
Photo by Sheila Webber: Iris reticulata, February 2012

Phil Bradley on Social Media

Phil says by his slideshare presentation Why librarians must use social media that it "Won’t make too much sense without me talking through it, but it does point to various resources": it is 86 slides of useful stuff.

Why librarians must use social media

View more PowerPoint from Phil Bradley

University of Bedfordshire TeachMeet, 21 June 2012

The University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK, hosts a TeachMeet on 21 June 2011 10.00-13.00. Free event. "This TeachMeet welcomes learning technologists, librarians and study support staff working in any sector. It's an informal gathering for those who want to share innovative ideas they have tried with their students/clients.
You can come along to chat, watch, listen or give a seven or two minutes presentation. You don't need to be working in the education sector to present - everyone is welcome. A LCD projector connected to the internet will be available, if you want to use it." Booking: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3000962961
Photo by Sheila Webber: Crocus, Sheffield Botanic Gradens, February 2012.

Live chat on digital literacy, 2nd March, noon UK time

At noon UK time (that's 7am US Eastern time) there is a live event about digital literacy today, Friday 2nd March. More info at http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/feb/28/developing-digital-literacy?CMP=twt_gu
I was searching for a link for where to go for the chat: however I think what happens is that you chat via comments on that page (at least, that seems to be what happened the previous time). The panel includes Sue Thomas and Alison MacKenzie. Thanks to Ruth Jenkins for alerting me to this.

World Book Day (UK & Ireland) #WorldBookDay

Today is World Book Day: at least in the United Kingdom and Ireland (elsewhere in the world it is on 23 April "for on this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died").
For the UK/Irish day there are free £1 book tokens (14 million of them) that can be exchanged for one of the special £1 books, or put towards the price of another book. The 8 £1 books include ones by popular authors, such as Jacqueline Wilson. On the official website http://www.worldbookday.com there are "resources, lesson plans and activity sheets about the latest books" (and there are lot of these). World Book Day tweets at https://twitter.com/#!/WorldBookDayUK/ and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/worldbookday2012
Picture taken by me, in Second Life

"Last Wednesday" IL discussion on tinychat today

On Wednesday , 29 February, 2012 (at 7pm UK time; 2PM US ET; 11AM US PT) there is the Last Wednesday Information Literacy discussion on tinychat, sponsored by the ACRL Science and Technology Section’s Information Literacy Committee. To join the discussion, go to http://tinychat.com/steminfolit
Photo by Sheila Webber: Snowdrops, Botanic Gardens, Sheffield, February 2012

WILU Registration open

The WILU 2012 (Canadian information literacy) conference is open for registration. It will be held at Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton,Canada, May 23-25 2012. Keynotes include Michael Eisenberg and Adria Vasil. Registration closes on May 7, 2012. For more info go to http://sites.macewan.ca/wilu2012/program
Photo by Sheila Webber: The delegate pack for the 2005 WILU conference.

LILAC full programme available

The full programme of the LILAC (UK information literacy) conference, to held in Glasgow, Scotland, 11-13 April 2012, is now available: http://lilacconference.com/WP/

LibTeachMeet organised CILIP Sussex

On Tuesday 20 March 5.30-7.30 there is a TeachMeet organised by CILIP Sussex. The venue is the Audrey Emerton Building, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, UK. They are looking for speakers willing to give a 5 minute or 2 minute presentation on the topic of Outreach, Marketing and Promotion. Lurkers are also welcome. Sign up at http://brightonlibtm2012.eventbrite.com if you’re interested in attending. Further details at http://www.brightonlibtm.info
Photo by Sheila Webber: snowdrops, February 2012

The Road to Information Literacy: Librarians as facilitators of learning

The IFLA satellite meeting The Road to Information Literacy: Librarians as facilitators of learning, 8-10 August 2012, in Tampere, Finland, is now open for registration. The event is organised by IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Section and IFLA Information Literacy Section. The closing speech is by Professor Carol Kuhlthau. For more info visit: http://iflasatellitetampere2012.wordpress.com/ (the Registration tab is at the top of the screen)
Photo by Sheila Webber: Icey Amstel, Amsterdam, February 2012

Mobile Learning bibliography

Mobile Learning bibliography from Veronica Diaz, Associate Director, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (just tweeted by Robin Ashford who's at an EDUCAUSE conference)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M5skjHCBhmbvQDRpr4PCMFW1fnmGE9QsPc_6JFaG5go/edit?hl=en&pli=1

