European conference on Information literacy (ECIL) , Istanbul, Turkey 22-25 October, 2013

I got back on Monday after attending the ECIL Conference which was pretty hectic followed by three days of equally hectic sightseeing.  The conference - see website:  http://www.ecil2013.org/index.php/home was held at the Military Museum near Taksim Square although all seemed quiet there. It was a busy three days – about 8.30 am to 6-8 pm most days and we were all pretty tired by the end of it. There were 367 delegates from 59 countries. There were about 235 presentations including keynotes. I was on the Standing and Programme Committees which meant I had to evaluate submissions and also chair a conference session. I also gave an invited presentation.

The conference was mainly organised by Serap Kurbanoglu, a professor at Hacateppe University in Ankara, and Sonja Spiranec from the University of Zagreb in Croatia. I think our Community of Practice did pretty well to have three speakers: Bill Johnston (presenting with Sheila Webber), Marion Kelt and me. Just about everyone who is anybody in the IL world was there, including ChristiPaul Zurkowski ECIL 2013 (Photo courtesy of ECIL Serap Kurbanoglu)y ne Bruce, Annemaree Lloyd, whose work I particularly admire, and most notably Paul Zurkowski who coined the term information literacy in 1974 and is the father of the movement. He gave a memorable keynote.

For fairly detailed reporting on the presentations she attended have a look at Sheila Webber’s blog: http://information-literacy.blogspot.co.uk/ . This includes the session I chaired on the Thursday afternoon.

Bill and Sheila gave a most interesting presentation on the Tuesda y afternoon  - Information literate lives in the 21^st century – which outlined a curriculum for an information literate lifecourse, the information needs of ordinary people in other words, which seems to me to be a model we could follow.

John Crawford speaking at ECIL ( Photo courtesy of ECIL Serap Kurbanoglu)My presentation on the Wednesday afternoon – Are national information literacy policies possible? went OK. T he presentation was based partly on my experience  of directing the Scottish Information Literacy Project and the wider lessons which can be learned from it and partly on reading about other countries. My aims in presenting were twofold:

• To find out if the Scottish experience resonated with delegates from other countries
• To find out if my ideas about national literacy strategies were applicable in other countries.

The answer to both these questions proved to be yes. My presentation generated quite a few questions. 

I had scarcely sat down after I had finished when a member of the conference team approached me and asked if I was free for a meeting with Paul Zurkowski who congratulated me on the presentation and discussed issues of common interest. He hopes to travel to Ireland and possibly Scotland and it would be great if he could come here. Other people who talked to me afterwards included Maria Carme Torres Calvo who, although based in Bergen in Norway, is a Catalan and thought the Scottish and Catalan situations similar. A Mexican delegate also thought my ideas relevant to his country.  

I also took the opportunity to give the book a plug: Crawford, John C and Irving, Christine. Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning: Policy issues, the workplace, health and public libraries. Chandos, 2013. so hopefully it will help sales. Paul Zurkowski said he would get a copy.

Marion was on at 8.30 am on the Thursday morning and unfortunately I slept in and missed it but hopefully she will tell you all about it herself.

The session I chaired on the Thursday afternoon was attended and blogged by Sheila Webber and her blog gives all the details. There were six papers and the session lasted three hours and included Annemaree Lloyd with whose work on IL in the workplace I am familiar and also Katarzyna Materska from the University of Warsaw who also spoke about IL in the workplace. I had not come across her before and found her work interesting. Much of her work is in Polish unfortunately (see Google Scholar http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=Katarzyna+Materska+&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp= ).  The final session speaker was Christine Yates on health literacy.

The conference was a great success and well organised and Serap and Sonia deserve great credit for all the work they did. Amazingly enough they are going to do it all again and are planning another conference in Dubrovnik in October 2014. Hopefully it will be equally successful.

