Monday, December 31, 2012

New survey of online and mobile use of libraries in the USA

Today there is a new report from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, a result of a telephone survey of just over 2,500 Americans, undertaken in October-November 2012. "The 25% of Americans ages 16 and older who went to a library website in the past 12 months tended to do so with modest frequency" but they did a variety of things there. Visiting library websites occurred more with those who had higher incomes, earned more or were parents. "13% of those ages 16 and older have visited library websites or otherwise accessed library services by mobile device." Full report free at: http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/12/31/mobile-connections-to-libraries/
Photo by Sheila Webber, of Camden Passage, December 2012, photoshopped.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Engineers' information literacy

Here's a short article explaining why engineers need to be information literate:
Gurke, S. (2012) "Information Literacy in the Workplace: Novice engineers can't leave learning in the dorm room." R&D, 14 December. http://www.rdmag.com/articles/2012/12/information-literacy-workplace
Photo by Sheila Webber: Niagra Falls, December 2012

Thursday, December 27, 2012

International Information Literacy Survey report

The preliminary report from the International Information Literacy Survey (IILS) project is available. "This IILS initiative is a Survey of the Information and Media Literacy Behaviors of University Students in Selected Central Asian Countries, and is still, at the moment, in the very preliminary stage of being planned, organized and structured." If you are in a central Asian country then you are encouraged to participate. The first report is available in pdf and E-PUB format. Go to http://albertkb.nl/imils.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Moonrise, Blackheath, December 2012.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas from the Information Literacy Weblog

Merry Christmas to all Information Literacy Weblog readers!
Photo by Sheila Webber: The Christmas wreath I made this year

Saturday, December 22, 2012

New report on reading habits

Yesterday the Pew American Life project released a new report on Reading Habits in Different Communities [in the USA]. They compare rural, urban and suburban populations, and asked about reading in print and on electronic devices. There are differences and "In the most meaningful ways, these differences are associated with the demographic composition of different kinds of communities — the age of the population, their overall level of educational attainment, and the general level of household income." (In other words, although it looks like there are differences between urban and rural, it is more to do with there being a larger proportion of partcular types (age/income/ethnicity etc.) of person in urban or rural settings.) Also, "The majority of Americans ages 16 and older (58%) have a library card and even more (69%) say the library is important to them and their families." There are summaries and the full report at:
http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/12/20/reading-habits-in-different-communities/
Photo by S Webber: Christmas deco, London, December 2012

Thursday, December 20, 2012

IL in the workplace

I don't think I blogged about Mark Hepworth's work on "i-capabilities" with Leicestershire County Council. I have found a blog post, a short presentation from the CILIP event in the summer and his presentation at the LILAC conference. His blog post says that "Collaborating on a KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) with Leicestershire County Council we determined the key i-capabilities required by staff and gained an insight into developing an information management corporate culture." The blog post is at: http://markhepworthsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/projects-i-capabilities-in-workplace.html; the LILAC presentation is at http://www.slideshare.net/MarkHepworth/mh-lilac12-information-literacy-in-the-workplace and the CILIP presentation at http://www.cilip.org.uk/infolit2012/Documents/8.%20Mark%20Hepworth.pdf Additionally there is an example training animation, http://goanimate.com/videos/0lu-cLLBI6pE/1
Photo by Sheila Webber: wet ivy leaf, December 2012

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Making games for libraries

A blog from Andy Walsh, Making Games for Libraries, includes videos from his recent workshop. The video embedded here has one of the workshop groups explaining their game idea. The blog is definitely worth following if you are interested in developing library game ideas. The blog is at http://gamesforlibraries.blogspot.co.uk/
Walsh has also made another library card game available as a zipped file, SOURCES, at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/16230/

Monday, December 17, 2012

New issue of Education Libraries: video games, preservice teachers, High School programme