International Association of School Librarianship 2012 Conference; Qatar; cfp

The International Association of School Librarianship 2012 Conference takes place in Doha, Qatar, November 11-15, 2012. There is a call for papers. The theme is The Shifting Sands of School Librarianship and the major strands are: Internationalism, Innovation and Creativity, Collaboration, and Literacies and Fluencies. They seek presentations:
Workshop or Presentation for Concurrent Session (50 minutes or 1 hour and 50 minutes): Application deadline: April 15, 2012
Presentation of Professional Paper or Previously Published Article or Paper: Application deadline: April 15, 2012
Presentation of New Research as Part of the Peer-Reviewed International Research Forum: Application deadline: March 15, 2012
More information at http://iasl2012.org/CallForPapers.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Beach, Branch, Yeppoon, 2008

Information Literacy in LIS curriculum

I found a copy of this book chapter, which had vanished from its original location (previously blogged):
- Virkus, S., Boekhorst, A. K., Gomez-Hernandez J.A., Skov, A. and Webber, S. (2005) “Information literacy and learning.” In: Kajberg, L. and Lørring, L. (Eds) European Curriculum: Reflections on Library and Information Science Education. pp65-83. Copenhagen: The Royal School of Library and Information Science. http://www.library.utt.ro/LIS_Bologna.pdf

These are a few more items about this topic:
- Foster, A. E. (2007). Information literacy for the information profession: experiences from Aberystwyth. Aslib proceedings, 58(6),488-501.
- Webber, S. (2008) "Educating Web 2.0 LIS students for information literacy." In: Godwin, P. and Parker, J. (eds) Information Literacy meets Library 2.0. London: Facet. pp39-50. ISBN 978-1-85604-637-4 (prepublication final draft at http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/webber-web2-chapter.pdf
- Virkus, S. (2008) "LIS Education in Europe : Challenges and Opprtunities". In Informationskonzepte für die Zukunft : ODOK '07. Neugebauer Verlag. pp.191-204. This is online at http://eprints.rclis.org/bitstream/10760/14978/1/odok07_virkus.pdf

Student emails

There's a short piece in the Eastern Daily News about how students need to improve the information they give, their literacy, and the tone of what they write, when they email their teachers. We had been discussing this issue at our staff/student committee, and it seems that it would be a good idea to give more guidance about using email when people start at the university. I myself don't follow all the advice in this article (e.g. I sometimes use "lol" and I end most of my emails "best wishes") and I'm not too much of a stickler in this area, but one increasing issue is emails sent via mobile devices, where it isn't clear who is sending the email. The news story doesn't mention information literacy, but I think it is: part of "understanding how to plan for and gather information from other people".
Daily Eastern News. (2012) "Staff Editorial: How (not) to email your professors." Daily Eastern News, 2 February. http://www.dennews.com/opinion/editorials/staff-editorial-how-not-to-email-your-professors/article_c48ec264-4e18-11e1-9da2-001a4bcf6878.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: valentine ballooons, Amsterdam, February 2012

Religious information literacy: article

Gunton, L. (2011) "Religious information literacy: using information to learn in church community." Australian Library Journal, 60 (2), 155-164.
"What informs members of the church community as they learn? Do the ways people engage with information differ according to the circumstances in which they learn? Informed learning, or the ways in which people use information in the learning experience and the degree to which they are aware of that, has become a focus of contemporary information literacy research. This essay explores the nature of informed learning in the context of the church as a learning community. It is anticipated that insights resulting from this exploration may help church organisations, church leaders and lay people to consider how information can be used to grow faith, develop relationships, manage the church and respond to religious knowledge, which support the pursuit of spiritual wellness and the cultivation of lifelong learning. Information professionals within the church community and the broader information profession are encouraged to foster their awareness of the impact that engagement with information has in the learning experience and in the prioritising of lifelong learning in community contexts." http://eprints.qut.edu.au/41943/1/Gunton_Lyndelle_Religious_information_literacy_ALJ_May_2011.pdf
Photo by Sheila webber: Church, Tórshavn, Faroes

The Truth According To Wikipedia

The Truth According To Wikipedia is a 48 minute documentary from the Dutch media company VPRO's current affairs series. It was screened in 2008. It includes opinions from various perspectives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMSinyx_Ab0. Thanks to Kevin Sheehan for alerting me to this.
Photo by Sheila webber: Ducks on semi-frozen Amstel, Amsterdam, February 2012

