SL journal club: Appropriating Facebook: enacting information literacies: 19 March

Join us in the virtual world Second Life for a one-hour discussion of an open-access article. Led by Marshall Dozier (University of Edinburgh, Pancha Enzyme in Second Life) we will be discussing:
Hanell, F. (2014). Appropriating Facebook: enacting information literacies, Human IT, 12 (3), 5–35. http://etjanst.hb.se/bhs/ith/3-12/index.htm

When: 19 March 2014 12.00 noon SL time (which is 7.00pm UK time at the moment and the same as US pacific time: see http://tinyurl.com/na8lweg for times elsewhere)

Where: Infolit iSchool Journal Club room, in the virtual world Second Life, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/106/209/31 You need a SL avatar and the Second Life browser installed on your computer.

Everyone is welcome to join the one-hour discussion.

A Sheffield iSchool Centre for Information Literacy Research event.

Health literacy articles

The new issue of EAHIL's (European Association for Health Information and Libraries) journal includes:
Falcone, M. et al. (2014) Health literacy, its importance for citizens and patients and the involvement of medical librarians: a European initiative. Journal of EAHIL, 10 (1), 15-17. http://www.eahil.eu/journal/ (open access)
Health literacy is a topic of many articles in medical and health journals. I selected a couple of recent ones on the topic of adolescents' health literacy (both subscription publications):
Chari, R. et al. (2014) Association between health literacy and child and adolescent obesity. Patient Education and Counseling,94 (1), 61-66. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738399113003595 (priced article) It identifies the importance of both the health literacy of the parent and of the adolescent, if obesity was to be tackled effectively.
Perry, E. L. (2014). Health literacy in adolescents: an integrative review. Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing. (pre-publication, online) doi: 10.1111/jspn.12072. This reviews articles which tested health literacy instruments (i.e. instruments to measure adolescents' health literacy) and articles reporting on adolescents' health literacy.
Photo by Sheila Webber: garden, University of Granada, March 2014

Making Digital Real: Case Studies of How to Help the Final Fifth Get Online

Making Digital Real: Case Studies of How to Help the Final Fifth Get Online has just been published by Carnegie UK Trust.The publication does not deal specifically with information literacy, but at least some of the six examples of initiatives (to get communities active online) include reference to the involvement of libraries. The publication starts with a brief introduction outlining the problem ("A fifth of UK households do not have even basic internet services in their home. This rises to more than a third of households in the lowest socioeconomic groups and to nearly 70% of households aged over 75."(p.3) It then proposes seven "Digital participation tests" for success of initiatives, drawn from the six examples of success. The 7 tests are: Leadership; Cooperation; Implementation plan; Focus on personal hooks; Address multiple barriers; Involve people and communities; Be innovative and make it fun. Following that, six initiatives to get people online (two from Scotland and four from England) are described in a few pages each.
http://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/publications/2014/making-digital-real
Photo by Sheila Webber: Alhambra approaching dusk, March 2014

Discussion in SL of ACRL Draft Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education #ACRLILRevisions

Later today (16th March 2014) there is a discussion of the proposed new ACRL Draft Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, led by Esther Grassian, in the virtual world, Second Life. It starts at 12 noon SLT time (at the moment this is 7pm UK time). You need a SL avatar to participate. The location is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Imagination%20Island/99/188/25 and the sponsors are ACRL VWIG & ALA Communities & Virtual Libraries MIG. Please read the draft ACRL document prior to attending: http://goo.gl/EoY4Xr . They have framed some questions for discussions:
Question 1. In what ways does the language utilized in the new draft Framework make sense to you and in what ways does it not make sense?
Question 2. What do you like and what do you not like about the treatment of...
2a. basic information literacy, as opposed to information literacy incorporated into subjects or disciplines
2b. “knowledge creation” in relation to identifying, locating and evaluating information
2c. “Dispositions” (affective or emotional elements), including learning preferences,
"...willingness to learn difficult new concepts, and to develop self-efficacy."* (Draft IL Framework, lines 126-127)

*NOTE: "According to psychologist Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is our belief in our ability to succeed in certain situations... Your sense of self-efficacy has a major influence on how you approach challenges and goals. When confronted with a challenge, do you believe that you can succeed or are you convinced that you will fail?" Cherry, Kendra. 2011. Self-Efficacy - Psychology Definition of the Week.  http://goo.gl/HSL8gf

Question 3. Should the current ACRL IL Standards be replaced by or supplemented by the new Framework?

