LILAC 2014 presentations - Thursday 24th April

In addition to presenting at LILAC I attended other parallel sessions on the Thursday. I also tweeted at the sessions and or retweeted others. The Twitter feed was #lilac2014 -it is worth a look. 

As usual I picked sessions that were not mainstream for LILAC - these were:

From local to global: sharing good practice in information literacy - the session discussed recent initiatives to facilitate the sharing of information literacy teaching materials as open educational resources both in the UK between librarians from all sectors and internationally. Not surprisingly there is a 'small group of people sharing' and a larger number viewing. This reflects email discussion lists and our own community of practice and the handful of people who blog. What's happening with the professional voicer online? 

I was interested to hear that the CILIP IL subgroup that aims to support and encourage the development and sharing of information literacy teaching materials as open educational resources is looking at creating a website for their Community of Practice. The group discussion about why people are or are not sharing was similar to a discussion I had held at an EU workshop earlier in the year. Similar reasons given. 

Dialogism, Mikhail Bakhtin and information literacy

Drew (Andrew) Whitworth's presentation was a theoretical look at IL where he looked at 'new theories of IL and discussed implications for practice'. Whilst some of the articles he spoke about were new to me - many of his implications for practice were not as I and John Crawford have been saying this for years based on our research and experience e.g.

• IL is for all it can be taught anywhere workplace
• Don't just look for IL as the library defines it.

He has a new book coming out 'Radical Information Literacy' it is a Chandos Publication.

Embedded information literacy in the 21st century curriculum

Good to see a school librarian Darren Flynn, Dixons Allerton Academy presenting at LILAC. I was interested to hear that the library has the 'largest teaching space in the school'. Other aspects were familiar issues such as 'pupils need to be more independent learners', linking IL to the curriculum, 'project based learning where pupils have to come up with their own driving question'.  

LILAC 2014 Presentation - Developing and running a National Information Literacy Community of Practice on a shoestring

Christine Irving, LILAC 2014

I attended LILAC  2014 last week.

My presentation 'Developing and running a National Information Literacy Community of Practice on a shoestring' 

The presentation looked at the achievements (including sharing practice, presentation to a Scottish Parliament Committee, and supporting a National Library/primary school project) and lessons learned from the Scottish Information Literacy project; what a community of practice is; what the online information literacy community of practice: Information Skills for a 21st century Scotland looks like and reflects on what has been achieved to date by this community of practice with no budget or funding but through the generosity of people and organisations’ time and commitment to the community; the benefits of a community of practice; what has worked and what hasn’t; lessons learned and the challenges it faces. 

The abstract is available on the LILAC 2014 programme website and I plan to write an article for the Journal of Information Literacy. 

Thanks to those that attended and contributed to the discussion. 

Community of Practice Minutes - 5th November 2013

Information Literacy Community of Practice Meeting (4th)
Scottish Government, Victoria Quay, Commercial Street, Edinburgh EH6 6QQ,

Wednesday 5th November 2013 at 11.30 am – 1.30 pm

Apologies:
Cleo Jones, Manager, Information and Learning Resources, Edinburgh City Council; Ruth Gould, Aberdeen City Libraries; Kirsten Urquhart, Young Scot; Veronica Denholm, National Library of Scotland; Alice Heywood; National Library of Scotland: Fiona McLeod, MSP (http://www.fionamcleodmsp.org/), Sheila Macneill, University of Strathclyde;


Attendees: John Crawford - Chair; Abi Mawhirt, Dundee College; Hilary Kidd, Young Scot; Lindsay McKrell, Stirling Libraries; Christine Irving, Independent Information Professional / Research Fellow, Edinburgh Napier University; Moira Methven, Acting CEO SLIC; Bill Johnston, Research Fellow, Strathclyde University; Linda Sutherland, Laura Hogg, Glasgow Life; Sean McNamara, CILIPS Policy and Digital Officer; Ian McCracken - retired school librarian; Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University; Valerie Walker, Information & Learning Resources, Edinburgh City Council (Schools); Jill Evans, National Library of Scotland; Lynn Swann, Digital Project Officer, SLIC;  Anne Louise Anglim, ; Morag Higgison, Scottish Government Library; Jenny Foreman, Scottish Government Library.

Introductions: New members attending today’s meeting: Hilary Kidd, Moira Methven, Anne Louise Anglim

* Minutes of previous meeting (Published on 15th July 2013) were accepted.

* Matters arising:

* John Crawford mentioned that he and Christine are still to organise a representative from Education Scotland but were hoping to do so early in 2014.

