Subject librarians & teaching

A new book published in the UK is:
Dale, P., Holland, M. AND Mathhews, M. (2006) Subject Librarians: enagaging with the learning and teaching environment. Aldershot: Ashgate. $99.95/£50.00. ISBN: 0 7546 4095 7 Further information and online shop at https://www.ashgate.com/shopping/title.asp?key1=&key2=&orig=results&isbn=0%207546%204095%207
The book "assesses trends and challenges in current practice, and aims to encourage renewed thinking and improved approaches. Its editors and authors include experienced practitioners and academics."

Photo by Sheila Webber: Wild roses, Sheffield, May 2006.

LILAC presentations

Presentations and posters from LILAC (Librarians' Information Literacy Annual
Conference) 2006 , held at University of Leeds , UK, 27th-29th March have been loaded onto the CILIP Information Literacy Group website. Lots of good material, including for people like me who went to the conference, since there were several parallel sessions. It's ppts rather than papers, since the papers will be going in the new Journal of Information Literacy (Editor = me ;-)
Further goodies on the website include a conference report from a student here at Sheffield, Clare Pike, who has been taking my Information Literacy Research class.
The material is at http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/
bysubject/informationliteracy/lilac/lilac2006

Photo by Sheila Webber: Cherry blossom, Sheffield May 2006 (gone now, alas)

Iranian Pedagogy site

Thanks to Yazdan Mansourian for alerting me to an interesting Iranian site focusing on pedagogy at http://www.pedagogy.ir/. It is "is a open window toward learning and knowledge construction. Pedagogy.ir main objective is to introduce and discuss new conceptual models and educational paradigms related to pedagogy and technology." The site is in English, and highlights in particular news, articles and articles, with useful links and categories.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Retiro park, Madrid, May 2006: this is the famous park in Madrid and greenest I've seen it. While I was there, there was a concert - see http://www.zarzuela.net/ref/
reviews/banda_0605.htm (photos by me ;-)

Most of IT to Support Learning and Teaching

An Education Librarians Group workshop Making the Most of IT to Support Learning and Teaching takes place at the University of Worcester, UK, on 12th July 2006
"A practical workshop on making the most of quick and easy, freely available IT methods and software to produce teaching and learning materials, tutorials and presentations to enhance your information skills teaching. There will be demonstrations and time to try out the suggestions and to start producing your own materials." It includes tiopics such as the use of INFORMS software and interactive whiteboards. Cost: £60 + VAT . For more info see http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/
bysubject/education/events

Photo by Sheila Webber: Garden in El Pardo palace, Spain, May 2006.

Spanish information literacy

As I said below, I was away on holiday in Spain for a few days (and thanks to Stuart for posting a couple of posts I'd "prepared earlier" as well as his own, while I was away). Coincidentally there is a Spanish flavour to some of the entries at the moment. Via the FORMIST blog (see right) I learnt about a recent meeting in Toledo, Spain in February: presentations from this have been put on the web (all in Spanish, covering various aspects of information literacy). The conference website is at http://travesia.mcu.es/S_ALFIN/index.html

Presentations were: Conceptualización de la ALFIN (Cristóbal Pasadas, Universidad de Granada; La aplicación de la ALFIN (José Antonio Gómez Hernández, Universidad de Murcia); La evaluación de la ALFIN (Judith Licea, Universidad Autónoma de México); La integración de la ALFIN en las políticas (Daniel Pimienta, FUNREDES, República Dominicana); Conferencia de clausura (Miguel Pereyra); and then conclusions from various working groups. The delegates also produced the Declaración de Toledo "Bibliotecas por el aprendizaje permanente" (which I think could be translated as "libraries for lifelong learning") at http://travesia.mcu.es/S_ALFIN/ficheros/Declaracion_Toledo.pdf

Photo by Sheila Webber: The "Biblio Metro" public library inside the Madrid (Spain) metro (underground). It has 2 library assistants inside and people were borrowing books as I watched last week.

IL in the health sector

Thanks to Chris Armstrong for highlighting a new article on IL in the health sector in FreePint
Verlander, P. (2006) "Beyond the library walls - establishing an information literacy programme for a dispersed user group" FreePint (206)
http://www.freepint.com/
issues/180506.htm#tips

Phot by Sheila Webber: Plane tree in Aranjuez gardens, Spain, May 2006.

