Scottish Information Literacy Project finishes at Glasgow Caledonian University

The Scottish Information Literacy Project comes to a close at Glasgow Caledonian University after five very successful years, having worked in partnership with cross sector partners in secondary and tertiary education, the world of work and the wider community, relevant non governmental agencies such as Learning and Teaching Scotland,  the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework, Scottish Qualifications Authority, Skills Development Scotland, Ofcom Scotland and professional bodies.

During this time the project successfully gained funding to work on research and development projects including the creation and development of a National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland). The project was asked to speak on many occasions at conferences, meetings and seminars plus successfully organised and ran three open meetings for the project partners and interested parties bring together cross sector organisations.

Discussions are taking place to keep the project blog and website at the university as they are a record of the projects work plus a valuable resource and move the National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland) to a new home so that the framework can continue to develop.

We would like to thank the project partners, interested parties and colleagues at Glasgow Caledonian University who generously gave their time, expertise and support to the project in their efforts to gain funding and then deliver the objectives.

Whilst the project at Glasgow Caledonian University has come to an end our involvement in information literacy has not.   We are currently co-writing a book chapter on information literacy in the workplace and plan to co-author a book based on the project work and experience. There are also articles to write about the project work and we will continue to contribute to the Scottish Government Community of Practice Creating an information literate Scotland. For anyone interested in joining the CoP email Lesley.Thomson@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or Jenny.Foreman@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

A project email account has been set up at scotinfolit@googlemail.com  if anyone wishes to contact us.

 

Christine Irving & John Crawford

April 2010

Librarians' Information Literacy Annual Conference (LILAC) 2010

This years LILAC took place in Limerick with both John Crawford and myself presenting the last of the Scottish Information Literacy Projects which appropriately dealt with:

• Begin at the Beginning: Information and Critical Literacy in Curriculum for Excellence Early & First Level (Nursery and Primary Schools) (powerpoint presentation) Begin at the beginning - Information Literacy in primary schools  (presentation abstract) - Christine Irving


• Employability and information literacy: a review of a training programme (abstract) Information literacy in employability training: the experience of Inverclyde Libraries. Evaluating a training programme (powerpoint presentation).  - John Crawford

The sessions were well attended and in true project style dealing with little covered information literacy areas / issues. The work of the project was acknowledged by project partners Lesley Thomson, Jenny Foreman and Morag Higgison, and Andy Jackson and by Bob Glass from Manchester Metropolitan University (didn’t realise that Bob was musical until I heard him play the guitar and sing at the networking evening)) who chaired John’s session.

Lesley’s presentation Developing an information literacy community of practice in Scotland was really interesting and I plan to continue participating in the community despite the end of the project and would recommend others to join. Just email Lesley.Thomson@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or Jenny.Foreman@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Jenny and Morag’s presentation Scottish Government information literacy in the work place - measuring impact gave an insight into their information literacy work within the Scottish Government and their investigation measuring the impact. Ralph Catts (Senior Research Fellow at Stirling Institute of Education) one of the keynote speakers attended their session and commended them for evaluating what they were doing as it would be important in the difficult times ahead. Unfortunately I didn’t get to hear his entire keynote ‘Evaluating the Impact of Information Literacy’ as I had a plane to catch. I did hear the other keynotes including Tony Durcan Head of Culture, Libraries and Lifelong Learning for Newcastle City Council who spoke about the role of  information literacy and public libraries ‘Information is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools and public health’

Andy Jackson was as ever thought provoking in his session / workshop Just enough education to perform: Information skills, professionalism and employability. He certainly made those who attended think as he suggested that HE needs to look further at graduate attributes and refocus their information skills teaching more towards the graduate. He cited the work of “Simon Barrie (2006; 2008) and others on concepts of ‘graduateness’ places information skills at the heart of what it is to be a graduate”. He also highlighted that HE should

• seek ways of engaging with the professions


• offer focused training


• make connections with local employment forums, skills agencies etc


• develop the workplace information profession.