* Sean McNamara informed us that CILIPS are keen to gather shared practice for the SLIC website and information literacy will be a key focus of this. CILIPS would like to ask everyone for help so please visit and share this link, which includes a proforma and further information: http://www.cilips.org.uk/shared-practice-all/

* Ian McCracken has been working on matching information literacy skills to the Curriculum for Excellence.

* Information Literacy CoP website report http://www.therightinformation.org/  

* Christine has been blogging and would like to encourage others in the group to do so too as well as comment on the blog posts. The IL CoP has 91 members but most are not active. We have 10 members with blogging access rights but could make all members have blogging rights?

* Christine plans to develop the Information literacy Framework.

* Jenny suggested that the Discussion board tab on the website becomes the Library/document area and the Blog tab is the discussion area.

* Christine suggested that anyone who blogs for their own or other blogs (e.g Marion and Bill) might like to also add their blog posts to the IL CoP blog.

* SLIC’s role in Information Literacy development – Moira Methven

* SLIC and Scottish Government have recently appointed Lynn Swann as coordinator for the network of Digital Champions. Lynn is becoming familiar with her new role as conduit between SLIC and the SG. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Economy/digital/Digital-Participation/Digital-Participation-Activities

* In partnership with Scottish Library & Information Council (SLIC) a Digital Participation Project Officer, Lynn Swann (l.swan@scottishlibraries.org) has been appointed to co-ordinate a team of digital champions, ensuring there is a team of committed, trained individuals throughout Scotland who will provide support and flexible learning opportunities to individuals and groups. – N.B. Lindsay McKrell, Stirling Libraries is a Digital Champion)

* There’s a Big Lottery funding open till 24th January 2014 which libraries can apply for re: upskilling staff and others.

* Moira delivered the presentation she had created for the Digital Champions and MSP Fiona McLeod (insert presentation) 22% of  Scottish adults do not use the internet at all, 25% didn’t know how to (Scottish Household Survey). This means a huge opportunity for libraries to promote their work and to assist in the skilling of people re information/digital literacy.

* The Scottish Government may be leading the way regarding infrastructure, but libraries are the critical and pivotal path regarding skills.

* Without the people ie professional librarians to deliver the services for digital/information literacy, the Scottish Government’s aims will not be delivered by 2020. (Val and Anne Louise)

* Need the technology (PCs) to be freely available as well.

* Librarians and information professionals need to be seen as the people you go to, to get ‘upskilled’ in these areas. (Digital natives do not exist.)

* Strategically, the emphasis is all on digital gadgets and technology when is should be on the information literacy skills deficit. (Bill)

* SCURL’s role in IL development – Jill Evans
Jill talked about and promised to share the link (attached) to the Research Information Network (RIN) publication on: The Role of Research Supervisors in Information Literacy.  This document was published in October 2011 and still contains pertinent information regarding information/digital literacy skills:  
 http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/researcher-development-and-skills/information-handling-training-researchers/research-superv

* Royal Society of Edinburgh Digital Participation – report and feedback, submitters of evidence from all.

* Blog post from Information Literacy CoP 19th February 2014 http://www.therightinformation.org/blog/?currentPage=2

* http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/advice-papers/inquiry/digitalscotland/Digital%20Scotland%20(med%20res).pdf? Digital Scotland report.

* Discussion on serious omissions in interim document regarding libraries/librarians/information literacy.

* Decided to confer and submit a consolidated report with help of SLIC and others in the Information Literacy CoP (Jan 24th 2014)130628_RSE_Digital_Participation_Inquiry_Response_Final.pdf  

* European conference on Information literacy (ECIL), Istanbul, Turkey 22-25 October, 2013 http://www.ecil2013.org/index.php/home
John Crawford, Marion Kelt and Bill Johnston’s report back. Blog post by John http://www.therightinformation.org/blog/2013/10/30/european-conference-on-information-literacy-ecil-istanbul-tu.html

* Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Digital Participation
https://dpcrosspartygroup.wordpress.com/

* Report back from John Crawford and Ian McCracken’s presentations at 4th September 2013 meeting. Blog post by Ian http://www.therightinformation.org/blog/2013/9/5/information-literacy-at-the-scottish-parliament.html

* Update. John and Jenny attended Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Digital Participation on 10 Dec 2014.Ian Watson Knowledge Media: Programme Manager, Ian Watt (SOCITM), Gordon Scobbie gave presentations to the CPG on 'Digital Participation in the Workplace. The key to Scotland's Digital Future'

