Welsh Information Literacy Project
Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 12:24PM On Monday 28th January I attended a meeting of the Welsh Information Literacy Project at a college in Rhos on Sea in North Wales. The Project is now in its third year and plans to seek funding from Cymal, the body in Wales which funds LIS R&D, for a fourth year.
There were short presentations on public, school, further and HE libraries. Those on public and school libraries were the most interesting. In Gwynedd public library service, four staff are taking Level 2-3 training units (Agored Units) in information literacy. This pilot is intended to develop consistency in IL training for public librarians. Gwynedd is one of five local authorities running pilot projects on developing IL skills for library staff. Anglesey public library service is running training sessions for local people, mostly on family and local history in conjunction with tutors from a community learning and development partnership.
Information literacy champions are being appointed in all public library services to assist in the delivery of training, to keep staff up to date with IL developments and ensure that local plans are consistent with national planning.
On the school library front a secondary school in Holyhead is using IL techniques to develop the skills of children who are poor readers, something not unlike Abi Mawhirt’s work at Dundee College.
IL awareness meetings have been held with head teachers and contact is being make with two university departments of education to raise IL awareness of trainee teachers before they go out on placement.
There are a lot of lessons for us to learn here: IL champions in public libraries, standardised training units for public librarians and meeting with head teachers and university departments of education. Full details of the day are available at
John