John Crawford

Book and Istanbul

After a good many delays for all sorts of reasons - Information literacy and lifelong learning: Policy issues, the workplace, health and public libraries

is at last being printed and will hopefully be available later this month.  It has taken about two years to put it together and has been an awful lot of work. It contains ten chapters, seven written by me, two by Christine Irving and there is a case study of the Scottish Government Information Service written by Jenny Foreman and Morag Higgison which complements the overall text very well.  The book is primarily concerned with information literacy in a wider world beyond the traditional stamping ground of higher education.  As the title indicates it examines the less structured world of information usage in the working environment, the use of health information and the growing and important role of public libraries.  It also reviews the information culture, the role of information literacy within it and how information policy agendas may be taken forward. Practical suggestions for implementing national information policies are discussed in the final chapter which are I feel applicable to Scotland and could form the basis for discussion and action. Christine has contributed a chapter on IL in early years education, a reminder that lifelong learning means just that.

I hope to have a couple of copies to take with me to Istanbul to the European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL).  My presentation will be about national information literacy policies and will be based on the final chapter. Marion Kelt and Bill Johnston are also presenting. To have three members of our group presenting at a world class event is very encouraging.  The conference last three days, 22-24 October, from 8.30 am until about 8pm each day. I think we will all be pretty tired by the end of it but hopefully the presentations and contacts will make it worthwhile. Pretty much everyone who is anybody in IL will be there including Paul Zurkowski, the man who originally coined the term in 1974.  Full details can be found at https://www.arber.com.tr/ecil2013.org/index.php/login

John Crawford

Information literacy at the Scottish Parliament (2)

As you will have gathered from Ian’s post we both attended the Holyrood Cross Party Group on Digital Participation on the evening of Wednesday 4^th September to give presentations.

My presentation was Information skills for a 21st century Scotland: an online information literacy community of practice.

I was a bit unsure as to how we would be received as the Group has historically been mainly concerned with access and infrastructure issues and less concerned with usage and training issues. However we were well received and the questions were, for the most part, helpful and supportive especially from Fiona McLeod MSP and SLIC chair. I also was pleased by the chair’s (Willie Coffey MSP) interest and enthusiasm.  I spoke mainly about the work of the Community of Practice and also explained a few basic information literacy issues with the help of the CILIP definition.  Many thanks to Veronica and Abi for supplying slides to give examples of our work which also brightened up the PPT considerably.   During the discussion Fiona had a number of suggestions:

• Approach the Public Libraries Quality Improvement Fund to look at such issues as school/public library links
• Raise information literacy at a public librarians’ heads of service meeting
• We also discussed the issue of IL skills training for public librarians

I had a chat with Fiona afterwards and brought here up to date with our work in slightly more detail. I feel we made quite a step forward in raising awareness of information literacy by promoting the issue outside the information world and among politicians.

Minutes of Community of Practice meeting 19.06.13

Sorry about delay in posting these. Many thanks to Marion Kelt for taking the minutes

Scottish Information Literacy community of practice meeting 19.6.13

Scottish Government, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh

Apologies : Abi Mawhirt - Dundee College; Jenny Foreman - Scottish Government Library; Gillian Hanlon – SLIC, Sheila McNeill – University of Strathclyde

Attendees: John Crawford - chair; Morag Higgison, Scottish Government Library; Ruth Gould - Aberdeen City Libraries; Lindsay McKrell - Stirling Libraries; Christine Irving – Independent Information Professional / Part time Research Fellow, Edinburgh Napier University; Bill Johnston, Research Fellow, Strathclyde University; Emma Mochan, Glasgow Life; Laura Hogg, Glasgow Life; Sean McNamara, CILIPS Policy and Digital Officer; Veronica Denholm, NLS; Cleo Jones, Manager, Information and Learning Resources, Edinburgh City Council; Ian McCracken - retired school librarian; Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University  

Introductions

John asked for round the table introductions as there were new members attending. Ian reported that he is to represent the revived CILIP West of Scotland Branch on CILIPS council.