The workshop activities he had us doing included thinking about What professional skills did we learn which have been useful in our career? And What attitudes or values did we feel we developed through attending University?. The next activity was we had to select an information skills activity from a list of six he gave us (the group I was in selected – Effective Internet searching) we were also given two Graduate Attributes (we had Develop enterprise skills and commercial awareness and Hold a perspective that acknowledges local, national and international concerns) which we were to build into a learning activity. Then we had to create a brief plan for our learning activity. The examples given in the feedback were interesting and I hope people went away and as Andy suggested actively sought out what their university was doing regarding garduateness and employability and engage with it demonstrating the role of the library / librarians.

Other presentations I attended included Geoff Walton’s ‘Having a shufti: using focus group findings to map unchartered territory in the information literacy landscape’ – informative as ever in relation to the learning support tool ASK (Assignment Survival Kit) http://www.staffs.ac.uk/ask/  I also attended Ruth Stubbing and Jo Myhill’s presentation Developing librarians as teachers to enhance the learner experience to hear about SirLearnaLot an online tutorial that aims to help library staff enhance their understanding of pedagogy so that they can feel confident in designing and delivering teaching.

There were a couple of interesting Posters:

• So-Young Kim (University of Tokyo) - What are the Post-Effects of Japan's National Curriculum Standards? : Inquiry based Learning and Elementary School Libraries. So-Young Kim attended my presentation and was very interested in the work I was doing in schools.


• Katherine Reedy (Open University) - i-know  at the OU: information skills for the 21st century workplace. I have posted about this work previously.


• Sheila Corrall (University of Sheffield)  - Mapping Information Literacy Strategy. Sheila has done a lot of work in this area.

The project also got national mentions from both Wales and Ireland. A mention from Cathie Jackson (Cardiff University) who in her presentation An information literacy strategy for Wales: towards a national framework acknowledged that their inspiration came from the Scottish Information Literacy Project. Great news that they have got nine months funding to employ a project officer to take things forward for them and I wish them all the best. Ireland has also been inspired by the project and Dr Philip Cohen (Head of Library Services, Dublin Institute of Technology) attended both the project sessions and Lesley Thomson’s session on the community of practice in Scotland. I spoke to Philip and Siobhán Fitzpatrick the President of the Library Association of Ireland at the conference dinner and Siobhán gave us a mention in her address after the conference dinner. It is great to think that we have inspired so many people and countries.

It was also good to hear the minister who opened the conference that information literacy was a key support for lifelong learning and that the role of librarian and education was crucial at this time for developing the individual.

Christine Irving  scotinfolit@googlemail.com

Practical Pedagogy for Library Instructors

I have recently been reading Practical Pedagogy for Library Instructors: 17 Innovative Strategies to Improve Student learning edited by Douglas Cook and Ryan L. Sittler and wanted to share a few of my thoughts about it.

I was attracted to this book as I feel that it is important for librarians and information professionals to be aware of and have an understanding of pedagogic issues when involved in information literacy skills sessions / courses / teaching.

It starts with a bit of theory and two major pedaogical paradigms:

1. Direct Instruction strategies when you need to present information for students as efficiently and as effectively as possible


2. Student-Centered Learning strategies when you want to stress student engagement with learning

It asks the question of "Why should you, as a librarian, be concerned about educational theory and pedagogical practices? and "the short the answer is that how you teach makes a difference in what your students learn" .

The key messages from the first chapter is:

First, decide what you would like your students to learn, and then you can determine how to move your students towards your desired outcome. learning about various educational theories and related teaching strategies can give you the tools you need as an instructor to assist students in reaching your intended learning outcomes.

Begin your lesson planning by deciding whether the learning opportunity calls for Direct Instruction or Student-Centered Learning. Pg 17 & 18

The two pedagogies are discussed at some length but the main strength for me in this chapter is the really useful overview of these laid out in a table. From this you can see that Direct Instruction (Objectivist) is linked to Cognitive and Behavioural theories of learning where knowledge is fixed and needs to be acquired. Very much teacher led. Student-Centered Learning (Constructivist) is linked to Situated and Critical theories of learning where knowledge is constantly changing and is built upon what participants contribute and construct together. Learning is contextual and instructional strategies include life-based projects / life related situations.

In our information literacy advocacy work I certainly recognise more of the later strategy / learning theories as we engage in conversations using examples that are situated within individuals own environment (profession, subject, sector etc.) as information literacy means different things to different people in different environments / situations. When I look at the examples of good information literacy practice / case studies we have collected from our project partners many are student centered however there are elements of direct instruction and the case studies in the book reflects this.