Education Libraries (open access) Volume 35, No. 1-2, Summer-Winter 2012 has been published. Articles include:
- Beyond a Fad: Why Video Games Should Be Part of 21st Century Libraries By Kym Buchanan and Angela M. Vanden Elzen
- Information Literacy Outreach: Building a High School Program at California State University Northridge By Coleen Meyers Martin, Eric P. Garcia, and Marc McPhee
- Information Literacy Skills for Preservice Teachers: Do they transfer to K-12 classrooms? By Marcia Stockham and Heather Collins.
http://education.sla.org/?page_id=493
Photo by Sheila Webber: Festive lampost, Toronto, Canada, December 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012

cfp i3 conference

i3 (Information: Interactions and Impact) 2013 will be held at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK on 25-28 June 2013. The conference "is concerned with the quality and effectiveness of the interaction between people and information and how this interaction can bring about change." They particularly welcome papers which address two or more of the following conference themes: the quality and effectiveness of user/information interactions (e.g. information literacy); patterns of information behaviour in different contexts; impact of information or information services on people, organisations, communities and society (e.g. social, learning, cultural and economic outcomes of engagement with information); and more effective decision making. Submissions are invited for full papers, short papers and round table discussions. The conference language will be English. All abstracts should be submitted by Friday 18th January 2013.
Go to http://www.i3conference.org.uk/ for more information
Photo by Sheila Webber: leaf

Liber Quarterly: reaching researchers; IL standards and knowledge generation

The new issue of Liber Quarterly (Vol. 22, No. 3, 2012; open access) includes
- Research group librarian – a cooperating partner in research? by Heidi Kristin Olsen
- Information literacy competency standards for higher education and their correlation with the cycle of knowledge generation Alejandro Uribe Tirado and Wilson Castaño Muñoz
and a review by Brunella Longo of Patric Charaudeau's Les médias et l'information: l'impossible transparence du discours. 2nd. éd.
http://liber.library.uu.nl/index.php/lq/issue/view/478
Photo by Sheila Webber: Toronto night lights, December 2012 (this is basically an out of focus picture, but I thought it gave a nice effect)

cfp: Creating Knowledge VII: 14-16 August 2013

There is a call for papers for the 7th Creating Knowledge conference. Win-win ways: Educational enhancement through collaborative partnership between students, academics and librarians which will be in Lund, Sweden, 14-16 August, 2013."The conference will highlight information literacy and its role in the transformation of the learning process. It will demonstrate how cross-professional collaboration in higher education lead to a win-win situation for all collaborators."
You can propose a paper, a poster, a workshop, a round table or a TeachMeet presentation. Proposals should be submitted by 1 March, 2013. The tree key themes are learning design, learning environments and quality development.
Information at http://learning.lub.lu.se/flow/creating-knowledge-vii.aspx?FlowCategoryID=175
Photo by Sheila Webber: Cold misty day in Toronto, St James park, December 2012

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Didáctica básica para la alfabetización informacional

New book in Spanish: Tarango, J. and Mendoza-Guillen, G. (2012) Didáctica básica para la alfabetización informacional [Fundamentals of teaching information literacy]. Alfagrama Editions, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
There are contributuions from a multidisciplinary range of authors. Details at http://bibliotecologia.mercadoshops.com.ar/didactica-basica-para-la-alfabetizacion-informacional_210xJM
Photo by Sheila Webber: Farmers' market, Toronto, December 2012

Communications in Information Literacy new issue

New issue of the open access journal Communications in Information Literacy,
- Notes from the Field: 10 Short Lessons on One-Shot Instruction by Megan Oakleaf et al.
- Rethinking Information Literacy in a Globalized World by Laurie Kutner and Alison Armstrong
- Information Literacy on the Web: How College Students Use Visual and Textual Cues to Assess Credibility on Health Websites by Katrina L. Pariera
- Measuring the Impact of Library Instruction on Freshmen Success and Persistence: A Quantitative Analysis by Jason M. Vance, Rachel Kirk and Justin G. Gardner
- Collaboration and Problem-Based Learning: Integrating Information Literacy into a Political Science Course by Peg Cook and Mary Barbara Walsh
- Embedding Affective Learning Outcomes in Library Instruction by Ellysa Stern Cahoy, and Robert Schroeder
- Considering Information Literacy Skills and Needs: Designing Library Instruction for the Online Learner by Swapna Kumar, Marilyn Ochoa, and Mary Edwards
- Predictors of Student’s Attitudes toward Science Literacy by Irina I. Holden
- Engineering Integration: Building a Quick and Effective Faculty Seminar by Kate Peterson, and Jon Jeffryes
http://www.comminfolit.org/index.php?journal=cil&page=issue&op=current&path[]=showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: Courgettes, Farmers' market, St Lawrence market, Toronto, Canada, December 2012