Spanish information literacy blog

Hola to a new information literacy blog in Spain, in Spanish, ALFIN: Alfabetización informacional. José Antonio Gómez Hernández. Unfortunately my Spanish doesn't extend that far beyond "Hola" so I can't tell you too much more about it. http://alfin.blogspirit.com/
I think this blog also has an entry describing a double blog (one blog in Catalan and one in Castillian Spanish) dealing with IL in secondary education Alfabetització informacional (ALFIN) en l´educació secundària and Alfabetización informacional (ALFIN) en la educación secundaria

Photo by S. Webber added on 25th May: Back from a few days holiday in Madrid, including a little trip to Aranjuez, a short ride on the train. The palace gardens are famous (as in de Falla's "Nights in the gardens of Spain") and this is a fountain in the Jardin de la Isla. Except because of water restrictions, it is a fountain with no water...

IBL Blog

I came to discover the IBL Blog (http://cilass.group.shef.ac.uk/) in a backward sort of way, while visiting some other IL blogs. The IBL Blog or Inquiry-based Learning in Higher Education is the blog for the CILASS (Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts & Social Sciences) at the University of Sheffield.

Information literacy is a point of interest for CILASS and so it is no surprise that their blog contains IL news (and a nice link to this website!). The centre's remit is an interesting one and I wanted to bring people's attention to it. These are early days for CILASS, but I am sure that the centre and its blog will both be ones to watch. This is going to be one to add to your bookmarks or your blogroll.

Check it out!

BIG

BIG (The Atlanta Area Bibliographic Instruction Group) is running their Summer 2006 meeting Collaborate to Innovate! Information Literacy Partnerships across the Community on July 28th 2006 at mory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Attendance is free. Register by July 19th by emailing BIG at atlbig@gmail.com More info at http://www.atlbig.zoomshare.com/ and there is a discussion group http://listserv.uga.edu/archives/big-l.html

Photo by Sheila Webber: Rose leaves after rain, May 2006.

Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education

Something I feel I ought to have known about is the US Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education which "provides local, regional and national leadership in fostering valuable collaboration among teachers, school library media specialists and academic faculty who work together to promote information literacy in the K-16 classroom." There is a particular emphasis on initiatives for Ohio. They provide various resources, such as the "toolkit" to help school librarians persuade parents to support and get involved in information literacy educationand some "pathfinders" for resources in different subjects that might come up at school. Then there is the things that alerted me to ILILE which is TRAILS "Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills", which has been developed to help in evaluating the skills of students going to college. You can register to use it (I haven't tried it yet). The ILILE website is at http://ilile.org/ and teh TRAILS website at http://www.trails-9.org/index.php

Photo by Sheila Webber: Apple Blossom after rain (the petals and stamens really looked like that, it was the effect of the rain), Sheffield, May 2006.

Google

There is a sort of competition for US librarians to submit their stories of how Google helped. The "prize" is getting included in a video about how cool Google is. See http://services.google.com/feedback/librarian_tips
The third Google Librarian newsletter was also published last month, and focuses on Google Earth. You can access the newsletter from the still rather homely-looking "Librarian Center" page http://www.google.com/librariancenter/index.html

Photo by Sheila Webber: Fallen blossom, York, May 2006.

IL things

I've quite a lot to blog about - attending a meeting on the HEA/SCONUL project last Friday and a very good one-day conference at Staffordshire University yesterday (I and my colleague Sheila Corrall both gave talks) but am in "argh" mode at the moment trying to finish some things up before going on a few days holiday. Those sorts of posts take longer than the "here's a nice site/ conference call" ones, so I won't be writing my experiences up til next week (by which time it's possible the presentations from the conference may be up, so there may be a logic in waiting ;-)

Photo by Sheila Webber: Lady's mantle after rain, May 2006 (lot of rain at the moment!!)