Latest issue of Reference Services Review

Reference Services Review, Volume 40 issue 1, 2012. Articles include:
Demystifying the data interview: Developing a foundation for reference librarians to talk with researchers about their data: Jake Carlson
Training Millennials: a practical and theoretical approach: Kathleen Langan Video lectures help enhance online information literacy course: Ed Hahn
Research skills development through collaborative virtual learning environments: Adrian Stagg, Lindy Kimmins
Digital games in academic libraries: a review of games and suggested best practices: Mary J. Snyder Broussard
Empowered library eLearning: Capturing assessment and reporting with ease, efficiency, and effectiveness: George Germek
Still a mixed bag: A study of first-year composition students' internet citations at the University of Mississippi:Alex P. Watson
Incorporation and visibility of reference and social networking tools on ARL member libraries' websites: Leila June Rod-Welch
This is a priced publication: home page at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0090-7324
Image created from words on the issue home page, using http://www.tagxedo.com/

Arcadia project reports

I have blogged about the recent information literacy currculum project which was part of the Arcadia Programme, but I don't think I have highlighted some of the other outcomes from the prammes. There are still some reports to be published, Student reading in theory and practise by Oszkar Nagy and a report on implementing the information literacy curriculum. As background, "The Arcadia Programme was a three-year programme (2008-2011) funded by a generous grant from the Arcadia Fund to Cambridge University Library. The grant enabled us to explore the role of academic libraries in a digital age, create new programmes and services, particularly for undergraduates -- and also to improve the external environment of the library."
Previous reports/websites include: History uncovered - by Carolyn Keim; Internet Informed Patient symposium website and blogs on the event - by Isla Kuhn; Postgraduate information needs and online tools awareness - by Esther Dingley; IRIS(Induction, Research and Information Skills) - by Lizz Edwards Waller. Go to http://arcadiaproject.lib.cam.ac.uk/publications.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: branch on the icey lake, Sheffield, February 2012

Exploring the information literacy of professionals in safety management

Yang, F. (2012) "Exploring the information literacy of professionals in safety management" Safety Science, 50 (2), 294–299
"With the rapid development of increasingly complex technology and large scale industrial projects, all kinds of safety problems become extremely intricate in daily safety management (SM). It is therefore indispensable to effectively collect, analyze, assess, and synthesize information that is relevant to accident risk. In this paper, the concept of the information literacy (IL) of professionals in SM is proposed, and a conceptual framework is put forward. Further, determinants of the IL of safety professionals are suggested, including individual attributes, safety climate and culture, information infrastructure, information technology (IT) human resources, production technology and management, and national information policy, law and ethics. Of course, further research on the IL of safety professionals should be carried out for effective SM." A priced article
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753511002372
Photo by Sheila Webber: Snowdrops in the snow, Sheffield, February 2012

How to make Google behave

Excellent new powerpoint from Karen Blakeman, as presented at a seminar for UKeig seminar yesterday, with lots of up-to-date information and tips. http://www.slideshare.net/KarenBlakeman/how-to-make-google-behave

How to make Google Behave

View more PowerPoint from Karen Blakeman

Professor Diane Nahl leads discussion on information literacy article

What: Centre for Information Literacy Research Journal Club, led by Professor Diane Nahl, University of Hawaii, USA (Adra Letov in SL: she is centre in this picture of the January 2012 Journal Club). Everyone is welcome!

When: 22nd February 2012 12 noon to 1pm Second Life time (this is the same as USA Pacific time, 8pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/7q9388f for times elsewhere)

Where: In the virtual world, Second Life, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/106/208/30/ You need a SL avatar, and the SL browser on your computer, to participate.

Details: Diane leads the discussion of:
John D. Shank and Nancy H. Dewald. 2012. Academic Library Administrators’ Perceptions of Four Instructional Skills. College & Research Libraries vol. 73 no. 1 78-93. http://crl.acrl.org/content/73/1/78.abstract (Click the Full Text (PDF) link on the right of the page).

"Instruction makes up a significant portion of academic librarians’ work and administrative support for instruction is critical to a successful instruction program. The authors examined academic library administrators’ perceptions of librarian abilities in four areas of instruction."
Some questions to consider for discussion from your own perspective:
1. How do librarians integrate instructional design into their work?
2. What role does educational technology play in academic librarians’ work?
3. Which skills are most important for librarians in increasingly technological academic information environments (Table 3 summarizes)? Is blended librarianship a useful approach?
4. What sorts of support do academic librarians need from administration to stay abreast and be innovative with technologies in their work?
5. How can front line librarians influence administrators to gain needed support?