Matters arising

Project Blaster update, Veronica Denholm

Veronica brought Blaster posters to share. The project was launched in March. They asked for feedback, it was positive. Blaster is an online resource. The language used is relevant and it is tied in to the Curriculum for Excellence. The next phase is aimed at secondary pupils; the first one was for primary. The new one is based on maps and how to read them. They will be running CPD sessions for teachers round Scotland and sending an eNewsletter to schools. They have been approached by the BL to do more work, based on demand for digital literacy. Alice Haywood is contact. Cleo asked what level the next stage is aimed at, Veronica does not know yet.

Ian said it needs more guidance on marking of individual sections rather than the completed end product to avoid plagiarism. He suggested using maps from World War 1 to tie in to centenary. He suggested starting from a particular topic and going to general.

Cleo talked about the Curriculum for Excellence  level 4 ‘Added value unit’ - added value, it has bumped up the importance of IL as they have to do a research project. There is a demand for info on Scottish topics, we could prepare for demand, it is easier to prepare centrally at NLS. Veronica – said that they are looking at resources to support teaching of Scots language in primary. The group also suggested Scottish scientists etc. Good if provided on websites. Teachers are assuming that the information is readily available without having checked. 

Cleo suggested that we invite an Education Scotland rep on this group. It is hard to get continuity as they move jobs. Who to approach? Cleo suggested Hilary Bombier (of Bearsden Academy), we will contact her.

What is in it for them? Mutual benefit....

Bill asked if we should write up this work as it progresses. It is a good opportunity as it is a distinctive project so should be documented. Christine and John agreed to progress this.

When will unit 4 start? This year. Cleo will send her info round.

Ian said that no consistent vocabulary is used in descriptors. Bill asked is this linked to intellectual development and independent learning. It may be a big win for government. There are problems with independent learning and transition to HE and FE. This would help link the sectors. Pupils don't understand transferable skills so a transcript is helpful listing skills such as teamwork.

Ian suggested using Future skills from Govan High, Veronica could take the marking and use in Blaster.

On occasions the Scottish Government have found that young researches rely heavily on Google and known authors. A subject focus helps a school pupil understand the relevance of IL.

Timescale for maps module end September. Victoria wants feedback, Cleo wants to be involved. The target audience also includes adult learners. Bill asked how is the CFE seen, is it enquiry based or traditional, varies by school. It is hard to get big picture.

Should we do questionnaire to School Librarians?  Christine suggested rerunning the previous survey.

Cleo can get feedback from her School Librarians for quick snapshot. There is a need to identify the drivers in schools. The documentation provided does not help. Ian asked what is planned for future? - A Scots language programme produced in partnership with DC Thompson online. Update project on blog.

Actions: Approach an Education Scotland rep and write up work so far - John and Christine.

Rerun survey of School Librarians and their involvement in CfE - Christine to look at

Funding is available for World War1 related projects. Queensferry High is near a big war grave, they are doing project work.

Web site and blog - Christine.

Christine has finished her projects so is doing more postings. Tweeting about posts, if you tweet from blog it adds your url. Christine will help with questions and permissions. We have 79 members  and 11 editors. Christine asked the group to please blog and thanked those who had. Abi has provided pic for home page which will be added to rolling pictures section once Christine works out how to do it. 

Ian voted thanks to Christine for hard work on blog.

Actions: Group to do blog postings - news, updates on projects etc. Marion to blog about PILOT news.

Dundee College IL training update 

Abi could not attend so we discussed the documents, the Executive lair one has good embedding of IL skills through the curriculum. There is a focus on transition to HE. We discussed the mergers of colleges in Scotland; it is all still a bit in flux, unsure of situation for libraries. Christine has been researching work placement in Scottish HE and FE. She did a survey - employers want IL skills but perhaps they are more seen as employability skills? Cleo suggested that someone should develop a qualification in this area Marion suggested that describing IL as employability skills works in all education sectors.

