Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Learning styles

There has been an interesting discussion on the ili discussion list about learning styles, and whether or not it is valuable to design learning to engage with differing learning styles.
The research that started the discussion off is described in this press release:
Allen-West, C. (2009) Learning Styles Debunked: There is No Evidence Supporting Auditory and Visual Learning, Psychologists Say. Association for Psychological Science. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/learning-styles-debunked-there-is-no-evidence-supporting-auditory-and-visual-learning-psychologists-say.html

Someone also recommended:
Sanderson, H. (2011) "Using Learning Styles in Information Literacy: Critical Considerations for Librarians." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 37 (5), 376-385.

One point I would make is that, if you are aiming to develop people to be lifelong learners, you will be aiming to make them more aware of how they learn (from that perspective, thinking about "learning styles" can be a trigger to help them reflect), but you will also be aiming to help people expand the ways in which they learn (so just using their preferred learning style may not be helping them, ultimately)
Photo by Sheila Webber: young people being lured to play with new mobile phones in Sheffield yesterday. Interestingly, the van was lined with images of old books...

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Internet Librarian x 2

The Internet Librarian International conference (in the UK) and Internet Librarian 2011 (in the USA) are both in October.

Internet Librarian International 2011 is 27-8 October, with workshops on 26 October, in London, UK. Website: http://www.internet-librarian.com/2011/ As well as sessions from information gurus Karen Blakeman and Phil Bradley, information-literacy relevant sessions include:
- Teaching Others (Michael Stephens, San Jose State University & Tame the Web) He "presents an overview of emerging literacies related to digital media, information exchange and education. The phrase "information literacy" has expanded well beyond its original meaning and now encompasses a wide range of media with which information professionals should be familiar and able to explain and teach to others."
- Teaching Information Skills (Jenny Evans, Imperial College London; Ruth Harrison, Imperial College London; Andy Tattersall, ScHARR University of Sheffield; Karen Marie Øvern, Gjøvik University College) They are talking about the Learning 2.0 & Research 2.0 programmes at Imperial; Bite Size technology sessions at ScHARR & "new methods of performing and assessing information literacy courses" at Gjovik.

In the USA, Internet Librarian 2011 runs 17-19 October 17—19, in Monterey, California, USA. Website at http://www.infotoday.com/il2011/ This includes a keynote Information & Learning for the Future from John Seely Brown, sessions from information/search gurus Greg Notess, Gary Price, and Mary Ellen Bates, and the following:
- Training Is Not Learning? (Kate Sheehan; Bobbi L. Newman; Polly-Alida Farrington;
Emily Clasper) "Library “trainers” Newman, Farrington, and Sheehan discuss the need for cultural change in libraries while sharing their own successes and not-so successes. Clasper describes the training program designed to keep the county libraries’ staff current with the technology they use every day."
- From Training to Learning: Strategic Community Conversations (Nancy MacKenzie and Lisa Hardy, Calgary Public Library) "Calgary Public Library is supporting librarians to self-identify their personal learning requirements, develop individual learning plans, and ultimately enhance the organizational ability to be highly visible and active participants in the work of our communities."
- Transliteracy & 21st-Century Skills for Library Users (Bobbi L. Newman; Jamie Hollier; Matthew Hamilton; Jennifer Koerber) "Newman, Hollier and Hamilton cover the importance of transliteracy and libraries’ role in supporting patrons’ development of these skills. Koerber looks at BPL’s Learning for Life Online, a free, ongoing online learning community platform that helps users develop a framework for a lifetime of learning and exploration."
- Blackboard Learn: Partnering to Integrate Resources (Anita Riley and Christina H. Gola,University of Houston Libraries) "This presentation discusses the conversations and partnerships between the library and campus instructional designers, lessons learned from being on the Blackboard implementation team, the technical aspects of how UH libraries streamlined the delivery of content, and the future implications for the library team that will manage the content.
- Instruction Goes Viral With Videos (Alison Steinberg, San Diego Mesa College; Amy Thornley, Miami University) "Both of these libraries learned valuable lessons about using video for teaching and tutorials."