Developing your teaching skills: 23 March; Cambridge

A CILIP Career Development Group East of England Division event: Developing your teaching skills; 23rd March 2012 (afternoon); Cambridge University Library, UK. "Take your teaching skills to the next level with this stimulating half-day event. This participative course provides the opportunity to share teaching experiences, develop skills, and ensure you meet users' learning needs" Talks include:
- adapting your teaching to fit different learning styles (by Suzanne Griffiths and Clare Humphries, University of Cranfield)
- engaging users with interactive teaching sessions using the Cephalonian Method (by Isla Kuhn and Clair Castle, University of Cambridge)
- developing practical teaching skills (by Chris Powis, University of Northampton)
- sharing best practice (by Jo Harcus, Cambridge Librarian TeachMeet Team)
Cost: CDG members: £25 + VAT = £30; CDG members early bird special payable by 29 February: £20 + VAT = £24; Non CDG members: £30 + VAT = £36
For more information or to book a place email kathy.teague@rnib.org.uk
Photo by Sheila Webber: "danger, unsafe ice"; pond, Sheffield, February 2012.

LOEX registration open 10 February

Registration for the LOEX (information literacy) conference will open February 10, 2012 at 1PM USA Eastern time. The conference takes place May 3 - May 5, 2012 in Columbus, Ohio, USA and always books out VERY quickly. http://www.loexconference.org/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Duck on ice, duck in the water; Sheffield, February 2012

National Libraries Day #nld12

Today is the United Kingdom's National Libraries Day "a national celebration of libraries, librarians and library staff." There is a website at http://www.nationallibrariesday.org.uk with news about events around the country. The logo shown here,by richhawk57, is available under a Creative Commons License.

Teens, Virtual Environments and Information Literacy

In the new issue of the ASIST bulletin (free online): Beheshti, J. (2012) "Teens, Virtual Environments and Information Literacy." Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 38(3). http://asis.org/Bulletin/Feb-12/FebMar12_Beheshti.pdf
"EDITOR’S SUMMARY: As digital natives, the vast majority of teens are used to cellphones, text messaging, social networking sites and other forms of electronic communications and technologies. Though rooted in the digital world for many of their daily activities, teens lack basic information literacy skills for academic tasks and other demands. Specific instruction through the educational system may not be feasible, but it may be possible to build teens’ information competence through interactive virtual learning environments. Game-style virtual environments are highly motivating and engaging, providing opportunities for repeated practice and reward for persistence and achieving goals. A virtual reality library, VRLibrary, was constructed, collaboratively designed by young teens and adults, based on the metaphor of a physical library. Teens could wander the virtual space and browse links to age-appropriate websites presented as virtual books. VRLibrary was very positively received and succeeded at engaging teen users. A librarian avatar could be incorporated to provide help as needed with a user’s information seeking"
Photo by Sheila Webber: Winter tree, Blackheath, January 2012

Information literacy meets E-learning: Let’s talk about interconnections and outcomes: deadline extended

The Call for papers for IFLA Information Literacy Section and E-learning Special Interest Group Joint Open Session is extended. This is a session at the IFLA conference to be held in Helsinki, Finland, 11-17 August 2012. The new deadline for proposals is 15th February. Proposals must focus on one or more of the following topics :
- Is there any evidence to show that E-learning effectively promotes self-paced and sustainable learning in the area of information literacy skills?
- Has E-learning enabled libraries to extend their reach to new populations, or provided their existing population with new services and fresh possibilities for learning?
- While online tutorials are mainly used in the academic environment for large populations of students, what strategies have been introduced in public libraries to encourage lifelong E-learning?
- Are there any advantages in teaching information literacy skills using a virtual learning environment (VLE) or course management systems (such as Moodle, Blackboard, WebCT) in a blended learning context?
- Can information literacy education benefit from collaborative learning through forum, chat and distance learning class experiences?
- What aspects of information literacy (eg information skills instruction, research process education…) are significantly enhanced by the E-learning experience? What elements of the E-learning have the greatest value in information literacy training?
- Many tutorials focus specifically on information seeking and citing sources; can E-learning go beyond this to address a wider range of information literacy outcomes?

