Conference Announcement – 5th Information: Interactions and Impact (i³), 23-26 June 2015

The 5th Information: Interactions and Impact (i³), 23-26 June 2015 at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland has been announced. It is a biennial event. 

This is a great conference and I've put the dates in my diary as I plan to attend plus hopefully present a paper based on the PhD by Published Works that I'm starting next month at Edinburgh Napier University. 

i³ focuses on the quality and effectiveness of the interaction between people and information and how this interaction can bring about change.

Conference themes include:

• the quality and effectiveness of user/information interactions (e.g. information literacies);
• patterns of information behaviour in different contexts (e.g. creativity, ethics, surveillance, ownership, information recycling/reuse);
• the social, cultural and economic impacts of engagement with information, including the assessment of impact;
• the value of information and knowledge as enablers of resilience and change in organisations and communities.

Further details are available on our i³ 2015 website – http://www.rgu.ac.uk/i3conference2015.  If you would like to register your interest and receive further alerts, please email the conference team at i3information@rgu.ac.uk.

You can also follow i3 conference activities and news on Twitter i3 conference

Hope to see a few of the Community of Practice members there. 

Developing People's Information Capabilities Fostering Information Literacy in Educational, Workplace and Community Contexts - book review

I recently reviewed Mark Hepworth and Geoff Walton's book. You can see/read the review at Christine Irving, (2014) "Developing People's Information Capabilities Fostering Information Literacy in Educational, Workplace and Community Contexts", Aslib Journal of Information Management, Vol. 66 Iss: 4, pp.464 - 465

As the review is published I can post "the version of the article that has been accepted for publication (post-print)" with the following statement included: 

"This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here (www.the rightinformation.org). Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited." - See more at www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/authors/writing/author_rights.htm#sthash.8OiHLFuW.dpuf

Book Review: Developing People's Information Capabilities Fostering Information Literacy in Educational, Workplace and Community Contexts

This book is informative, interesting and thought provoking. As the editors state it provides an indication of ‘the rich diversity of information literacy and information behaviour carried out’. It demonstrates how people’s information capabilities can and are being developed in a multitude of ways. It shows that information literacy is multifaceted and ‘approached from different perspectives, such as, cultural, cognitive, behavioural or focusing on the information landscape and people’s knowledge of and interaction with information artefacts, people and other ways of being informed.’

The chapters are diverse and wide ranging with authors from four continents including well known international experts in the field but also new authors who have carried out research in both the developing world and emerging economies. There are fifteen chapters in total and they are organised into four areas: strategic view; delivering information literacy education; the link between university and work; beyond higher education.

Each chapter brings an interesting, informative and often fascinating aspect/s to the reader. Whilst there were many aspects  or contexts that I was familiar with and advocate about this did not distract from my knowledge or understanding but reinforced it or made me think about thinks in a different way or in more depth. These included  information literacy’s relationship to lifelong learning, information environments / landscapes and peoples’ experiences of information and the multitude of formats it comes in for different people and environments. Also other facets like, its link to organisational culture (in the workplace and in educational institutions), civic society and citizenship and personal motivation. Some contexts and theories were not familiar to me and I welcomed the opportunity to explore these and file these away for possible use.

There is great depth to this book and the practitioner narratives as well as the theoretical discussions gives the reader much to think about. There is much that academics, students and practitioners can learn from including different research methods and how the developing nations have used previous research from other experienced individuals / nations to inform their practice. This in turn should inform theory and practice. It is refreshing to hear from authors and countries that are not well known for their information literacy research and or practice, such as: Africa, the Far East, South America and Canada.  It is also good to hear from experts and the direction their thinking or research is taking them. We can all learn from each other and I would recommend that the reader reads all the chapters not just the ones that seem to reflect their area of interest, work / sector or country. 

Some of the chapters have illustrations, most are helpful however I found the small print size on some of them annoying and a couple of times the location of the illustration interrupted my flow of reading by being on the next page.

Whilst this book is likely to attract those interested in information literacy, it should also be of interest to those interested in people’s information behaviour and capabilities and how this has implications for strategies for helping them develop people’s information literacy.  I would also recommend it to anyone interested or involved in the wider aspects of information provision and use. It is an ideal text book for students and an inspiring reference book for practitioners. 