SL Journal club now on 7 September

Apologies! The date of the next Information Literacy/ Behaviour Journal Club in Second Life has been changed from 31 August to 7 September due to illness: More details at http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/2011/08/journal-club-science-information.html

Monday, August 29, 2011

Journal club: Science Information Literacy Tutorials and Pedagogy

Information Literacy/ Behaviour Journal Club in Second Life meets this week.
When: Wednesday 7 September [note changed time due to illness!] 2011 12 noon Second Life time (which is 8pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/428xmfg for times elsewhere)
Where: In the virtual world Second Life. You need a SL avatar and the SL browser installed on your computer. Go direct to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/106/208/30/
What: Led by Loreena Sandalwood, we will be discussing:
Li, P. (2011). "Science Information Literacy Tutorials and Pedagogy." Evidence Based Library And Information Practice, 6(2), 5-18. Retrieved from http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/9480/8128
Try and read it beforehand if you can. Loreena will highlight key points from the article, then we will discuss it and issues arising. The session lasts one hour and the discussion is in text chat. The picture shows the last journal club session that was led by Loreena.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Curriculum for Information Literacy

There is a lot of material published about a recent project which proposes a "Curriculum for information literacy". Jane Secker won a Fellowship as part of the Arcadia Project, which meant that she was seconded to Wolfson College, Cambridge, to work on a research project aiming to develop an information literacy curriculum for undergraduate students. She worked there with Emma Coonan, Research Skills and Development Librarian at Cambridge University.

They developed a wiki which has the main publications from the project, and some additional material e.g. a list of literature, methodology: http://ccfil.pbworks.com/w/page/39773468/Welcome!

The project reports are linked from: http://ccfil.pbworks.com/w/page/42119030/project%20reports. There is an Executive summary, the report outlining the curriculum, a document reviewing and reflecting on some of the key ideas that inspired them, and a report identifying the main themes that emerged from interviews that they undertook with some experts in the area (including me). The curriculum itself is licensed under a Creative Commons License, so they are interested in other people using it.

They took the view that "information literacy should be transformational for the learner, changingtheir attitude, behaviour, outlook and even their world view. Therefore this curriculum has teh potential to change lives and make a real difference to society." (from the Executive summary).

Jane blogged about her experience at http://elearning.lse.ac.uk/blogs/socialsoftware/ There is an introduction to the project, as presented by Jane recently, on her Slideshare and I have embedded it below (incidently, her slideshare also has the presentation that she gave for my Masters students last semester as part of my Information Literacy Research class).

Photo of lilypads, in Puerto Rico, by Sheila Webber, August 2011

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning conference & "translator"

The International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (ISSOTL) annual conference will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA) on October 20-23, 2011. The programme etc. is at http://issotl11.indiana.edu/index1.html
I also happened to notice one of the links from a good "SOTL links" page on the site was to a resource that gives the different terminology used in certain aspects of education in the USA, Canada, Ireland and the UK (although I think the termonology actually refers to the English system not e.g. the Scottish). Although not perfect it seems useful. http://www.wku.edu/teaching/db/english/index.php
Photo by Sheila Webber: Morning coffee, August 2011 (note the Google headline in the Guardian)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries

The Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries (ERIAL) Project aimed "to understand how students do research, and how relationships between students, teaching faculty and librarians shape that process": there was also a particular focus on use and conceptions of the library. The project has been "a collaborative effort of five Illinois universities: DePaul University, Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU), Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU), the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS)." The website is at http://www.erialproject.org/
The research approach was qualitative, including interviews, diaries, concept mapping and other data collection methods (see http://www.erialproject.org/project-details/methodology/)

Results are now being published:
- Some materials from conferences on the project website: http://www.erialproject.org/publications/presentations/
- A forthcoming book: Duke, L. and Asher, A. (2011) College Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know. ALA Editions. ISBN 978-0-8389-1116-7
- An article highlightlighting key points from the book: Kolowich, S. (2011) What students don't know. Inside Higher Ed, 22 August.