Proposals should include an abstract of paper approximately 500 words; a summary of the author(s) details (name, institution, position) and brief biographical statement of no more than 50 words. Email proposals to infolitelearn@gmail.com no later than February 15, 2012 and indicate “IFLA proposal” in the subject line.
Photo by Sheila Webber: quizzical cat, January 2012

My 2000th blog post! I celebrate with Toonway and Xtranormal

This is the 2000th post on this weblog, which started in September 2005. In fact the total for the Information Literacy Weblog is more than this, as it ran in a similar form under different software from April 2003, until the server it was on got hacked into in 2005.

I have celebrated this milestone by using two cloud-based applications I just came across. The first one allows you to create animated cartoon frames easily (Toonway, a French application that is targetting the English-speaking market, although some fragments of French remain).
I am not sure whether this has been used much for information literacy, but the second one, Xtranormal Movie Maker certainly has. There has been a recent discussion on the North American ili information literacy discussion list about videos for explaining Boolean Operators, and one of them was made using Xtranormal. When I played it, loads of other Xtranormal information literacy videos popped up.
The speech is synthesised, and I think this means that anything serious swiftly starts to sound like a parody of itself, but some people have used this to good advantage. Just as examples, these four all deal with evaluating websites: http://youtu.be/dKVL1ehDQB0; http://youtu.be/5No4TOu5v84; http://youtu.be/TVh6dma6vJ0; http://youtu.be/kO3dOD6-UAY.
When you sign up, you start with 300 points and then pay points for using characters and sets: you are bound to run out of points after doing a couple of videos unless you use the same characters and sets all the time. It is easy to do a video quickly (you type in the dialog, and it synthesises it immediately) - it is also very easy to do rather bad videos. Below is my own celebratory effort, in which Bruce asks what Information Literacy is, and Sheila tells him. It is only 40 seconds long.



By the way, the above isn't my main Youtube account (that's http://www.youtube.com/user/sheilawebber)

Short articles: PBL; Twitter; Discovery tools; QR codes

A new issue of SCONUL Focus (Number 53, 2012) has, as usual, numerous short and readable articles about academic libraries. These include:
- 'Twitter ye not?' by Emma Cragg (aka 'ekcragg') & Antony Brewerton (aka 'librarian boy')
- Focusing on students' discovery tool preferences by Sarah Elsegood
- Introducing problem-based learning into one-shot information literacy instruction at Waterford Institute of Technology Libraries by Alan Carbery & Nora Hegarty
There is also an item by one of the students currently on our MA Librarianship programme, written about the library where he was a trainee: Using QR codes in the library at Leeds Metropolitan University by John Bottomley
http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/53/
Photo by Sheila Webber: birch and winter sky, January 2012

Video: College Research: What I Wish I Had Known

Evelyn Barker, Instruction and Information Literacy Librarian, at the University of Texas at Arlington, interviewed students to ask them for their advice to people aiming to study at university as regards what "would have better prepared them for college research." She published the resultant video on Youtube in December, entitled College Research: What I Wish I Had Known. The students come up with a lot of sensible advice about managing time, using resources etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzYIXWMhahk

Information Literacy in the wild: free book

This book, Information Literacy in the wild, is an outcome of a module at the School of Information at the University of Michigan, USA: Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning which is taken by Masters students in librarianship and in Education. The students have to observe a mentor's teaching practice on placement, do some of their own teaching and develop a teaching intervention or tool in a placement for the class. There are 27 short chapters in which students reflect on their teaching experiences. The chapters are grouped by the educational context: school classroom, school library, college, university, public libraries and a couple of other other contexts.
In an introduction, the designer and coordnator of the module, Kristin Fontichiaro, talks about the rationale behind the class and introduces the book. There is a one-page module outline at the end of the book and you can find the full class outline here
I haven't read through all of the chapters yet: the most appealing to me are the ones in which reflection dominates over description e.g. Caroline Mossing's "How to tame a bird unit". However, altogether it is a really nice idea and well executed by the students and their teacher.

Fontichiaro, K. (ed) (2011) Information Literacy in the Wild. Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Library. You can download it free for eReader: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/115254 and as a pdf: http://www.fontichiaro.com/uploads/2011/wild.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Early primrose, January 2012

The Missing Link: making the connection between information literacy and an excellent student experience

On 19 March 2012, Birmingham City University Library and Learning Resources has a conference on its City South Campus, Birmingham, UK: The Missing Link: making the connection between information literacy and an excellent student experience.
"This conference is for you if you are interested in Information Literacy and if you would like to take advantage of some professional networking opportunities. The presentations and workshops/seminars will be focussing around the three themes of the conference: Inspirations, Innovations and Collaboration. The speakers are practitioners in the field of Information Literacy or actively involved in student learning. They will be presenting their experiences on the various projects and collaborative efforts they have been involved in and will also be sharing with you some of their inspiring and innovative ideas."
More info at http://library.bcu.ac.uk/conferencemissing.htm or email libraryConferences@bcu.ac.uk
Photo by Sheila webber: apple, leaf, November 2011