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Classic information literacy work on science and engineering

Anne Fullerton (pictured) was our host for the seminar on the Information Literate University at the University of Waterloo, Canada, last week. She is Biology and Chemical Engineering Librarian at University of Waterloo, and the author of a highly cited research paper that is still one of the few to cover this particular area, namely:
Leckie, G. and Fulleron, A. (1999) "Information literacy in science and engineering undergraduate education: faculty attitudes and pedagogical practices." College and Research Libraries, 60 (1), 9-29. Available full text at http://crl.acrl.org/content/60/1/9.full.pdf The abstract reads: "What are science and engineering faculty doing with respect to the development of information literacy in their undergraduate students? To explore this question, science and engineering faculty at two large Canadian universities were surveyed and interviewed regarding their perceptions of their students’ information literacy skills and their own pedagogical practices related to such skills. Faculty awareness of, and support for, a variety of bibliographic instruction methods and the perceived role of science and engineering librarians in information literacy instruction also were investigated. Based on the survey results, suggestions for the design of library instruction for science and engineering undergraduates are made."
Another paper drawing on the same research is:
Leckie, G. and Fulleron, A. (1999) "The roles of academic librarians in fostering a pedagogy for information literacy." In: Racing Toward Tomorrow, ACRL 1999 National Conference Papers http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/pdf/leckie99.pdf
And more recently, this Powerpoint talks about the current situation at Waterloo:
Fullerton, A. and MacDonald, K. "Information Literate Students: Faculty and Librarians collaborate on a shared commitment" http://www.trace.uwaterloo.ca/research_on_teaching_and_learning/documents/Fullerton503.pdf

Credo Reference award for a digital information literacy resource

Credo Reference are again sponsoring an award for a digital information literacy resource, programme, product or service. The winning group or individual will receive £500 for personal use and £500 for their nominated charity. The closing date for receipt of nominations is 7 February 2013. The prize will be presented at the LILAC conference dinner in Manchester, UK on 26 March 2013. For more info see http://lilacconference.com/WP/awards/credo-digital-award/
Photo by Sheila Webber: above Niagra Falls, Canada, December 2012

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Useful material from past infolit meetings


There's a detailed description of the Manchester New Library Professionals Network IL event in November, on the Information Literacy website at http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/develop-professional-practice/training-events/event-reviews-2012/. The page also has a write-up of the London TeachMeet held in June (the focus was Supporting diverse learners), the presentations from which are at http://www.ldnlibtm.info/ and a shorter account of the Manchester TeachMeet held in January (presentations on http://manchesterlibtm.wordpress.com/)
Short video of Niagra Falls last week, by me

Passing on words of wisdom

This article isn't about information literacy, but I thought that the intervention described, i.e. asking graduating student nurses to write down"letters" with advice for the new students, is an interesting idea, and the intervention is described carefully. The journal is open access.
Gibson, C. and MacDonald, K. (2012) Passing on words of wisdom: Using graduating student nurses’ experiences to influence the development of new entrants to a nursing programme. Practice and Evidence of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 7 (1), 2-20.
http://www.pestlhe.org.uk/index.php/pestlhe/article/view/128/239
Photo by Sheila Webber: above Niagra Falls, Canada, again.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Indicators of an Information Literate University

The Information Literate University (ILU) was the theme of the seminars that I have been giving in Canada with Bill Johnston. There is an article from a few years ago in which we explain the idea of the ILU and also list indicators of an ILU. We have three groups of indicators: for “embryonic” ILU, “intermediate” ILU and “Working towards an ILU”. This includes indicators concerning students, librarians, academics, management, and approaches to teaching, learning and assessment.
One of the universities we were working with (York University) had used this list of indicators in an internal exercise with librarians, and we used the indicators as the basis of the main activity with the group of universities in the second workshop (at the University of Waterloo, see photo above). They are an aid to assessing where your organisation is, identifying where people differ in perceptions of where you are, and planning where you want to be.
The article which includes the list is here: http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/staffs-webber-johnston.pdf  It first appeared as: Webber, S. and Johnston, B. (2006) “Working towards the information literate university.” In Walton, G. and Pope, A. (Eds) Information literacy: recognising the need. Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent: 17 May 2006. Oxford: Chandos. pp 47-58.