They also developed:
- A Libguide for students
- Asher, A. and Miller, S. (2011) So You Want to Do Anthropology in Your Library? or a Practical Guide to Ethnographic Research in Academic Libraries. ERIAL Project.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Busy bee, August 2011

Monday, August 22, 2011

11th Annual Augustana Information Literacy in Academic Libraries workshop, 16-17 Nov

Bill Johnston and I have been invited as the presenters of the 11th Annual Augustana Information Literacy in Academic Libraries workshop, to be held at the University of Alberta, Camrose, Canada, 16-17 November 2011.

Our theme is: Building the Information Literate University: From Concept to Strategic Change
Registration opens Friday, 2nd September.

Details of registration, travel, accommodation etc. are given here: http://www.library.ualberta.ca/augustana/infolit/workshop

On 16th September there are optional consultations with me and Bill, then there is an evening workshop dinner, and then a full day on 17th November. The description for the full day is as follows: "Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston will outline how conceptualizing an Information Literate University can enable you to demonstrate that information literacy is essential to the success of the whole university. In particular, they will draw on their research into disciplinary perspectives on information literacy, on Bill's institutional and national research into student retention and the First Year Experience in Higher Education, and Sheila's involvement as an Academic Fellow in a major Inquiry Based Learning project. They will illustrate the presentation with examples of how information literacy can be discovered and leveraged in Institutional Mission Statement and Strategic Plans, including examples supplied in advance by North American participants."

Information on previous workshops is here: http://www.library.ualberta.ca/augustana/infolit/workshop/pastworkshops
Photo by Sheila Webber: poppies on the pavement, August 2011

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Latest issue of Journal of Academic Librarianship

The latest online articles in the Journal of Academic Librarianship include:
Noraida Domínguez-Flores and Ling Wang: Online Learning Communities: Enhancing Undergraduate Students' Acquisition of Information Skills
Heather Sanderson: Using Learning Styles in Information Literacy: Critical Considerations for Librarians
Cheri Smith and Jessica Kayongo: Senior Thesis Camp: Partnerships in Practice at the University of Notre Dame
David Nicholas et al.: Social Media, Academic Research and the Role of University Libraries
Geoffrey Little: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Google
Photo by Sheila Webber: Flowers in San Juan, August 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

New issue of Reference Services Review

The latest issue of Reference Services Review(Volume 39 issue 3) includes:
- Developing learning landscapes : academic libraries driving organisational change by
Leo Appleton, Valerie Stevenson, Debbi Boden
- Library and Marketing Class Collaborate To Create Next Generation Learning Landscape by Sabra E. Brock, Sara Tabaei
- Re-imagining the Users' Experience: An Ethnographic Approach to Web Usability and Space Design by Somaly Kim Wu, Donna Lanclos
- Information Literacy in Learning Landscapes: Flexible, Adaptable, Low-cost Solutions by Lisa Kammerlocher, Juliann Couture, Olivia Sparks, Matthew Harp, Tammy Allgood
- Evaluating the Impact of Learning Space by Bryony Ramsden
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn anemone, August 2011

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Education Libraries, new issue

Volume 34, number 1, Summer 2011, has been published of Education Libraries. It includes:
Dissertation 101: A Research and Writing Intervention for Education Graduate Students: by Anne Switzer and Sherry Wynn Perdue
The Role of Multicultural Information in Experiential Learning: by Lan Shen
Identifying Information Behavior in Information Search and Retrieval Through Learning Activities Using an E-learning Platform Case: Interamerican School of Library and Information Science at the University of Antioquia (Medellín-Colombia): by Alejandro Uribe Tirado and Wilson Castaño Muñoz.
It can be downloaded at http://units.sla.org/division/ded/educationlibraries/34-1.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bamboo graffiti, Puerto Rico, August 2011

