NHS Scotland Information Literacy Competency Framework - latest news

More news on information literacy in the NHS, this time from Scotland and Eilean Craig - eilean.craig@nes.scot.nhs.uk who has informed me that their Framework has been revised and reformatted as a booklet series rather than a single (huge!) document. The revised booklets are available for downloading at www.infoliteracy.scot.nhs.uk/information-literacy-framework.aspx. Eilean says as always, any comment and suggestion will be much appreciated.

I for one will be checking them out and taking note for revising the draft National Information Literacy Framwork Scotland.

For anyone not familiar with this work they've produced an Information Literacy Framework intended for use across NHS Scotland, with NHS Scotland partners, patients, carers and members of the public. The framework is currently being piloted. I particulalry like the scenarios within the framework and think something similar could be used for other workplaces and information literacy. It's certainly something we will be exploring along with case studies. They've also developed an NHS information literacy model which Eilean says is gradually becoming recognised and gaining acceptance.

In addition to the Framework, they've also produced online information literacy courses available at www.infoskills.scot.nhs.uk. The courses are available to everyone who has an Athens password and ID (and there is the opportunity to register for these if you don't already have them). A third tool they've developed is the information literacy portal at www.infoliteracy.scot.nhs.uk/

Some great work going on and one to keep an eye on.

North East England NHS Information Literacy Project

Had an email about an Information Literacy Project in the NHS in the North East of England which I thought I would share with you all.

Hi John and Christine....

Congrats on your blog! I just thought you may be interested in some of the work currently going on in the North East NHS...

The Information Literacy Project is a Northeast SHA library network project funded by the SHA to promote a co-ordinated cross organisational approach to information literacy training. The main objectives of the project are to develop and produce an information literacy (IL) toolkit which will be hosted on a website or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and to coordinate and implement the information literacy training programme across the SHA region.

We are looking at the sconul pillars and are intending to link onto it using the name 'PILLARS' for the project (Professional Information Literacy, Library And Research Skills) - in the hope that it may already be familiar to some of our end users and line managers. Several of the Librarians and Information Professionals from our area are also currently participating in Information Litreracy courses and this has provided valuable feedback informing the structure and background to the proposed VLE (Moodle site).

Each of the training modules will have specific objectives, lesson plans and shared outcomes - training will be designed using (hopefully) the most appropriate methods, from a simple download of a training guide or helpsheet, to interactive demos and quizzes (produced on Captivate or Lectora). These will initially be stand alone elearning packages, but in the long term we hope to introduce more blended learning with things like live online demos and training (e.g. webexes). The Moodle will be populated with downloadable material until the interactive material is ready to 'Go Live', so there will not be any empty links or dead ends.

In addition to the material produced we also hope to use meta-tags to link all modules and material to KSF dimensions (just to give the training a bit more 'punch' and value when promoting to staff).

Everything that is eventually produced for the Moodle will be available to all staff across the NESHA and we have the potential to share the competed Moodle/VLE with other organisations.

We are quite happy to share any and all material to prevent duplication of effort. The project is just a 2 months old at the moment and we hope to have the shell and basic population with downloadable material up and running as soon as possible... (the 'under construction' site is at www.pillarsvle.net).

Gail Guthrie
Information Skills Trainer &
Information Literacy Project
gguthrie@nhs.net

Meeting etc

A lot going on recently and I have been at Brighton University, making my last visit as an external examiner so a bit behind on writing up. We have been engaged on an extensive programme of meetings on workplace information literacy issues with a view to devising a programme of action.

On Monday 24^th November we were in Inverclyde (reported by Christine) and on Tuesday 25^th we attended a meeting of the Everyday Skills Committee of the Scottish Trades Unions Congress to report on our work and explain what IL is. Our presentation was well received by the Union Learning Representatives who are members of this committee. (Union learning reps are there to help the members / staff in their organisations develop the skills they require everyday in the workplace with a particular focus on literacy and numeracy). The representatives from the Fire Brigade’s Union had recently completed a survey of the level of staff skills in order to develop suitable training courses and were particularly interested in knowing what IL courses were available.  The presentation illustrated the point which we have found to be true elsewhere – IL  is widely understood as long as it is presented  in the context of the knowledge, skills, experience and learning needs of the group you are targeting which means that the message needs to tailored to whoever you happen to be speaking to at the time. 

Om Wednesday 26^th  we had a meeting of the Project Advisory Group where inevitably much of the discussion revolved around the long term future of the Project and how it can be funded. We are currently funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation until the end of September 2009 so now is the time to think about new funding. Thursday 27^th saw us in Edinburgh talking to the Learning Policy and Strategy Directorate of the Scottish Funding Council to raise awareness of the importance of IL in the skills agenda and especially as an employability and lifelong learning skill.