Sunday, December 09, 2012

University/ school collaboration on health class

Rosenzweig, M., Schnitzer, A., Mahraj, K. and Baublis, J. (2012) "Synergism between a teacher and academic librarians in a high school setting: Strategies for success" College and research libraries news, 73 (11), 658-667. ".. two librarians collaborated with an AAPS High School Health and Wellness teacher to develop an elective class on public health issues." New, on open access at http://crln.acrl.org/content/73/11/658.full
Photo by Sheila Webber: above Niagra Falls, Canada, December 2012

Saturday, December 08, 2012

New issue of Journal of Information Literacy

A new issue (vol 6 issue 2) of the open-access Journal of Information Literacy includes:
- Indicators of adult information literacy by Ralph Catts
- Assessing students’ information literacy skills in two secondary schools in Singapore by Yun-ke Chang et al.
- 'Digital fluency': towards young people's critical use of the internet by Carl Miller and Jamie Bartlett
- Mobile information literacy: a preliminary outline of information behaviour in a mobile environment by Andrew Walsh
- Meeting information literacy outcomes: Partnering with faculty to create effective information literacy assessment by Debra Anne Hoffmann and Kristen LaBonte
- Poster presentations as an assessment tool in a third/college-level Information Literacy course: an effective method of measuring student understanding of library research skills by JaNae Kinikin and Keith Hench
- Social media, authentic learning and embedded librarianship: a case study of dietetics students by Rebecca K. Miller
- Reflection for learning: understanding the value of reflective writing for information literacy development by Pamela McKinney and Barbara A Sen
The issue is at https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/index
Photo by Sheila Webber: Black squirrel, Toronto, Canada. I will be blogging about my Canadian information literacy visit over the next week

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Welsh Information Literacy Best Practice, 28 January 2013

The Welsh Information Literacy project have organised an Information Literacy Best Practice event on 28 January 2013, Grŵp Llandrillo Menai, Rhos on Sea campus, Wales. There will be an overview of the Welsh Information Literacy Project, and examples of good practice from different library sectors (including schools, public libraries, universities and colleges) from across North Wales. More information at http://t.co/aYE6SeWq
Photo by Sheila Webber: night time Toronto, December 2012

Monday, December 03, 2012

Academic integrity: Ryerson's site & cartoons

I'm at Ryerson Uiversity (Toronto, Canada) today so I thought I'd highlight Ryerson't Academic integrity website. It features a set of cartoon videos with student scenarios. For example, in the first one, Alison is up late doing her psychology essay and she gets tempted to plagiarise a textbook and a fellow-student's essay. The associated quizzes are not accessible to outsiders, but the videos are. There are also some posters using the same characters (like these ones, photographed on the wall in Ryserson's library). I liked the Janis Joplin quote ("Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got"). http://www.ryerson.ca/academicintegrity/

Saturday, December 01, 2012

New infolit books from Chandos

Apologies for the hiatus in blogging: I've been travelling to Canada to give some seminars on information literacy, this coming week. You will hear more about that! Meanwhile, here are a couple of recent books:

Huvila, I. (2012) Information Services and Digital Literacy: In Search of the Boundaries of Knowing. Chandos Publishing. ISBN: 9781843346838. The book "scrutinizes the role of information services and digital literacies in the age of the social web. Huvila argues that a central problem in the age of the social web and the culture of participation is that we do not know the premises of how we know, and in this book he closely examines the ways that interacting with information affects people’s actions." More info at http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=2629&ChandosTitle=1

Andretta, S. (2012) Ways of Experiencing Information Literacy: Making the Case for a Relational Approach. Chandos Publishing. ISBN: 9781843346807. "Susie Andretta offers an investigation of the relational approach to examining information literacy from the perspective of the learner and the educator in both academic and other professional environments." http://www.neal-schuman.com/wxil
Photo by Sheila Webber: giant reindeer in Toronto