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian of the Year Award

The ACRL Instruction Section is now accepting nominations for the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian of the Year Award. Deadline for nominations is December 2nd 2011. "Nominees should have achieved distinction in one or more of the following areas:
  • Planning and implementation of an academic instruction program in a library environment that has served as a model for other programs nationally or regionally
  • Production of a body of research and publication that has a demonstrable impact on the concepts and methods of teaching and information-seeking strategies in a college or research institution
  • Sustained participation in organizations, at the regional or national level, devoted to the promotion and enhancement of academic instruction in a library environment
  • Promotion, development, and integration of education for instruction in ALA accredited library schools or professional continuing education programs that have served as models for other courses and program."
It doesn't say that you have to be North American to be nominated, though I think the previous recipients all are (apologies if I'm wrong there). More information at:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/awards/miriamdudley.cfm
Photo by Sheila Webber: Cat in San Juan, August 2011

Monday, August 15, 2011

UNESCO Media & Information Literacy: report 3

This continues my report from the meeting, held on 11th August in San Juan, Puerto Rico, about developing Media and Information Literacy indicators (the meeting was organised by IFLA and UNESCO). Jesús Lau (Instituto de Ingeniería, Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, México) gave the main presentation before our small-group discussion about the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Indicators which are under development. Lau (who I am pleased to say got his doctorate in my own department, at Sheffield University) has led key information literacy initiatives with UNESCO. He started by identifying some initiatives that provided a rationale for UNESCO being interested in MIL. Examples are its own Education for All (EFA) and Information for All (IFAP) programmes, and action lines from the World Summit on the Information Society C 3 “Access to information and knowledge”, C 7 “e-learning” and C 9 “Media”. Lau felt that “Inclusive knowledge societies require tools to measure media and information access and especially use” and there was currently a lack of data for decision making in this area. Some of the related statistics (e.g. number of books borrowed in libraries) were not good indicators for MIL. Lau introduced a cycle which he felt that applied to bothIL and ML: an iterative cycle with Creation/ availability; Distribution/ supply; Information supply; Distribution/ use MIL skills. Lau also presented a “contellation” of info-communication skills (including onformation literacy, ICT and media literacy, literacy, oral communication, and reasoning). He saw the core skills of MIL as being: Access; Evaluation/ understanding ; and Use. Media Literacy (ML) has a mediating role in active citizenship (e.g. governance), public health (e.g. as regards risky behaviours) and aesthetics (e.g. creativity and self expression). Information Literacy (IL), on the other hand, he viewed as focusing more on the “Information Quality” elements (such as data/information reliability). Lau felt that “both literacies aim to develop the same skills” (which he illustrated with a slide depicting convergence of IL and ML) but IL has in the past tended to focus more on academic side of things (as opposed to everyday behaviours). He also identified that some cultural factors will be more important than others, or will define attitdes to MIL, in different countries. Lau moved on to talk about some principles of indicator development, and the practical options for developing MIL indicators. The first two options he presented were: independent survey specifically for MIL (expensive); and as a set of questions in an existing survey (for example PISA, national education surveys etc.). The remaining two options meant collecting no data specifically about MIL, but using existing statistics: either combining index of international indexes and international surveys; or index of secondary international indicators (e.g. statistics about creating/distribution of information like books). Lau mentioned a number of pieces of work which the current MIL work is building on, some of which UNESCO has sponsored itself. These are some of those items (I’ve blogged most of them at some point, I think, some of them more than once!).
- Catts, R. and Lau, J. (2008). Towards Information Literacy Indicators. Paris: UNESCO.http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/towards-information-literacy-indicators
- Horton, F. (2007) Understanding Information Literacy: a primer. Paris: UNESCO. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=25956&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
- ITU (2010). Measuring the Information Society. Geneva: ITU. http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/ind/D-IND-ICTOI-2010-U2-SUM-PDF-E.pdf (ITU is the United Nations agency for telecommunications)
- Lau, Jesus (2005). International Guidelines for Information Literacy for Lifelong Learning. The Hague: IFLA. http://www.ifla.org/en/publications/guidelines-on-information-literacy-for-lifelong-learning
- Partnership for 21st Century Skills. http://www.p21.org - Thompson, S. (Ed)(2003). Prague Declaration: Towards an Information Literate Society. https://ar.unesco.org/sites/default/files/praguedeclaration.pdf
- UNESCO (2005). Beacons of the information society: Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. Alexandria: UNESCO.https://www.ifla.org/publications/beacons-of-the-information-society-the-alexandria-proclamation-on-information-literacy-and-lifelong-learning/ Photos by Sheila Webber: The first picture shows the tiny straw baskets which our Puerto Rican hosts gave us (on a printout of the presentation) and the second shows some of the participants coming from lunch, Lau is second right.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Media and Information Literacy Indicators: Bangkok report