Bill said that we should not lose sight of social capital and wider benefits of IL skills. He said that the CoP should look at what it wanted to achieve in the long term. 

Actions: Abi aims to do a blog post about the projects in the next week or two.

 

CILIPS - IL Group and Partnership working. Ian.

Abi has put herself forward as an FE rep on the IL group but was unfortunately not successful

 

CILIPS and IL

Sean introduced himself as CILIPS new Policy and Digital Officer. He is new to CILIPS (7 weeks). SLIC and CILIPS have separated and now have different staff and offices. CILIPS want to connect strongly with members. Catherine Kearney (Director) and Sean are the CILIPS staff in Scotland. Sean will do the website and social media etc. They want to incorporate IL into their work. The CILIPS website won't duplicate what the CoP has but will have resources section and will link to the CoP and vice-a-versa. Best practice will be part of the their website. Christine suggested people are reluctant to contribute their practice as best practice as they are hard on themselves and were more comfortable if they were sharing practice.

The CILIPS Autumn gathering will be on Oct 10 (TBC) and will have two strands: school libraries and digital literacy. He wants ideas. There are area branches in Scotland with regular meetings – Sean suggested CoP members could talk about IL / CoP - Christine, John, Ruth Gould, Alice Haywood, Cleo and Marion all said they would be happy to do so. CILIPS is also planning a dissertation / researcher day (early Nov 2013) at which students and researchers can report on their work. This will include IL.  

CILIPS council has IL on agenda which will remain there as a permanent item, also digital literacy. They want council to be more open. Sean will provide email for us.

Sean talked about CPD. CPD training outside HE. There are events in autumn with an in depth programme next year IL will be a part of it. John suggested a course on communicating findings for public librarians – they are used to writing in report format, but not for other publications so we are missing a lot of good work being more widely shared. Christine highlighted CILIP Special Interest Group LIRG (Library and Information Research Group)’s ‘Writing for Publication Workshop’ which they could possible run in Scotland with CILIPS. Marion told the group about the upcoming CoPILOT workshop. Other suggestions included evaluation (Cleo); reflective writing (Christine) and SMILE and PILOT resources to share (Marion). Marion said that GCU had a Reflective Writing module. Bill said that info professionals also suffer from overload too, so how do we help them? Use as case study. Bill posed the question ‘Is Scotland an information literate society?’

Actions:

• If anyone would like to be involved or know more about any of the above CILIPS activities then contact Sean at sean.mcnamara@cilips.org.uk
• Sean to provide CILIPS Council email address.
• Marion to email Sean about upcoming CoPILOT workshop - Sean will promote it nearer the time.

Royal Society of Edinburgh Report “Spreading the benefits of digital participation” and Carnegie Trust Digital Participation report.

Cleo asked how do we sell the concept of the information literate citizen. it was suggested that we should try to get the RSE’s support, the digital participation report is at consultation stage, so should respond to the report. Bill said that we are in an information culture now so we should pursue this idea, Scottish culture is an information culture - look at Singapore, like them, people are our resources.

Carnegie trust focused on Glasgow and lack of use of Internet. No clear reasons were given, was Glasgow unique? Looked at different initiatives to address this, but no clear strategy emerged - many different groups with no cohesion. Is all Internet use of worthwhile quality – porn versus research? There is a lack of focus in report, general findings already well known. People need to work together. Not much follow up. Suggests issues still submerged....

Carnegie grant money is available, though just for research projects.

SLIC has a Digital Scotland Coordinator post - two year contract - see http://www.scottishlibraries.org/news/2013/5/30/digital-project-officer-recruitment.html and CoP blog posting about the new post and digital literacy funding http://www.therightinformation.org/blog/2013/6/4/scottish-government-awards-slic-digital-participation-fundin.html

Lindsay highlighted that they (Stirling Libraries) are looking at offering CV writing course but getting a provider is causing them problems. They looked at the SDS (Skills Development Scotland) resources (formerly Careers Scotland) but they only offer online CV help and they were looking for resources that were not online. It was pointed out that was the problem of people who are not confident with computer use being pushed to websites as this is the most “cost effective” way to deliver training. Ian said that he had developed paper based training materials which he will share.

