Scottish Government awards SLIC Digital Participation funding

Great news of SLIC's Digital Funding - see announcment below. Hopefully information literacy will play a key role in any of the digital initiatives.

"The Scottish Government has awarded the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) additional funding to support digital participation initiatives as part of the implementation of the national digital strategy.

SLIC will receive an additional £90,000 in the next two years to support two specific digital participation projects.

The first of these will see the creation of an online resource for directing users towards digital engagement opportunities and online learning sessions, such as the IT classes offered by libraries.

This project will be based on data collected during the highly successful BBC First Click campaign, combined with resources held by SLIC.

As part of the second project, libraries will be more deeply linked to the Scottish Government Digital Participation Action Group (DPAG) through the appointment of a dedicated coordinator, working between SLIC and the Scottish Government.

SLIC Company Secretary and interim CEO, Moira Methven, said: “SLIC is delighted that the integral role of public libraries in supporting the digital participation agenda has been recognised by the Scottish Government.

“Scotland’s public libraries have an established track record in offering digital engagement opportunities and in supporting our communities – even those groups considered hard to reach – to access technology, and to experience the benefits of going online.

“SLIC is looking forward to working with colleagues in the Scottish Government and in public libraries across the country to support the implementation of our national digital strategy.”

The Scottish Government published Scotland’s Digital Future – A Strategy for Scotland in March 2011, and a progress report was published in March 2012 laying out key actions for digital participation, which have libraries at the centre.

Work is currently underway on both SLIC projects and further details will be released shortly Scottish Government awards SLIC Digital Participation funding

Digital literacy, digitally literate’ learners

Thanks to Anthony Beal eLearning Adviser at Jisc RSC Northwest (England) for his LIS-INFOLITERACY@JISCMAIL.AC.UK post 13 May which alerted me to his blog postings about digital literacy which is a key topic at the moment.

"We told our teacher we didn’t need you here!  How can we help today’s ‘digitally literate’ learners critically evaluate online sources? - http://jiscrsc.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2013/05/digitally-literate/

By means of discussions and group activities learners should discover for themselves the need to evaluate sources found on the Internet. These materials can be used directly with learners or as staff development materials.

The post contains a link to materials that support the workshop, including a session plan and and leaflets."

Other blog posts that are interesting are:

• A need for improving digital literacy

• JISC RSC support for digital literacy
  

CDG Scotland Job Shadowing

On Wednesday I was working with CDG Scotland's Candidate Support Officer to deliver a workshop on Reflective Writing for Chartership and I heard about a new initiative Job Shadowing initative from CDG Scotland that I thought was a great idea. See below for details. Althoug it is aimed at chartership candidates I think it is something that would be beneficial to everyone. 

CDG Scotland Job Shadowing

Worried about demonstrating a knowledge of the wider
professional context in your portfolio?

Want to find out more about different LIS sectors?

A network of professionals in library and information sectors
across Scotland is available to help.

Shadowing a fellow professional in a different sector to your
own gives you the chance to:

• Discuss another LIS sector in your portfolio to demonstrate
your knowledge of the wider professional context
• Consider options for your future career path
• Meet and network with other professionals

If you're interested in shadowing an LIS professional then
please contact cmesser@easlothian.gov.uk with details of your
location and the sector of interest to you and we can check the
database to find a suitable match for you.

We are always interested in expanding our database of
professionals willing to offer the chance for fellow professionals
to shadow them on the job. If you would be interested in
providing this opportunity to fellow professionals or LIS
students then please contact cmesser@eastlQthian.gov.uk for
more information.

Gin and tonic: making Boolean fun

I have been catching up on my reading and came across this short piece in the March CILIP Update by Emily Houghton. In the piece she describes how she came across an example of how a librarian taught his university students about Boolean operators using the folowing approach

Gin and whiskey bottles were acquired and filled with plain or coloured water. A bottle of tonic water and several glasses were also brought in.