The editors are to be commended for the contribution this book makes particularly to the field of information literacy, sharing with us the diverse rich tapestry of research and practice taking place in areas and contexts that few have recognised or ventured into. Also highlighting / reminding us of the links with information behaviour and capabilities. This made the book, informative and thought provoking as well as an enjoyable and fascinating read. One that I will return to and explore varies chapters, aspects or concepts further in aid of my practice, networks and forthcoming studies relating to information literacy and lifelong learning.

At Sea in a Deluge of Data

At Sea in a Deluge of Data  is an interesting article by Alison Head and John Wihbey in The Chronicle of Hhigher Education. 

I heard Alison speak at LILAC 2014 - her research looking at student IL capabilities reflect my findings from 2007. Her latest employer research findings again reflect mine  The role of information literacy in addressing a specific strand of lifelong learning: the work agenda. 

"after interviewing 23 people in charge of hiring at leading employers like Microsoft, KPMG, Nationwide Insurance, the Smithsonian, and the FBI. This research was part of a federally funded study for Project Information Literacy, a national study about how today’s college students find and use information.

Nearly all of the employers said they expected candidates, whatever their field, to be able to search online, a given for a generation born into the Internet world. But they also expected job candidates to be patient and persistent researchers and to be able to retrieve information in a variety of formats, identify patterns within an array of sources, and dive deeply into source material.

Most important, though, employers said they need workers who can collaborate with colleagues to solve problems and who can engage in thoughtful analysis and integrate contextual organizational details rarely found online.

Many employers said their fresh-from-college hires frequently lack deeper and more traditional skills in research and analysis. Instead, the new workers default to quick answers plucked from the Internet. That method might be fine for looking up a definition or updating a fact, but for many tasks, it proved superficial and incomplete.

It turns out that students are poorly trained in college to effectively navigate the Internet’s indiscriminate glut of information."

Of particular interest is that "employers said they need workers who can collaborate with colleagues to solve problems and who can engage in thoughtful analysis and integrate contextual organizational details rarely found online." I highlight this as it reminds me that John Crawford a former colleague and CoP founder member often points out that information literacy in the workplace is not an individual pursuit but one done in collaboration with colleagues as part of a team. The other important issue is the integratation of contextual organizational details rarely found online. So often we hear managers in educational institutions say that we don't need a library as everything is on the internet, as they justify closing the library and doing away with the post of librarian.

Other quotes that I liked where:

• the hardest part of research is figuring out the question to ask.
• knowledge in action," a kind of athletics of the mind aided by Internet-enabled devices, search engines, and pools of data from a wide variety of outlets.
• Knowledge in action means being able to sort through that growing thicket of information. This is a lifelong learning skill, crucial to health, wealth, social equality, and well-being. In an era of partisan fog and the polarization of many subjects, it is a skill vital for effective citizenship.

WSIS Knowledge Community IL Resource Directory

Thanks to Albert K. Boekhorst for pointing to this directory in response to an enquiry on LIS-INFOLITERACY@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

The directory is part of the WSIS Knowledge Community and according to the website the purpose of the platform that the Community sits on

"is to facilitate information gathering and exchange, and common development of ideas and projects among the multi-stakeholder team for each Action Line through collaborative and community oriented online tools." 

The community has several sections inccluding: activities, communities, announcemnets, blogs and members. The Directory List with 1306 entries on Information Literacy Resources. According to Albert it is the successor to InfolitGlobal. To see the full content you need to log in as a member. If you are not a member then you can register from the web page.  

Developing Digital Literacies for a Digital World - ALISS agm speaker papers now available

Catching up on some email alerts that I thought would be of interest to the CoP and articles that I need to add to my to read pile. 

ALISS AGM 2014: Developing Digital Literacies for a Digital World papers now accessible. 

• Reflecting on Digital Scholarship competencies -  Dr Charles Inskip reports on the Rilads Project which has been examining the delivery of digital information literacy skills in UK Higher education.

• Start with the Staff -Sally Patalong provides insight into the digital fluency initiative at Coventry University- a practical project to upskill the library staff.

• Information literacy for researchers at SOAS - Beth Clark and Victoria Bird discuss their work in preparing, delivering and promoting digital literacy training for trainee Graduate Teaching Assistants at SOAS

For information about  ALISS see their website