Following the discussion, leaders of the ACRL VWIG and the ALA Communities & Virtual Libraries groups will draft feedback to submit to ACRL.
Photo by Sheila Webber: The previous ACRL event in SL, February 2014

New articles: EBP vs. ACRL; students prividing peer reference

Adams, N. (2014) A Comparison of Evidence-Based Practice and the ACRL Information Literacy Standards: Implications for Information Literacy Practice. College and Research Libraries, 75 (2), 232-24. "A comparison of the 'Association of College and Research Libraries' Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education with the commonly accepted Evidence-based practice (EBP) model shows congruence, but the two models diverge in their use of authority of the producer as a marker of information quality and in their relative emphasis on formulation of the research question and application of information." http://crl.acrl.org/content/75/2/232.abstract

Bodemer, B. (2014) They CAN and They SHOULD: Undergraduates Providing Peer Reference and Instruction. College and Research Libraries, 75 (2), 162-178. "Peer learning dynamics have proven powerful in collegiate contexts. These dynamics should be leveraged at the undergraduate level in academic libraries for reference provision and basic information literacy instruction. Drawing on the literature of peer learning, documented examples of peer reference and instruction in academic libraries, and preliminary evidence from current practice at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, this article provides support from the pedagogical standpoint that undergraduates not only can provide peer reference and instruction, but should. The relevance to other institutions and additional assessment methods for establishing the efficacy of peer instruction are also discussed." http://crl.acrl.org/content/75/2/162.abstract
Photo by Sheila Webber: Alhambra from mosque garden, March 2014

Survey closing Monday: Preparing our Users for Digital Life Beyond the Institution

Brian Kelly and Jenny Evans are carrying out an online survey, closing on Monday 17 March (sorry, I meant to post this before!). The aims are to identify institutional policies and practices to support use of Cloud services by staff and researchers as well as current institutional policies and practices for staff and researchers before they leave their host institution (e.g. due to redundancy, retirement or to take up a new post) who wish to continue to make use of IT services and digital resources. The findings will be published in a poster at the LILAC 2014 conference.
The survey is at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/lilac14-cloud-literacy and there is further info at http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/preparing-our-users-for-digital-life-beyond-the-institution/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Spot the cats of Granada (3)

Survey on ACRL's bibliographies and wikis

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Instruction Section’s Professional Education Committee and Teaching Methods Committee have put up a short survey asking people about continuing education needs and focusing on the future of their online bibliographies and wikis. They will use the results to guide what they do in the future. The survey is at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5J8RL7J and is open until Friday, April 11.
This is the link to to the ACRL IL resources page http://www.ala.org/acrl/issues/infolit (though there isn't a link to the bibliographies and wikis from that page, unless I'm missing something)
Photo by Sheila Webber: spot the cats of Granada (2) (not so difficult to spot, here): these cats were nestled by a bridge over the river Darro at morning and dusk.

Webinar, March 26: Embedded Librarianship: The State of the Art #acrl

There is a live webcast, Embedded Librarianship: The State of the Art, on March 26th at 11am US Pacific time (see http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20140326T11&p1=234 for times elsewhere; n.b. this is still a date where the US clocks have changed to Summertime and the British ones have not) "Academic libraries have increasingly adopted models of embedded librarianship as an approach to creating an integrated and sustained library presence across the curriculum and institution. In this webcast, librarians will present a diverse range of examples of successful embedded projects, both online and on-campus. They will share strategies for implementing and assessing embedded projects, as well as sustainability and scalability of embedded programs. The discussion will include examples of innovative embedded programs both in and out of the classroom, serving to foster long-term connections across campus." Presenters are: Kaijsa Calkins, University of Wyoming; Cass Kvenild, University of Wyoming; Elizabeth Leonard, Seton Hall University; Erin McCaffrey, Regis University.
You need to download Elluminate to participate. There are fees for the webinar e.g. $50 (US) for ACRL members and $90 if you are a member neither of ALA nor of ACRL. More info at http://www.ala.org/acrl/embeddedlibrarianship
Photo by Sheila Webber: Orange dropped from the tree, fountain, University of Granada, March 2014