Back in Edinburgh again on Friday 28^th, to attend the SLIC FE conference, at the invitation of Catherine Kearney, Assistant Director of SLIC to whom, Many Thanks. We participated in a JISC sponsored discussion on Libraries of the future after which Christine and I were interviewed by Philip Pothen, the JISC Press and PR manager. The interview is to appear as a podcast and I will post the URL when it becomes available.  I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and I have been trying to raise awareness of IL as a necessary workplace skill with the help of their Outreach officer as education and skills is an RSA priority.  There is a piece in the current RSA Scotland newsletter which is on their website although there seems to be a problem with the link just now.

While in Brighton on Monday 1^st December I had a meeting with Martin de Saulles, a member of the Social Informatics Research Unit who is interested in IL in small to medium sized enterprises and we identified areas of common interest.

There are a couple more meetings to go before we collapse exhausted over the Christmas turkey but the message is already becoming clear.  Increasingly the people we speak to are asking us about content of IL training programmes and how they might be delivered.  Although IL training obviously has generic components training packages will need to focus on particular requirements.  A new research question it seems.

Information Literacy and Public Libraries

Last week was a busy week for the project with meetings and or presentations everyday.

On Monday morning we were in Greenock at Inverclyde Libraries talking with the People's Network Librarian Sean McNamara about identifying areas for possible IL input into existing courses they offer and new courses for 2009. Courses such as an employability course run through their local community partnership with Fairer Scotland funding and Career Planning in conjunction with the West of Scotland University. Discussed Web 2.0 tools and the possibility of using a blog for learners to give their thoughts and feedback on the course/s. Inverclyde Libraries Manager Sandra MacDougal joined our discussions and we spoke about staff training and IL including: the Information Handling Skills course and qualification as part of the SLIC 2000 Learners Project (used by Midlothian Lothian Public Libraries for staff training) and the POP-i course (developed and used by Bradford Public Libraries for their staff) also the previous NOF courses and the recent CILIPS / SQA ICT qualification for Libraries. Some of their staff are currently undertaking the ICTL qualification.

We have had similar discussions with the Mitchell Library in Glasgow and the Ewart Library in Dumfries. The Ewart Library offer an expanding programme of tutor led computer training courses and workshops in their libraries to assist local communities (in partnership with Adult Literacy and Numeracy Partnership , the local college and other learning providers). Included in the programmes is The British Computer Society eCitizen package which includes information literacy although it does not identify it as such.

Glasgow REAL Learning Centres which are part of Glasgow Libraries have a new team in place of Learning Support Officers who will look after the learning centres (including learning portfolios, ITC and the employability agenda). Of interest to the project is the partnership between Glasgow Libraries and the Chamber of Commerce and the breakfast sessions held at The Mitchell Library.

I'm sure we will be hearing and seeing more information literacy work in Public Libraries. If you are interested in this area then the Information Literacy Website has a section on IL and Public Libraries.

Welcome to the Scottish Information Literacy Project

Welcome everyone to the Scottish Information Literacy Project and weblog we are delighted with the help we received from the invaluable Warren Smith in IT in setting it up. Things are reasonably good at the moment as we are currently funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Many Thanks to this body for keeping the show on the road. However although we are funded until the end of September 2009, now is not too soon to be thinking about finding future funding. 

We have recently been doing our first piece of consultancy, some subcontracting work for Becta. This has proved to be very informative and it shows that Becta is becoming aware of information literacy or digital literacy as they prefer to call it.  There is also growing interest in the early years/parental involvement agenda, the role of information in these areas and media literacy which is something we are interested in having previously had contacts with Ofcom Scotland. It was also flagged up strongly when I visited Washington in October last year to meet US experts on information literacy. However I feel that, while LIS research is using educational findings, I do not think that, on the whole, the converse is true. I attended a discussion last month on a pre print about digital natives and although information literacy was discussed in the text there were no references to LIS journals or research.

Christine and I are currently scurrying about meeting employers' organisations, the STUC, the Employability & Skills Division of the Lifelong Learning Directorate and Skills Development Scotland who are interested in the role of IL in careers guidance.  There is no doubt at all that the skills agenda is going to play a big part in the future of IL development and it is essential that it should be seen as a discrete skill and not just buried  under umbrella terms like 'problem solving' and 'soft skills'. A recurring problem for us is that we have no policy formulated by our professional body (CILIP) to show them.  An issue for the Policy Forum?

I am a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) which has a strong interest in vocational education and skills development.  We recently had a meeting with the RSA Outreach Officer who has agreeed to promote IL awareness among IL members.

 

Best wishes

 

John Crawford

 

Project Director