Another journal special issue! Infolit policy

Library Trends, volume 60 issue 2, Fall 2011, focuses on "Towards policy formulation" on information literacy, a special issue edited by John Crawford. This looks a very interesting issue! This is a priced journal.
- Introduction: Information Literacy Beyond the Academy: Towards Policy Formulation; by John Crawford
- Information Literacy Advocacy-Woody's Ten Commandments; by Forrest Woody Horton, Jr.
- Trapped Between a Rock and a Hard Place: What Counts as Information Literacy in the Workplace and How Is It Conceptualized? by Annemaree Lloyd
- How Information Literacy becomes Policy: An Analysis Using the Multiple Streams framework; by Sharon Weiner
- Empowerment or Instrumental Progressivism? Analyzing Information Literacy Policies; by Andrew Whitworth
- The Concept of Information Literacy in Policy-Making Texts: An Imperialistic Project? by Ola Pilerot and Jenny Lindberg
- Is There a Right To Information Literacy? A Practice in Search of a Policy; by Catherine Haras and Stephanie Sterling Brasley
- Reconnecting Information Literacy Policy with the Core Values of Librarianship; by
Heidi LM Jacobs and Selinda Berg
- A Framework for Analysing and Comparing Information Literacy Policies in European Countries; by Carla Basili
- National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland): Pioneering Work to Influence Policy-Making or Tinkering at the Edges? by Christine Irving
- Think Global, Act Local: Expanding the Agenda for Media Literacy Education in the United States; by Vanessa Domine
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/library_trends/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Winter trees, Sheffield, January 2012.

LILAC registration open

Booking is open for the LILAC 2012 (information literacy) conference to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, 11-13 April 2012. There is now a Linked In group, a Facebook group and a Twitter feed (they are all linked from the LILAC home page, at the bottom).
http://lilacconference.com/WP/
Photo by Sheila Webber: lilac in a dickerware vase, 2005

Information Literacy in the Workplace

The new issue of Education Libraries, the open-access journal published by the Education Division of the (US) Special Libraries Association, focuses on workplace information literacy. This is Volume 34, Number 2; Winter 2011. Key articles are:
Information Literacy and the Workforce: A Review; by Sharon Weiner
21st Century Workforce Initiatives: A New Wave of Educational Reform Movements; by Laura L. Leavitt
From the Classroom to the Boardroom: The Impact of Information Literacy Instruction on Workplace Research Skills; by Tiffini Travis
There is also an annotated bibliography, which I'm happy to say mentions this blog, though it says it started in 2008 (rather than 2005)
The journal home page is at http://units.sla.org/division/ded/education_libraries.html and the pdf of the issue is at http://units.sla.org/division/ded/educationlibraries/34-2.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bingxin Liu (MSc Information Management) and her parents, at our graduation ceremony for Masters students on 12th January; I supervised her dissertation.

"Last Wednesday" infolit discussion

On Wednesday 25 January 2012 at 2pm USA Eastern Time (7pm UK time, 11AM US Pacific Time) there will be a "Last Wednesday" information literacy discussion using tinychat, sponsored by the ACRL (US Association of College and Research Libraries) Science and Technology Section’s Information Literacy Committee. To join the discussion, go to http://tinychat.com/steminfolit

Mobile information literacy; 2 articles

1. Havelka, S. and Verbovetskaya, A. (2012) "Mobile information literacy: Let’s use an app for that!" College and research libraries news, 73 (1), 22-23. http://crln.acrl.org/content/73/1/22.full. A short article. Their mobile resources page, as an example, is at http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/library/database-mobile.php Thanks to Mark Jones, who highlighted this article.