A booklet has just been published which provides a summary of the outcomes of the Bangkok meeting which discussed Media and Information Literacy (MIL) indicators, organised by UNESCO, as well as introducing the concepts of MIL. I haven't had time to look at it properly and I may blog again when I have read it. The meeting I attended on Thursday (which I'm still posting about) was a follow-on from thr Bangkok meeting.

Moeller, S., Joseph, A., Lau, J. and Carbo, T. (2011) Towards Media and Information Literacy Indicators: Background Document of the Expert Meeting 4-6 November 2010, Bangkok, Thailand. Paris: UNESCO.
http://www.ucm.es/BUCM/boletin/doc17043.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: La Rogativa (statue group) San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 2011

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers

The Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers was published in July 2011. "This UNESCO model MIL Curriculum and Competency framework for teachers is intended to provide teacher education systems in developed and developing countries with a framework to construct a programme for turning out teachers who are media and information literate." At the moment it is just in English, but it will be translated into other key languages.

Part 1 provides the MIL Curriculum and Competency Framework and Part 2 outlines 9 core modules for the the curriculum for teachers plus some optional modules. There seems to be rather more that could be specifically designated media literacy than could be specifically designated information literacy: "Information Literacy and Library Skills" is just module eight of nine, though evaluating information critically is a thread that runs through all the modules. ML is also rather more prominent than IL in the "MIL competencies". I haven't pondered this in depth yet, but I wonder whether one issue is of having been too successful in presenting IL as something "straightforward" that has "steps", since the modules seem to engage with ML at a more complex level than they do with IL.

Some time, and an international team, were involved in production of this curriculum, and since getting teachers to understand about IL is (everyone seems to agree) vital, then this initiative is to be welcomed. Also, since it comes from UNESCO, it will get international attention. Finally, there is good material in it!

I think a worthwhile effort would be to aim to devise some further modules that introduce teachers to more complex IL issues (e.g. IL in different cultures and contexts) to match the challenge and detail of some of the ML modules.

The page with the link is
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-and-communication-materials/publications/full-list/media-and-information-literacy-curriculum-for-teachers/ and the actual pdf is at
Wilson, C. et al. (2011) Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers. Paris: UNESCO. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001929/192971e.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sculpture on the Unversidad Politecnica de Puerto Rico campus

Friday, August 12, 2011

UNESCO Media & Information Literacy: report 2

This continues my report from the meeting, held on 11th August in San Juan, Puerto Rico, about developing Media and Information Literacy indicators (organised by IFLA and UNESCO).
There had been a meeting of both Media and Information Literacy (MIL) experts in Bangkok in November to discuss MIL indicators: the report from that is just published & I will do a separate post on that. Then there were two follow up meetings, for IL experts (the one I attended yesterday) and for ML experts. The second presentation on 11th August was a short report, via videolink, about this meeting of the Media Literacy experts, held in Istanbul in July. This meeting had been linked to the conference of The International Association for Media and Communication Research. The programme for the event is here: http://www.univ-paris3.fr/73959597/0/fiche___actualite/.