 

Prioritisation - where are our efforts best applied? How do we challenge the most common assumptions (e.g. digital natives etc). Bill suggested we should try to highlight good local items to support our big ideas.

RSE report - they want evidence, John listed the areas required. IL not mentioned by name but areas cover IL issues. One is the use of info by SMEs. We should submit evidence. CILIPS will be submitting. A group response was discussed but as we have just over a week to respond it may be more practical to submit individually. Ian suggested we also check out strands of enquiry. They want a certain format. We should aim for as many as possible please – this would create a pattern. Bill suggested identifying a socioeconomic threshold below which people are not interacting with the Internet; challenging assumptions and provide evidence of the good things going on. Submission date 28th June. Bill suggested we put submissions on blog. The report will be published in November.

Actions: Group members to respond to RSE digital participation and to put copies of their submission on the blog.

Library and information research journal special issue - John

Abi has written an article, John talked us through the content. Bill is co-author of an article on IL and adult returners to higher education. Bill gave a short description of his survey and findings on approaches to learning by these students. Freely available on web check it out http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir 

European Conference on IL  2013

3 of us going (all things permitting!). Bill is presenting with Sheila Webber as an invited speaker. John will be talking about National Information Literacy policies - are they possible. Marion will be talking about using open educational resources to update PILOT and also helping with the CoPILOT workshop.

AOB

Laura has a new boss in post (Ann Louise Anglim) who has agreed they should still be involved in the group. She had hoped to attend this meeting but unfortunately she could not attend due to bereavement.

Next meeting.

Aiming for early November. 

Actions: John will liaise with Jenny / Morag to find a date where a room is available at Victoria Quay.

Evidence to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for their enquiry into digital participation

Dear all, copy evidence I have just submitted to RSE.

John

RSE Evidence: Spreading the benefits of digital participation

From Dr John Crawford, Chair, the Right Information:  Information Skills for a 21^st Century Scotland.

Before addressing some of the specific questions below I think it is important to be clear about what digital participation actually is about. Is it:

• A time limited exercise in the use of electronic technology, or
• A complex educational, learning, training and skills development exercise extending over several  years which needs to be  properly structured and supported

In other words is it about access and infrastructure issues or is it about the exploitation of information and learning opportunities.

The first view has informed such national projects as Connect Canada and Connect Australia and has resulted in the identification of the training needs which connectivity has raised (Gilton 2013).

It is, I think, helpful to see digital participation in the context of information literacy which has been defined by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) as:

 ‘Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.’ (CILIP 2004)

However information literacy is much more than about finding information.  Information literacy is about personal and civil rights, participative citizenship, lifelong learning, using technology wisely,  the reduction of the digital divide, skills and economic development, education and critical thinking and the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle.  These points are enshrined in two key policy documents, the Prague Declaration (UNESCO 2003) and the Alexandria Proclamation (Garner 2005). The principles stated in these documents link information literacy to wider human rights issues, specifically links it to the information society, civil rights, the closure of the digital divide, reduction of inequality, improvement in workplace performance and employability and skills development and a culture of lifelong, self administered  learning.

It also seems to be assumed that digital participation is a ‘good thing’ but how can this assumption be made if evidence of informed, purposive usage is lacking and there is no strategy to ensure that this is achieved.

These points RSE makes should inform key factors in your enquiry:

‘and how some people may require help, guidance and protection when going online.’ It will examine issues of skills and motivation,’

If Scotland in the future is a be a high economic performing, skilled, educated, socially inclusive, participative democracy, composed of healthy citizens then understanding how to access information and use  it discriminatingly are key factors.

