Community of Practice Minutes - 14th November 2014

The minutes from the Community of Practice Meeting on the 14th November 2014 are now availbale to view at http://www.therightinformation.org/meetings-files/. 

Great meeting with lots of sharing. 

Thanks to everyone who attend and to Laura Hogg, Librarian, School Library Outreach, The Mitchell Library, Glasgow for the minutes. 

CILIP Conference 2015 - call for papers now open - themes includes information literacy

CILIP Conference 2015 will take place on 2-3 July 2015 at St George’s Hall, Liverpool. The call for papers is now open.

Proposals for presentation are invited from within and outside of the profession on the four main themes for this year’s conference:

1. Information Management: building success
2. Information literacy and digital inclusion
3. Demonstrating value: what’s your impact?
4. Digital futures and technology

The closing date for entries is Monday 5 January 2015. 

You can also register your interest and receive updates about the conference. If you have any questions please contact a member of the events team at events@cilip.org.uk

International literacy day and the importance of libraries in promoting all forms of literacy

I must confess I missed international literacy day but catching up on my emails today I see that CILIP's Guy Daines wrote a piece on the day to stress the importance of libraries in promoting all these forms of literacy international literacy day: the library's role in promoting literacies

In it he says that

"It reminds us that promoting and sustaining literacy is one of the critical roles of libraries. Our strength lies in the fact that we are really about literacies, all those skills individuals need to participate effectively in an information society. Reading ability may be at the centre of this but digital and information literacies are also essential life skills of today and underpin lifelong learning. Libraries provide a holistic approach embracing all these literacies (and often others such as health or financial literacy) and so help equip the citizen, consumer, employee and learner of today."

He highlights that "CILIP is focusing on digital inclusion and also information literacy in the workplace through its Information Literacy Project, chaired by CILIP President, Barbara Band. But it is conscious of the interdependencies between the various literacies and the need for them all if people are to engage effectively in today’s society."

it is always good to see Scotland getting a mention and recognition of the work we have been doing and Guy does this.

 "Wales and Scotland are both a step ahead with their respective national information literacy strategies." There is also mention of the Society of Chief Librarians in England who have apparently developed the four public library universal offers – reading, digital, health and information".  Need to have a look at the later when I have time. 

Further Education sector page is now live on informationliteracy.org.uk!

The information literacy website now has a a further Education sector page at  www.informationliteracy.org.uk/information-literacy/further-education/ 

I like its title Further Education is unique ... just like everybody else: the sector that prides itself in its diversity.

The Information Literacy group is asking those in the Further Education sector to: 

Share your information literacy strategy 

A rapidly changing environment, combined with scarce resources, necessitates careful planning and decisions over priorities. Below is an anonymous example of an information literacy strategy that was created for an FE service. If you have a strategy that you would be prepared to share please send it to the ILG group.

The website has an example of an information literacy strategy for FE.

It reminded me of work that I was involved in re FE / Colleges in Scotland in 2009 with the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) in the production of a service development and self-evaluation framework for library and information services in Scottish Further Education (FE) colleges that included information literacy.

The framework states that:

College library services offer: 
• Access to a wide range of information in a range of formats 
• Support for attainment across the college community 
• Support for the development of information literacy 
• Assistance with effective utilisation of ICT in learning and teaching 
• Knowledge and skills in promoting reading for enjoyment 
• Support for personal and social development and citizenship skills 
• The type of flexible learning environment which can encourage independent learning 
• Access to structured information skills programmes to develop critical thinking skills.

The framework is now in its 4th iteration see http://www.scottishlibraries.org/sectors-fe-se/

See also a blog posting by myself from the 2009. 
http://www.therightinformation.org/framework-blog-home/2012/6/1/scottish-further-education-colleges-service-development-and.html

Great internet age divide is a myth: children no better with technology than adults, claims Google scientist

This recent Herald newspaper article Great internet age divide is a myth by Andrew Denholm brought a knowing smile to my lips.

The article was about Dr Dan Russell a senior research scientist for internet search company Google, who was 'visiting Scotland to deliver a lecture in the importance of digital literacy at Strathclyde University, Glasgow'. 

He said: "There is a myth about the digital native and the Google generation kid who, because they are young, are seen as being more computer literate than their parents, but that is totally wrong.

"Kids can be very fluid and fast with computers, but they are only fast when they are doing something they have had a lot of practice in."

Haven't we been saying that since the digital generation was first spouted? 

The article goes on to say that

'Mr Russell said research showed the way younger users of technology learned skills came from interactions with their friends rather than formal education.

"This is a huge disservice because, certainly in the US, lots of colleges have stopped their information retrieval courses and they assume falsely that students know this stuff and I think it is pretty clear they don't."

Sound familiar? I'm sure it does. What springs to mind is head teachers who don't think schools need school libraries or school librarians - just a computer centre, as everything is on the internet and young people know have to use computers ... 

As he says "We are doing a terrible disservice to our students by not making research a crucial element of the curriculum. It has to be because, in a world where these things are changing rapidly, if you don't have the skills to be able to keep up you will be stuck in the past." I would endorse that but also include information literacy as a crucial element. 

According to the article 'Mr Russell's talk explored the changing definition of literacy at a time when it is possible to search billions of texts in milliseconds over the internet.' and that:

"Although you might think literacy is one of the great constants that transcends the ages, the skills of a literate person have changed substantially over time as texts and technology allow for new kinds of reading and understanding.

"Knowing how to frame a question, pose a query, how to interpret the texts you find, how to organise and use the information you discover are all critical parts of being literate as well."

Sounds like information literacy to me ....

I looked at the online article comments - not surprisingly they were about computers and programming in my opion completely missing the skills point.