Hitchhiker's guide game: not infolit, but fun

There is a free anniversary edition of the classic Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy game, which was published 30 years ago as a text-only interactive fiction game, written by Douglas Adams himself with games-writing genius Steve Meretzky. They have added a few graphics, but fortunately kept the game basically intact. If you like puzzles and you like Hitchhiker, you should like this. I actually played the original game (and indeed most of the games published by Infocom). If you are not of that era, you will need to read the instructions page. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-hitchhiker-s-guide-to-the-galaxy-game-30th-anniversary-edition Apologies, this is nothing to do with information literacy (unless someone can find a connection?), but I'm hoping a lot of people who like information literacy also like the HHGTTG
Photo by Matthias Weinberger: The Hitchhikers Guide: https://www.flickr.com/photos/51035610542@N01/52759172/

cfp #iFutures 2014

iFutures is a one-day conference, on 22 July 2014 held in Sheffield, UK, which is run by and for doctoral students in the Information Science community. The theme of this year's conference is Research into Practice. It has two broad strands: firstly the ways in which your research might impact industry and society. Secondly, we hope the event will provide a forum to discuss ways to disseminate our research to those outside academia. The event is run by doctoral students in the Information School at the University of Sheffield (i.e. the iSchool I am part of). "The conference aims to provide an opportunity for PhD researchers to share their work through presentations, discussions and published short papers. Contributions are encouraged from doctoral researchers working in any area of information science or in related fields, including information retrieval, knowledge management, HCI, informatics or library and information studies. We would also encourage students at any stage of their research to submit – the event will hopefully benefit those just starting their research as well as those with more concrete results to present."
The keynotes are from Mounia Lalmas, Principal Research Scientist, Yahoo! Labs and David Bawden, City University. There are two parallel workshops one from me (Sheila Webber) on Disseminating your Research to Maximise Impact and one from my colleague Paul Clough on Research Beyond Academia.
Proposals are welcome (from doctoral students, which of course includes part-time students) for full papers, Pecha Kucha presentations or Posters. Conference fees are waived for presenters and otherwise the conference fee is a modest £20. More information at: http://ifutures.group.shef.ac.uk/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Spot the cat, Granada, March 2014

Marketing the Library in an On-line University to Help Achieve Information Literacy

A short article, open access, in the new issue of Education Libraries:
Murphy, J. (2013) Marketing the Library in an On-line University to Help Achieve Information Literacy. Education Libraries, 36 (2). http://education.sla.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/36-2-17.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Mosque garden

TU's Excellent Rubric Assessment Adventures: On The RAILs

The Maryland Information Literacy Exchange (MILEX) has an Assessment Workshop on 21 March 2014 in Loyola Graduate Center, Columbia, USA: TU's Excellent Rubric Assessment Adventures: On The RAILs.. "This workshop, facilitated by two Towson U. librarians who participated in the RAILS (Rubric Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) project, will introduce participants to sample student assignments and rubrics tested through RAILS experiences." Register by 14 March. More info at http://www.milexmd.org/workshop14.html

Appropriating Facebook: Enacting Information Literacies

An interesting study newly published (open access) on Human IT:
Hanell, F. (2014). Appropriating Facebook: enacting information literacies, Human IT, 12 (3), 5–35. http://etjanst.hb.se/bhs/ith/3-12/index.htm The focus is a Facebook group set up as a course support for a class taken by trainee teachers, where students and two lecturers were participating. After examining in detail the ways in which the Facebook group was being used, the author explores what being information literate with Facebook means in this context.
"Abstract: The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the repurposing of Facebook into a tool for learning in teacher training, and how information literacies are enacted in the process. The study is informed by a socio-cultural view on information literacy which implies that learning and literacies are situated, tool-based practices. An ethnographic study of a Facebook Group with two hundred Swedish teacher trainees and two educators is conducted. Five semi-structured interviews contextualize and validate the online material. 201 conversations from the Group during April and May 2012 are analysed using the theoretical concept appropriation and the empirical lens of information literacy. The Facebook Group can be appropriated as a problem-solving tool and a relation-building tool. Depending on the mode of appropriation, different information literacies including different conceptions of credibility are enacted in the Facebook Group."
Photo by Sheila Webber: a lost pig, March 2014 (it had disappeared by next day, I hope it had found its home again)

cfp: Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

There is a call for proposals for the Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy, which will be held October 9-11, 2014 in the Coastal Georgia Center, Savannah, USA. Themes include: Defining information literacy in the digital age, effective means of developing information literacy skills in learners, partnerships between librarians and classroom teachers to teach students research skills and information literacy across the disciplines.
Deadline for proposals is April 15 2014. More information at http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ce/conferences/infolit/
Photo by Sheila Webber: the euphorbia is escaping, March 2014

Registration open and extended cfp: Facing the Future: Librarians and Information Literacy in a Changing Landscape

The IFLA Information Literacy Satellite Meeting (to be held in Limerick, Ireland, 14-15 August) has opened registration and also extended the deadline for proposals to 15 March 2014. The theme is Facing the Future: Librarians and Information Literacy in a Changing Landscape and the keynote speakers are Michael Stephens, Nancy Fried Foster, and Conor Galvin. More information at http://iflasatellitelimerick.com/