Chapters 2 - 8 cover Direct Instruction examples / case studies

Chapters 9 - 18 cover Student-Centered Learning examples / case studies

The case studies re really interesting and I liked the practical advise within them and that they could be replicated not just within higher education (universities) where they are set but within FE colleges and probably schools. If you are looking for some inspiration then there is lots here.

Practical Pedagogy for Library Instructors: 17 Innovative Strategies to Improve Student Learning. Eds. Douglas Cook and Ryan L. Sittler for the Association of College and Research Libraries. Chicago: American Library Association, 2008. 184 p. alk. paper, $32 (ISBN 9780838984581). LC 2008-8219.

Libraries contribute to economy and health

John Crawford has a letter Libraries contribute to economy and health in today’s (Thursday 25th March 2010) Herald in response to Tuesday’s article about East Dunbartonshire - Author attacks plans to axe mobile library and excellent leader Libraries must be given our support

Libraries contribute to economy and health

Congratulations to The Herald for supporting public libraries. As you rightly point out (“Libraries must be given our support”, Editorial, March 23), Scotland has socially inclusive traditions of public library provision dating back to the early 18th century. The world’s first national public library policy document was authored in Scotland in 1699 and Leadhills Library, founded in 1741, is where one of the world’s first lifelong learning policies – mutual improvement – was developed.

These traditions still inform us today. As well as a cultural resource, library and information services contribute both to the economy and national wellbeing. I recently evaluated an employability training programme, run by Inverclyde Libraries, that includes an important information skills element. Here the library service is contributing directly to the regeneration of a deprived community. Libraries are increasingly contributing to skills development such as this. They also help people develop the information literacy skills necessary for learning, living and work, and contribute to the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities by giving people information on which to base health and life decisions. What is more, libraries, compared to other services, are extremely cheap. This is not the place to wield the axe.

Dr John Crawford,

Former director, Scottish Information Literacy Project, and Trustee, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals,

 

The letter was spotted by Sean McNamara the People's Network Librarian that we worked with at Inverclyde Libraries.

thanks a lot for the mention and your general appreciation and support for libraries. Also, Alana MacMillan, my line manager also thanks you for that and your inclusion of us in LILAC. Here is our tweet about your letter! http://twitter.com/InverclydeLibs

The reference to LILAC 2010 (The Librarians Information Literacy Annual Conference) in Limerick next week is to John's presentation - Employability and information literacy: a review of a training programme. I'll post a link after the presentation.

Information and critical literacy visits - Curriculum for Excellence Early and First Level

Since January I have been busy visiting primary schools and a nursery as part of the work I’m doing for Learning and Teaching Scotland CfE Literacy Team – Real and Relevant – Information and Critical Literacy Skills for the 21st Century Learner’ (Early and First Level).  

The visits have been amazing with lots of information and critical literacy activities based around some of the CfE learning outcomes and experiences.

I have written them up as postings / case studies for the National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland)

• Questioning – Kilmacolm’s innovative Blooming Blooms approach - children and parents are introduced to the benefits of questioning. Questions were based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and produce in conjunction with the parents linked to familiar fairytales.


• Critical Literacy @ Lasswade Primary School  - the school formed a working group to plan and implement Critical Literacy which is seen as “the way that we interact with and make meaning from different texts” and “involves the reader analysing and engaging with a text”.


• Information Literacy in Junior (Primary) 2 St Margaret’s School, Edinburgh - children working on a research activity finding facts about food and also an evaluation activity evaluating the Picallili Monster they had made from food. Linked to Health and Well Being Curriculum for Excellence Experinces and Outcomes.  

They join the visit I did in December to St Margartet's School but this time to see Information Literacy in Junior (Primary) 1 .

I am now bringing all this together incorporating it into a CPD Toolkit / Resource Pack and will be presenting at LILAC 2010 (The Librarians Information Literacy Annual Conference) Limerick - Begin at the Beginning: Information Literacy in Primary Schools.

My thanks to the teachers and the schools, the local authority education resource services / library and information services for their assistance.