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