Call for Papers: Space, Literacies and Culture

There is a call for papers for the Centre for the Study of Literacies' 6th Annual Conference at The University of Sheffield, 27-28- June 2014. The title is Space, Literacies and Culture
"We are interested in papers that make sense of everyday literacies and communicative practices linking to questions connected with space, place and culture. We are hoping to attract papers that explore new methodologies and crossdisciplinary approaches that are about understanding the uses of literacy in all its forms. We value critical and emancipatory research, as well as participatory approaches. We welcome papers from established and new scholars from the fields of literacy and language in all their forms." The deadline for proposals 28 March 2014. More information at http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/education/research/groups/csnl/space-literacies-culture
Photo by Sheila Webber: crocuses, March 2014

CoALA Summit: Educating in a World of Diversity

The Colorado Academic Library Association (CoALA) invites proposals for the 2014 CoALA Summit: Educating in a World of Diversity, 18-19 June 2014. On the first day there will be presentations and a keynote from Camila Alire, and, on the second day, pecha-kucha presentations. Suggested topics are "Instructional technologies; Accessibility initiatives; Digital divide; Devices in libraries; Services/Outreach to diverse populations; Information fluency instruction/embedded librarianship; Collection content and formats; Special Collections & Archives; Social Networking for access, teaching, and learning; Partnerships with community organizations; New academic librarians." The deadline for submissions is March 15 2014. More information at: https://docs.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/forms/d/1o5JegkSwfmFa1ZMQhROz_qQQ73gHrOGWuW5xQaQHYZE/viewform
Photo by Sheila Webber: hellibores, March 2014

Short articles on teaching engineering students, and millenial students

Articles from the Spring 2014 issue of Refer are available full text. As usual, these are mainly short articles from practice. They include:
- Information literacy teaching for engineering and physical sciences students: Evi Tramantza
http://info.cilip.org.uk/In/50356913/0/olQgFvb3%7en9Nyyq6emFiju73BQSI4UH7EVRsmNE3ff9/
- Evaluating research skills of millennial students in a brand new educational institution: Ivan Smagin
http://info.cilip.org.uk/In/50356914/0/olQgFvb3%7en9Nyyq6emFiju73BQSI4UH7EVRsmNE3ff9/
also, since I feel nostalgic about this event, which I attended from its early years:
- The end of Online and the end of an era: Charles Oppenheim
http://info.cilip.org.uk/In/50356909/0/olQgFvb3%7en9Nyyq6emFiju73BQSI4UH7EVRsmNE3ff9/
The pdf and hard copy are available to subscribers (Refer is a publication of the CILIP Information Services Group)
Photo by Sheila Webber: grey squirrel flashing its tail, March 2014

Metronet Information Literacy Initiative (MILI)

There are some useful resources on the Metronet Information Literacy Initiative website, in particular the 23-Things-type development sessions which can be accessed, and the extensive introductory powerpoint which explains the value of information literacy etc.  "The primary goal of the Metronet Information Literacy Initiative is to advocate for the integration of the MEMO Recommended Standards for Information and Technology Literacy in Minnesota [USA] schools and to advance the teaching of information literacy skills in the classroom. To do this, Metronet has created teacher/media specialist training that focuses on the 5 steps of the research process and incorporating the Three Rs—Research, Reliable Resources, and Responsible Use—into classroom instruction. Web 2.0 tools—blogs, wikis, online collaboration tools, and more—and iPad apps are included in the instruction in context and where using these tools enhances student learning and teaching." http://metronetmili.pbworks.com/w/page/20821966/FrontPage
Photo by Sheila Webber: snowdrops, March 2014

Deadline extended: understanding health literacy from an information science perspective

The deadline for proposals for papers for the Information Literacy Section /Health and Biosciences Libraries Section session at the World Library and Information Conference (in Lyon, France, 16-22 August 2014) has been extended to 21 March 2014. The theme of the session is: It’s public knowledge: understanding health literacy from an information science perspective. "We are interested in proposals which contribute to our understanding of health literacy and address one of the following themes: How can the perspective of information scientists complement the work of scholars from other backgrounds in this field? How can librarians’ expertise in information literacy and awareness of current pedagogical methods contribute to increased health literacy? In what ways can health librarians’ knowledge of evidence-based practice be used to identify the most effective interventions in the health literacy area? Can librarians ensure that the best use is made of research and that health literacy programmes are based on sound policy decisions? How can collaboration between librarians and other scholars and practitioners in the health sciences, social sciences and in education increase our understanding of this major public health concern?"
More information at http://conference.ifla.org/ifla80/calls-for-papers/its-public-knowledge-information-specialists-defining-and-delivering-health
Photo by Sheila Webber: alder catkins, March 2014