2. Yarmey, K. (2011) "Student Information Literacy in the Mobile Environment." EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 34 (1). http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/StudentInformationLiteracyinth/225860 A longer article which reports on a survey at the University of Scranton, USA. Their "Smartphone Survey" was aiming to investigate students' use of them for searching and evaluating information, and assimilating the information. "The results of the Scranton Smartphone Survey indicate that, while students are interested in using their phones for academic purposes, they still require guidance from educators to choose the most appropriate mobile resource and to evaluate mobile websites and mobile apps." One interesting thing was the range of things (e.g. spoken words, barcodes, pictures) used to start a search, and this varied by device.
Photo by Sheila Webber: First snowdrops, January 2012

SCONUL digital literacy and open content lenses

When it launched the revised Seven Pillars model of Information Literacy (shown right), the (UK) Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) said they aimed to develop further "lenses" on the pillars. They have just updated the draft of The SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy through a Digital Literacy lens and there is also the draft of an Open Content lens. The 7 Pillars page, with the links, is at http://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/information_literacy/seven_pillars.html
Ant article by Alison Mackenzie in the Guardian on Wednesday talks briefly about the digital lens: http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/jan/18/information-literacy?newsfeed=true

Film clips of libraries

This is about library publicity not infolit - a clever compilation of film clips which have libraries in them. Thanks to Richard Wakeford who drew this to my attention. The tag line is "Visit the Greene County Public Library to check out any of these films!"

Thoughts about SOPA/PIPA protest

Many of you will have heard about the one day "strike" being held today by some websites, to protest against the proposed legislation SOPA (The Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (The Protect IP Act). You can find out more about this on the SOPA Strike website. The most publicised action has been the blackout of the English-language Wikipedia site (although not its mobile version).
I do think that these bills are worrying, so broadly support the campaign. However, the protest actions have also raised some worrying issues.
I have been ill at home with a nasty bug for the last couple of days, and not checking my social media like I usually do. I was a bit disturbed to find out when I logged in, just now, that Flickr, as a protest, has been allowing members to block not just their own pictures, but other people's. This has a limit of 10 pictures that can be blocked, and you can "opt out from any photo" of yours being blocked - still I feel uncomfortable that Flickr is allowing other people to block my content. The opt-out clause is all very well, but if like me you have been out of it for a day or so you aren't aware that you NEED to opt out.
Some people who have made significant contributions to Wikipedia have also debated the ethics of an editorial collective making this decision about content created by a whole lot of other people. One of the issues that concerns me about SOPA/PIPA is the way in which US legislation can affect people in other countries (like me), but today also shows that actions by those who are "well intentioned" can also deprive people of access and rights.
The discussions about how companies are taking decisions based on commercial issues (e.g. likely protests from advertisers) are also interesting. As SilverPanda commented on a post at the Verge, "Wikipedia doesn’t have ads so it can do whatever it wants."
Altogether a day that gives someone like me, who has a lot of content in "the cloud" (including my university email account...) pause for thought.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Graduation Hall, Sheffield University, January 2012

New articles in JOLIS

Huvila, I. (2011) “The complete information literacy? Unforgetting creation and organization of information.” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43 (4), 237-245. "Even though the concept of information literacy typically embraces an idea of a complete participation in an information community, its definitions have tended to underline the phases of seeking, searching and evaluation instead of creating information. Shortcomings of information creation can, however, explain many of the difficulties of finding information. This article develops the notion of information literacy with a specific focus on integrating creation and organization of information as central aspects of being information literate and discusses the implications of developing information creation processes from the point of view of information professionals and users. Finally, suggestions are made for how information creation might be improved in practice."

Sales, D. and Pinto, M. (2011) "The professional translator and information literacy: Perceptions and needs." Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43 (4) 246-260
JOLIS is a priced publication: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/journals/Journal201675
Photo by Sheila Webber: Brussels sprouts at Blackheath farmers' market, January 2012

Library and Information Research - new issue

Vol 35, No 111 (2011) of Library and Information Research has been published. It is an open-access online journal. Articles include:
- Practical tips on interviewing the great and the good by Barbara Jo Buckley Owen
- Considering the place of practice-based evidence within Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP) by Denise Koufogiannakis
- Creating information literacy partnerships in Higher Education by Clare Joanne McCluskey
- Quantitative vs. qualitative – do different research methods give us consistent information about our users and their library space needs? by Susan E Montgomery
http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir
Photo by Sheila Webber: Winter tree, Sheffield, January 2012

Infolit Toolkit

Ohio State University Libraries recently announced their Infolit Toolkit "The goal of the toolkit is to provide a framework for sharing resources, insights and discussions that can enhance the teaching of information literacy on our campus and to support faculty efforts towards that end. The toolkit consists of tools, blog posts, interactive commenting features, and linking features that allow participants to find and share aids for teaching IL and to deepen their own understanding of IL." The tools, blog posts and links can be browsed and are also grouped under the headings "Advising Students", "Teaching", "Research" and "New Faculty". http://library.osu.edu/toolkit/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield winter trees, January 2012.