ICT4D

The ICT4D collective is based at Royal Holloway, University of London and carries out research and other activities. ICT4D is "the appropriate use of ICT to support poor and marginalised communities across the world; not just giving people ICT skills, but helping them use the potential of ICT to transform their lives." They are hosting a postgraduate symposium on ICT4D in London on 14th and 15th September 2006. The website, which information about what they do and who is involved, plus some useful links, is at http://www.ict4d.org.uk/

Photo by Sheila Webber: Blossom carpet in York, May 2006.

Reporters without borders

REporters Without Borders is an association based in France which concerns itself with the freedom of the press. It published its annual report on World Press Freedom Day, 3rd May, in which it described the situation in different countries, including journalists being killed or imprisoned. The website is at http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=20

Photo by Sheila Webber: Icelandic poppies near my dustbin, after rain (pretty much everything is "after rain" or "during rain") Sheffield May 2006.

World Information Society Day

It is World Information Society Day on 17th May. This mostly seems to be related to the "Technology" aspects of the information society, but still... see http://www.itu.int/wisd/
2006/index.html

Photo by Sheila Webber: Glasgow Botanic Gardens, April 2006.

Computer games and IL

In a recent posting to the lis-infoliteracy discussion group, Andrew Lewis highlighted an interesting literature review that was published last December. As well as providing some thoughts and recommendations on the current potential use of computer gaming and computer games technology in public libraries, the bibliography contains some good material. There will be information about Andrew's own project, I think part of the Multi-Lib project, trying out a gaming approach to children's information literacy education, in due course!

Lewis, A. (2005) Computer Games Technology and Public Libraries: A background literature review. Library and Information Services, The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. (Multi-Lib Phase 2 Report; 2) http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/public/
051201_libs_rbwm_multi-lib-2-2_computer-games-libraries_302.pdf

Photo by Sheila Webber: Apple blossom, broom and clemetis in the background (after rain - or rather, during drizzle), May 2006.

Call for papers

There is a Call for Papers for the Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science Ton the topic of "The Global Challenge of Information Literacy." The deadline for submission is June 29, 2007. Complete manuscripts of approximately 5000 words should be sent to Heidi Julien, School of Library & Information Studies, University of Alberta http://www.cais-acsi.ca/journal/special.htm

Photo by Sheila Webber: Duck enjoying a water feature in Sheffield University campus, May 2006.

LOEX

The LOEX (US information literacy) conference took place 6-7 May 2006. On the website you can read abstracts of papers and student posters, and there are ppts of two keynote speeches: Scott Walter on Teacher/librarian 2.0 and Joan K. Lippincott on the Net Gen.
http://www.lib.umd.edu/loex2006/index.html

Photo by Sheila Webber: Daffodils, Sheffield, April 2006.

InfusionS

InfusionS - Information Skills Training in Scotland http://www.infusions.org.uk is running workshops in Edinburgh at Queen Margaret University College. They include "Net Navigator" and "Informed web searcher" sessions. InfusionS is a training partnership between the Department of Information Management,The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen and School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication, Queen Margaret University College.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Hill House, Helensburgh, April 2006.

Clear blue sky

The sky was such a perfect blue today I couldn't resist photographing it on my way into work (right). Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of it, especially as my room has practically no natural light. Today included talking to individual students about their business information assignments which are due on Monday, having a good meeting with Moira Bent from Newcastle University about her IL projects (see earlier blog entry), and giving a lecture on information literacy in the workplace to 2nd year students. In particular, I was linking IL with Knowledge Management (which is a key topic of that class). Unsurprisingly, I stressed how effective KM (of whatever flavour or school) is difficult if you don't have information literate staff. Three recent papers I cited were:

Crawford, J. (2006) “The use of electronic information services and information literacy: A Glasgow Caledonian University study.” Journal of librarianship and information science, 38 (1), 33-44. (Includes results of an alumni survey - alumni thought IL was v. useful in their jobs)

Lloyd, A. (2005) "Information literacy: different contexts, different concepts, different truths?" Journal of librarianship and information science, 37 (2), 82-88. (reporting on her "information literacy of firemen" study, which identifies "information in the body" - e.g. how colleagues handle and use equipment in an actual fire - as a vital element that they have to be literate with)

Wang, M-Y. (2006) "The impact of information culture on managing knowledge: a double case study of pharmaceutical manufacturers in Taiwan." Library review, 55 (3), 209-221. (Includes discussion of IL in the two companies)