To address the issues under the heading you list:

1 What do you think are the current benefits of digital participation and using the internet?        

These are well known and include: reduced costs through online booking; time/ money saved by virtual rather than physical visits; fast access to information; access to free and paid for online learning materials; internet shopping (especially useful in rural areas); job opportunities websites, access to information on politics and government to facilitate voting decisions; improved lifestyles for the disabled; a key support for lifelong learning.

2.What are the potential benefits?

Improved health of the nation as a result of using health information websites especially for those with long term or disabling conditions; better decision making in the workplace if people can access the right information. This is a particularly serious issue as the evidence suggests that poor information usage in the workplace is a cost to the economy (De Saulles 2007); more successful lifelong learning policies as information literacy is essential to lifelong learning.

3 How can these benefits be maximised
It is important to build on pre-existing activities and policies and co-ordinate them better. When I was directing the Scottish Information Literacy Project (2004-2010) my research assistant, Christine Irving and I developed the Scottish Information Literacy Framework Scotland which provides a framework of information literacy training extending from early years education through secondary and tertiary education to the workplace and to lifelong learning. See http://scotinfolit.squarespace.com/  There is a Scottish Health literacy framework and some good examples of collaboration between public libraries and health professionals to improve health literacy awareness. A culture of constructivist, independent learning also needs to be encouraged. The new Curriculum for Excellence and particularly the literacies components are a good basis for this but all these useful initiatives need to be co-ordinated and properly led. Louise Ballantyne’s work (2008) is a good example of this. While a huge amount of information is available to the Scottish public, both digitally and on paper, the quality of the information is extremely variable and it is necessary to address awareness raising and training issues as indicated below.  Training must be co-ordinated across all educational sectors, in the workplace and throughout lifelong learning and should focus on long term benefits, not short term needs. While it its true, for example, that information literacy is widely provided in Scottish higher education and this is the most successful sector in information literacy training it must focus on the development of employability skills which can be carried over into the workplace and used there.  A recent American study (Head 2012) shows that information literacy skills taught in American higher education are too ‘academic’ and not related to workplace needs.

4. How can the benefits be promoted?          

First of all Scotland needs a national information literacy policy to identify needs and offer a co-ordinated response. Targeted training and awareness are the keys. This already happens to some extent, thanks to the excellent work by community learning and development staff and public librarians, often working together. The example of the work done by Inverclyde Library staff is a good example (Crawford and Irving 2012). There is a need for awareness raising among NHS staff who must be trained to be aware of the value of health literacy and recommend these skills to patients. We will never have information literate school children until we have information literate school teachers and trainee teachers should receive information literacy training so they can pass on their skills to pupils.

5. How could Scotland benefit from wider digital participation and use of the internet?                     

 A key factor here is skills development and employability. Most businesses are small ones composed of staff with little training on how to use information to support their work. This is probably the sector most in need of training. It is however important not to see digital participation and information literacy skills solely as a form of utilitarian education. Cultural, intellectual life, constructive recreation  and self realisation achieved through a lifelong learning agenda must also be supported.  

Obstacles

6. What risks do you associate to digital participation?

The research which has been done in the area of workplace information literacy suggests that information literacy skills in SMEs is poor and is detrimental to economic development.  This matter does not receive systematic attention anywhere in the UK and to highlight it and suggest the need for action could be useful and also groundbreaking.  However what training is needed and who should provide it are major issues. Training for SME staffs needs to be highly targeted and there is evidence that SMEs are unsure of their own training needs and it is undoubtedly the case that many SME employees will be unaware of what information literacy activity is even if they are actually engaging in it; as indicated above information skills among teachers is currently poor; issues to be with Internet safety are well known and should be included in this debate.