The Media Literacy participants at the Istanbul meeting had welcomed the initiative, but with some caution and qualification. They called for a period of constructive critique and felt that developing the MIL indicators should be a long term strategy, rather than rushing things through. They thought there should be in-country adaptions of the indicators (recognising cultural differences), though without compromising principles such as free speech. It was noted that there was a tension between intellectual property rights and notions of freedom of information. Other points to emerge from this media literacy experts meeting included:
- Ethics tied to citizenship (that was the note I made yesterday during the presentation: I think it was stressing the ethical aspects of media literacy in relation to citizenship);
- Criticality was an essential part of MIL;
- Media Literacy had a political dimension.
In the short question period at the end I picked up on this last point. It was confirmed that this was one of the messages from the media literacy experts meeting, and indeed it is my perception that this is more explicitly a theme with ML experts than with IL experts. Personally I think that IL also has a political dimension, and it is a good idea to surface this, rather than pretending that IL is "neutral".
Two other colleagues raised questions:
- Whether countries would really pay attention to any MIL indicators. The answer was that by putting on UNESCO's agenda, it would get attention, even if not from all countries.
- Whether UNESCO could articulate why ML and IL are joined and also why other literacies are not being addressed. The response from the UNESCO side was that these two literacies are most linked with the remit of communication and information. Therefore it seemed (to me) that there was a certain pragmatism, and inclusion of other literacies in the future was not ruled out.
Photos by Sheila Webber: Sculpture on the Unversidad Politecnica de Puerto Rico campus, and a poster with the University's mission, that I saw posted up in several places.

UNESCO Media & Information Literacy: report 1

On Thursday (11th August) I participated in the meeting organised by the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Information Literacy Section and UNESCO IFAP (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Information For All Program) on Media and Information Literacy Indicators and Government Action Recommendations. It was held at the Universidad Politécnica de Puerto Rico, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I will do several separate blog posts about it.

The day started with a presentation via video link from Mr Janis Karklins, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO. The picture above shows the video feed. He identified reasons why UNESCO is working on literacy issues. Namely, in order to succeed in fast changing societies, and tackle the challenges of the knowledge economy, people needed various literacies. These literacies should support diverse people to succeed. Information Literacy was still seen as part of people’s basic human right which helped people achieve their personal and professional goals.

UNESCO felt that they needed to look at a combination of literacies, and felt that it would be “interesting from a conceptual point of view” to link the two essential literacies: media literacy and information literacy. They had already done work in both these areas. Mr Karklins presented a diagram which showed overlapping circles: information literacy, media literacy, digital literacy, computer literacy and “other types of literacies” (the examples given for "other" were financial and health literacy).
The strategy for Media and Information Literacy (MIL) includes the Teachers’ curriculum for media and information literacy (published in July: I was sure I had blogged this, but I don't seem to have done so. I wil put this in a separate post), establishment of an international clearinghouse for MIL, strategy statements for MIL and developing indicators for MIL.
The point of the indicators would be to use them internationally. It was hoped that the MIL indicators would be a tool for countries’ self-assessment and a benchmark or standard for MIL. The main challenges include:
- Finding a balance between IL and ML;
- Getting agreement on definitions;
- Identifying the indicators themselves!
The process started in 2007 with the publication by Lau and Catts: Towards Information Literacy Indicators, then in November 2010 there was the first meeting of MIL experts, then some further conceptual work, and now two separate meetings (one with media literacy experts, held in July, and one with IL experts i.e. the one I just attended).

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Information literacy for multicultural populations

Next week is the IFLA conference being held in Puerto Rico. I'm not attending the main conference, but I just arrived in Puerto Rico to attend a UNESCO meeting and one of the section meetings of the IFLA Information Literacy Section.
I'll be missing some interesting sessions next week, but one good thing is that there are many papers up on the IFLA website. In this post I'll highlight the session which has been organised by the Information Literacy Section with Library Services to Multicultural Populations and the Special Interest Group on Indigenous Matters. The session theme (taking place on 15 August) is The importance of information literacy for multicultural populations: needs, strategies, programs, and the role of libraries
- Indigenous cultural models in information literacy delivery including programmes for Maori and Pasifika students at New Zealand universities by LORIENE ROY and VIRGINIA LUEHRSEN (School of Information, the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA) and SPENCER LILLEY (Massey University Library, Palmerston North, New Zealand)
- Information literacy is a two-way street by DENICE ADKINS and BROOKE SHANNON (University of Missouri, Columbia, USA)
- Strengthening social inclusion in multicultural societies through information literacy by ESIN SULTAN OGUZ and SERAP KURBANOGLU (Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey)
- Information literacy in a multicultural society: the role of libraries in present Bulgaria by EVGENIYA RUSINOVA and GEORGETA NAZARSKA (State University of Library Studies and IT, Sofia, Bulgaria)
- Creating learning commons: a study of University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus experience of information literacy competencies integration into the university curriculum by SNEJANKA PENKOVA and LOURDES CÁDIZ (University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico)
- "Usted y su biblioteca" (You and your library): an information literacy program for adult ESL students by MILLY C. LUGO (Santa Ana Public Library, Santa Ana, CA, USA)
- Indigenous Rarámuris as university students: challenges for the information literacy by JAVIER TARANGO and PATRICIA MURGUÍA (Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico) and JESUS LAU (Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, Mexico) (also in Spanish)
- Digital training supports the social integration of immigrants in Norway by TORD HØIVIK (Library and Information Science, Oslo University College, Oslo, Norway)
Photo by Sheila Webber: Roses, Hailsham, August 2011