* Autumn Gathering Report – Information Literacy good practice session (John Crawford, Sean McNamara, Christine Irving) http://www.cilips.org.uk/storage/Autumn%20Gathering%20Programme.pdf

* Christine has written two blog posts:
* http://www.therightinformation.org/blog/2013/10/21/cilips-autumn-gathering-2013-inspiration-and-education-schoo.html
* http://www.therightinformation.org/blog/2014/1/17/cilips-autumn-gathering-2013-privacy-is-dead-cpd-elevator-pi.html

*  Upcoming presentations:
a. SLIC AGM at which Ian McCracken and John Crawford were speakers http://www.therightinformation.org/blog/2013/11/27/slic-agm-221113.html
b. CILIPS East Branch Information Literacy Event part One, (blog post by John Crawford http://www.therightinformation.org/blog/2014/2/3/cilips-east-branch-information-literacy-part-one.html
 . 
c. EU Conference, University of Greenwich (John Crawford, , Christine Irving)  blog post by John Crawford pictures by Christine Irving http://www.therightinformation.org/blog/2014/3/19/promoting-employability-through-specific-literacies-conferen.html

*  Publication of John Crawford and Christine Irving’s book “Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning: Policy issues, the workplace, health and public libraries”. This includes a chapter on information literacy in the Scottish Government by Jenny Foreman and Morag Higgison. http://store.elsevier.com/product.jsp?locale=en_UK&isbn=9781780633480 (October 2013)

* AOB

Date and time of next meeting is Wednesday 14th May 2014 11.30am – 1.30pm at the Scottish Government, Victoria Quay.

The agenda will be sent out shortly beforehand. Please email John Crawford if you’d like to add anything to it or would like to deliver a presentation etc.

SCVO digital participation update

Busy working through my emails after the easter break and came across an email from the Digital Participation team at SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) about the first fortnightly update from them.

Items in the update were:

Basic online skills award opportunity

The Big Lottery Fund has announced the shortlist for its basic online skills award. We are working closely with both Tinder Foundationand with BT / Citizens Online to develop and, if successful, deliver activity across Scotland. Right now we are looking for local delivery partners and welcome expressions of interest from anyone who would like to get involved. 

Making digital real

The Carnegie UK Trust published a new report on digital participation, including case studies of the great activity going on at the Wheatley Group and at Digital Fife. The report also includes seven helpful tests for anyone designing projects to promote digital participation.

UK Government digital inclusion strategy

The UK Government has launched a new Digital Inclusion Strategy and Digital Inclusion Charter, with an aim to reduce the number of people who are not online by 25% by 2016. Participation has been a central pillar of the Scottish Government's digital strategy for a number of years now, and we are looking forward to refreshing this in the weeks ahead.

SCVO digital participation

There aim is to

 "keep you up to date with news, events and information about digital participation in Scotland and beyond". They "would love to hear what you are up to" and "if you have news to share" to get in touch with them.

I was curious about receiving the update and SCVO's stance and involvement in digital participation. On there website is a digital participation webpage which says that:

Digital participation is about empowering people and communities to pursue the things that matter most to them.

The third sector will play a critical role in ensuring that everyone is included in the new digital age. SCVO is stepping up its activity on digital participation, working across the public, private and third sectors to promote a Digital Scotland for all. Initiatives intended to raise digital participation must go with the grain of peoples’ lives, and work through the people and organisations that are already trusted sources of support and advice.

This is good news as the third sector is a large sector and involved in a wide range of interests often with people and groups that are not engaged with other sectors or have found them less than supportive.

I would recommend that you have a look at their website and their thoughts / activities. There looks like their our common causes that information literacy / our community could link into / support. 

Information Literacy website survey - win £50 of gift vouchers!

The CILIP Information Literacy Group has made some changes to their website and they say there is more to come.

I've had a quick look and like what I see so far but want to have a more indepth look. 

The CILIP Information Literacy Group wants to make sure that the website is as effective as possible in supporting information and digital literacy practitioners and researchers from around the world, by providing news, case studies, examples of best practice and freely-available materials. There aim is to provide a practical resource that information professionals regulalrly visit to discover the latest developments in information literacy.

So they need your help! They are now carrying out a short surevy to help guide the future development of the website. The survey can be completed anonymously and will take no more than 10 minutes to complete https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ilwebsitesurvey 

If you complete the survey, you will have the option to be included in a prize draw for the chance to win £50 of gift vouchers from Waterstones, John Lewis or another online store of your choice.

The survey will close on Saturday, 31st May 2014.