We always start any presentations concerning a tool that requires Boolean searching, explaining and, or and not. We now begin this discussion with explaining how bartenders use Boolean logic every day to fill their customers' mixed drink orders.

Using this inspiration Emily created a poster taking inspiration from this asking for a drink approach

• Gin AND Tonic
• Gin OR Tonic
• Gin NOT Tonic
• Tonic NOT Gin

This has led Emily to think about other combinations such as using chocolate e.g chocolate AND milk AND nut NOT fruit.

As the article says

You will have much more success when you are teaching students how to improve their internet search results using Boolean operators if you use some tasty, memorable examples from everyday life.

I can see this being used across the sectors not just with university students. I certainly know lots of people who could relate to the  chocolate and the asking for a drinks approach.

A former colleague, a school librarian from a school in Stirling used to use William Wallace as her Boolean examples as the Wallace munument was on their door step.

My thanks to Emily for highlighting this. If you are going to Umbrella look out for Emily.

N.B. They must be using Irish whiskey bottles and not Scotch whisky in the quoted example.

Researcher infoliteracy - beyond the "how to do it" training

Just in case you have missed it. There has been an interesting discussion going on in LIS-INFOLITERACY on Researcher Infoliteracy - beyond the "how to do it" training. I particualry liked Emma Coonan's contribution. Whilst Emma works with university students I think what she says is relevant to all IL training regardless of the sector. See what you think.

She also highlights a jigsaw graphic that she has come across that is related to information literacy landscape which I liked. I'm a fan of information literacy landscape having working in different landscapes / environments e.g. different professions, in different posts and at diferent career stages, different employers and using different levels of IL skills and competencies related to the landscape / environment and my own competencies at that time. Moira Bent talks about information literacy landscapes. The jigsaw also reminds me of a reference to information literacy being multifaceted like a Rubric cube where Susie Andretta was talking about a wide range of IL articles in an edition of JIL (Journal of Information Literacy) from different sectors with different view points.

"I've been aiming for some years now to realign my research skills sessions from the procedural "how to" towards the reflective "why", and the most useful insight I've gained is: think process, not product (or if you prefer: research, not resource). Rather than offering sessions on individual resources, my courses are called "How to do a literature search", "How to decode your reading list", "Referencing without tears" and similar. They are designed to support various aspects and phases of doing study and research, and as such they naturally introduce useful sources and tools for each process. However, they also aim to spark discussion of choices and values. Why might this particular resource be a useful one for you? Concomitantly, what are its limitations for what you're working on?

This approach means that I always offer options - a range of resources to support a particular phase in the process, never just one. As a result, it's up to the individual student or researcher to identify what each resource has to offer and make an informed choice according to their own needs, which are determined by the context in which they're working at the time. This hands the agency and the responsibility back to the student. It recognises that every information context is different, and that the person who is the 'expert' in that context is the individual student/researcher - not the librarian. It means that I can
suggest tools and resources, but not mandate their use. It means I don't frame Google (/Scholar) as some kind of competition, but as an information source which like all information sources has drawbacks and limitations. It's grounded in a belief that I'm not here to give people answers, but to support them in framing questions.
 
I think relinquishing our status as 'experts' who have the answers and tell students 'how to' is vital if we want to move towards becoming partners in the research process, and instead invite them to consider 'why'. That relinquishment of expert status is a difficult move to make as it seems to undermine our most cherished identity as librarians, but I do believe that for a host of reasons - most important of which is supporting research excellence - it's an attitudinal change we must make.

To come back to practicalities : ) I use this jigsaw graphic (https://librariangoddess.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/research-jigsaw/) with postgraduate students as a way of showing where information-handling behaviours and values fit withing learning journey. It's handy because it illustrates recognisable aspects of the research process alongside some less familiar ones, which may be threshold concepts in themselves, and it helps me situate what I talk about in a way that makes it more relevant to what they're doing as researchers." Emma Coonan