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Copyright Libguide

Denise Nicholson at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, has created an extensive LibGuide on Copyright and Related Issues. It has a few links specific to her university, and obviously has some focus on locally relevant resources, but includes many resources about the international scene and other countries.
http://libguides.wits.ac.za/content.php?pid=205315&sid=1713351

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Information Literacy Interactive Toolkit

"The RSC [Regional Support Centre] South West has developed a new interactive Information Literacy tool, created by Matt Ewens and David Bevington. Our aim is to pool together information literacy resources from around the world in one place." This is designed as a concept map and under development at the moment.
http://rsc-south-west.ac.uk/index.php?p=10

Photo by Sheila Webber: Blackberry flowers, Hailsham, August 2011

Thursday, August 04, 2011

A Critical Thinking Approach for Information Education

A new article from Najia Abdallaoui Maan, Professeur de l' Enseignement Supérieur, Ecole des Sciences de l'Information (ESI), Rabat, Morocco. After an initial reflection on information literacy, she talks more about the importance of critical thinking, and also discusses the need to integrate the approach into institutional strategy (something that obviously I and Bill Johnston have been advocating) and discusses the situation in Morocco.
Maan, N. A. (2011) "A Critical Thinking Approach for Information Education" IFLA SET Bulletin, 12(2), 6-11.
This is in the whole online issue: http://www.ifla.org/files/set/Bulletin/_SET_Bulletin2011-2.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Cow parsley, Aug 2011

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

International Student Lifecycle Resources bank

The (UK) Higher Education Academy has put together an International Student Lifecycle Resources bank which has organised links and material around the phases:
1. Pre-arrival and pre-sessional support [of students]
2. Induction [of students]
3. Teaching & Learning in the 'classroom' [this is the biggest section]
4. Life outside the 'classroom'
5. Employability & next steps
It is meant for teaching faculty and anyone else dealing with students from outside their home country (obviously, being a British resource, "international" students are those from outside the UK, and in particular, I would say, those from outside the European Union). Some of the pages are rather long and unwieldy (e.g. the "induction" page), but there is a lot of useful material.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/international-student-lifecycle
Photo by Sheila Webber: Marigolds (photoshopped), August 2011

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

First Year Experience in Higher Education

A new issue of the open-access International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education has been published. This will be of interest to those readers concerned with transition to university and the experience of first year/ "freshman" students. Most of the articles don't directly touch on information literacy, but this one does describe a collaboration at Monash University (Australia) including librarians on a "getting started" [at essay writing] workshop:

Beckman, J. and Rayner, G. (2011) "Embedding academic-professional collaborations that build student confidence for essay writing: Student perceptions and quality." International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 2 (2), 83-90.
https://www.fyhe.com.au/journal/index.php/intjfyhe/issue/view/4/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: Summer, August 2011

Monday, August 01, 2011

Health Information Literacy

Angela Arner linked to a pdf which contains a health literacy curriculum for young people that was developed and evaluated in 2009: Who Can You Trust? Health Information and the Internet. "The curriculum was developed and piloted as part of the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition (RVHCC) Health Information Literacy Outreach project" (in the USA). It includes learning goals, materials to use with learners, and (usefully) a report on the evaluation
http://www.rvhcc.org/pdf/HIL_Sourcebook.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Marigolds, Hailsham, August 2011