7. How can such risks be addressed?  

Risks are best addressed at school age and school librarians could provide Internet awareness risk training in conjunction with class teachers. More generally it is necessary to carry out research to identify the training needs of different sectors of the population.  Public librarians and community learning and development staff are best placed to address these issues with adults. While generic training is useful targeted training programmes for specific needs are required and market segmentation issues need to be addressed. The workplace and developing employability skills are very different markets. For basic IT and Information literacy training to develop employability and life skills training task forces, developed from existing initiatives would be a good idea. 

8. What prevents you from using digital technologies and the internet?                                                

Lack of training opportunities on advanced aspects of IT methods

Incentives

9. What could be done to increase your use of digital technologies and the internet?

More training opportunities

10. What incentives could be used to increase digital participation?

It is, I think, necessary to do market research to identify areas of need. As I have already indicated SMEs are an obvious example.   The provision of free, targeted programmes in areas of identified need is necessary.  A good exemplar is the Welsh Information Literacy Project, itself based on the Scottish Information Literacy Project (Eynon 2013). It has developed an information literacy training programme for Wales which is linked to educational and social welfare policies. It has organised training for public librarians in IT/information literacy training and trained staff are now beginning to roll out training to the general public. Head teachers are being targeted to be made aware of the benefits of information literacy and departments of education are being contacted to promote the benefits of information literacy skills to trainee teachers. 

The need for a training culture and evaluation culture

Scotland already has a well established culture of training as evidenced by such bodies as Skills Development Scotland, Careers Scotland, community learning and development trainers and the good work being done by public librarians.  This latter is capable of considerable expansion but would require something of a cultural change among public librarians which would have to become more like educators and trainers and less service providers, something which has already happened in higher education. This has training implication for the staff concerned but could have public benefit. The need for this change of culture has been championed by Ronan O’Beirne in his pioneering book:  From lending to learning. (2010).

Finally evaluation of all activities undertaken need to be done in order to establish that digital participation is effective, i.e. making a measurable difference to the lives of the people of Scotland.

Summary points

• Recognition that the long term issue is an education and skills development one
• C0-oridnated planning is needed
• A segmented, targeted training agenda is needed
• Evaluation is required to find out what progress has been/is being made

I hope you will be able to include some of these points in your final report

References

Ballantyne, L. (2008) Real and Relevant – Information Literacy Skills for the 21st Century Learner, available at: http://wayback.archive-it.org/1961/20100625210259/http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/slf/previousconferences/2008/seminars/a2e.asp 

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (2004)  Information literacy definition. London: CILIP. Available at http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/advocacy/learning/information-literacy/Pages/definition.aspx

Crawford, J. and Irving, C. (2009) Information literacy in the workplace: a qualitative exploratory study, Journal of librarianship and information science (41), 29-38 Available at http://lis.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/1/29?etoc

De Saulles, M. (2007) Information literacy amongst UK SMEs: an information policy gap.  Aslib proceedings, 59 (1) 68-79.

Eynon, A.  (2013) Welsh Information Literacy Project, Library and information research, 37, 114, 17-22

Garner, S.D. (2005) High-Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. Available from: http://www.ifla.org/publications/high-level-colloquium-on-information-literacy-and-lifelong-learning

Gilton, D.L. (2012) Lifelong learning in public libraries: principles, programs, and people. Lanham: Scarecrow.  

Head, A. (2012) How college graduates solve information problems once they join the workplace. Project information Literacy Research Report.  Available at  http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_fall2012_workplaceStudy_FullReport.pdf

O’Beirne, R.  (2010) From lending to learning: the development and extension of public libraries. Oxford: Chandos.

UNESCO (2003) The Prague Declaration: towards an information literate society. Prague: UNESCO.  Available at: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/19636/11228863531PragueDeclaration.pdf/PragueDeclaration.pdf

Dr. John Crawford, BA, MA, PhD, FCLIP, FSA (Scot),

Chair, Information Skills for a 21^st Century Scotland,

Email  johncrawford705@yahoo.co.uk 

Information skills for a 21^st century Scotland  http://scotinfolit.squarespace.com/

View my Linked in profile at http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=10596570

27.6.13