(UK) National Library Day

February 4 2012 is the United Kingdom's National Libraries Day "a national celebration of libraries, librarians and library staff." There is a website at http://www.nationallibrariesday.org.uk The hashtag is #nld12 and the event is on Facebook and Twitter (@NatLibrariesDay) and has a Flickr pool at http://www.flickr.com/groups/1801651@N25/ The logo shown here,by richhawk57, is available from the Flickr pool under a Creative Commons License.

Manchester Teachmeet

A few places left at the Manchester (UK) Teachmeet on Tuesday 17 January): http://manchesterlibtm.eventbrite.com/

Online training

Diane Kovacs offers self-paced online training courses, some of which are approved by the (US) Medical Library Association for Continuing Education credits.
They include: Instructional Design for Online Teaching and Learning and Implementing Online Teaching and Learning: Using Moodle and Other Web 2.0 Features. Go to http://kovacs.com/training.html

Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education

Last week saw the announcement of the new Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education by the (US) Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). They define Visual Literacy (VL) as "a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media". The VL Standards include: an introduction & definition; brief discussions of VL as it relates to higher education and to information literacy; "suggestions for implementing the Standards"; a bibliography, and, obviously, the standards themselves. The document is at http://www.ala.org/acrl/files/standards/visualliteracy.pdf and the ACRL VL blog is at http://acrlvislitstandards.wordpress.com/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Winter trees, Sheffield, January 2012

Search smarter, Search faster

Thanks to Sharmana (Alison Sharman) who highlighted this video from the University of Sydney from a few years ago, which provides an amusing take on search terms and Boolean logic. Sharman identifies that it is more successful with UK students than with students who do not have English as a first language and there are also some interesting comments on the Youtube site (e.g. "this lesson was boring and a waste of period 5 friday") but still it is worth a look. The video is on Youtube at http://youtu.be/Oa66AxTbjxA
Photo by Sheila Webber: winter trees, Sheffield, January 2012

Social media to update health care managers

On Dean Giustini's blog (he is a medical librarian in Canada) I found a link to a recent paper of his, which can be read in full on his Slideshare page. It is about a workshop helping healthcare managers understand how social media could help them keep up to date (and obviously, keeping up to date is part of information literacy):

Read, K. and Giustini, D. (2011) "Social media for health care managers: creating a workshop in collaboration with the UBC Centre for Health Care Management." Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association, 32 (3), 157-163. This is Giustini's Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/giustinid
Photo by Sheila Webber: Robin, Hailsham, January 2012

Eisenberg and Vasil: Keynote speakers at WILU 2012

Dr. Michael Eisenberg (University of Washington Information School) and Adria Vasil have been announced as keynote speakers at the Canadian Information Literacy conference, WILU (May 23-25 2012; Edmonton, Canada). Vasil is "a Canadian journalist who advocates for environmental issues, women’s and human rights, and the author of Ecoholic, a book that helps consumers make environmental product choices." The conference website is at http://sites.macewan.ca/wilu2012/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Macdonald Stewart Sculpture Park, Guelph, Canada, taken at the WILU 2005 conference, May 2005

Library Impact Data Project

I think I failed to blog about the Library Impact Data Project (based at the UnNiversity of Huddersfield), for which Phase 1 was carried out last year and Phase 2 is continuing this year. The aim of Phase 1 was "to prove a statistically significant correlation between library usage and student attainment." This they did by taking data from 8 universities and showing a correlation between class of degree and both borrowing books and using electronic resources. As they emphasise, this is a correlation, and you cannot prove causality, but nevertheless it is a very useful piece of research. They also did some focus groups, and Phase 2 is exploring further; it "will further exploit the data, investigate possible causal aspects and disseminate findings from both phases". The project blog is at http://library.hud.ac.uk/blogs/projects/lidp/, with papers at http://library.hud.ac.uk/blogs/projects/lidp/articles-and-conference-papers/ and a data collection toolkit at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/11571/
Photo by Sheila Webber: People photgraphing the huge Christmas tree made of Lego, at St Pancras Station, January 2012

Draft LILAC programme

The preliminary programme for the LILAC (UK information literacy) conference (being held in Glasgow, Scotland, 11-13 April 2012) is available: http://lilacconference.com/WP/programme/parallel-sessions/
And - Happy 2012!
Photo by Sheila Webber: Blackheath Farmer's Market, December 2011