LILAC 2012 part 3 Our Symposium "Information Literacy - just an outdated buzzword".

I have saved the best part til now! Jo Parker, Jane Secker and myself put on a fun Symposium " Information Literacy - just an outdated buzzword?" on the Thursday afternoon immediately after lunch.
I was worried that we were competing against 4 other events including a Teachmeet. Also immediately after lunch would anyone want to argue about the merits of Information Literacy?
We were very pleasantly surprised to see upwards of 50 delegates crowding into the room. But would they discuss the topics using the prompts we had devised? Also the room was in rows of immovable seats and we could not split them into groups.

No problem : the discussions when prompted were almost deafening!

We then each spoke for about 5 minutes :

Jo Parker gave a short summary of how librarians have changed their approach to user education, moving on to information literacy and the web, but was this enough?  Information literacy hadn't been very showy in the past, more like a female peacock rather than the full flowering male peacock. (slide).

I then took over and, disdaining Powerpoint, used 3 props. First the new edited book "Information Literacy beyond Library 2.0" which had been the starting point for the symposium (held up briefly and then thrown down on the floor...)but how to sum up some of the arguments?
Is there an elephant in the room now? Enter prop number 2 (Toy elephant) : there was an elephant in the room but it was not a single one. A better way to look at the problem of IL was to acknowledge that there was something very important around everyone's management of informatiuon : but it kept changing in its nature and no-one saw the whole elephant  : some saw the ears, some the tail, some the head.... There have been many attempts at a comprehensive term (multiliteracy, digital literacy etc etc) but perhaps the most useful way was to take a transliterate approach, which meant acknowledging overlap of literacies and that these would keep changing. Then when we came to talking to others about IL we would need to adapt our language and approach according to the discipline, level, and subject discourse and we would do well to put on a large pair of spectacles (put on a  ridiculously large pair of glasses). The existing IL frameworks had been too rigid but the new SCONUL framework promised more flexibility  and the New Curriculum for Information Literacy research by Jane Secker and Emma Coonan offered the kind of picture that that could fit the future.

Jane Secker then suggested that  information literacy should be viewed holistically as part of the learning process, and drawing on her work with Emma Coonan and the ANCIL ‘pizza’, Information Literacy should be customised and different ‘toppings’ might be more appropriate in different disciplines. However information literacy needed to be delivered embedded in the curriculum and at the point of need. She also saw information literacy as being part of helping students understand ‘the rules of the game’ and used the metaphor of chess, that by having the rules of the game explained it would not make them a grand chess master.

(For more about Jane's research see her other session at LILAC 2012.)

These little presentation created buzz so we set the participants to form informal groups off with the  first discussion point :

"If IL at your workplace was a ‘thing’ (like oup peacock or pizza) what would it be like for them?"

Then after a few minutes we asked :

 "What do you do?Share your knowledge of the frameworks you use with your group (and if you don’t use any –why not?) "

Then after a few more minutes :

"How far do the existingframeworks/statements you’vediscussed go in terms of expressing what is happening at your workplace?Any pitfalls? Gaps?"

Another few minutes and then :

"What’s our action plan?What should we be doing differently (if anything?)"
We  encouraged participants to tweet to #!Lbuzz
This took the place of reporting back from groups. As the groups which were formed varied in size, and there were so many of them, the normal report back just would not have worked. In stead we were able to go through the twitter stream.
 Here is a selection of the tweets :

.....................................................................................................................................

 IL is for life, not just assessment time

Info centric instruction should mean success lives on, and is not just about one off assignment success

Look thro the eyes of the learner to build ur IL framework. What’s in it 4 them?U can take a learner to the 

IL fountain but can you make them drink?

 Information Literacy as a bargain-basement – the TKMaxx of education

@touchthecloud Great use of crowdsourcing IL thoughts on Twitter – thanks for making it such fun!

 Librarian as personal shopper – taking the punters to the good stuff and telling them what would look nice
on them.

    
My action plan for IL. 1)Think. 2) Act. 3)Reflect. 4) Refine. 5) Repeat. 6) Retire

If it’s going to be pizza it should be a calzone – all the good stuff inside

 The elephant has the glasses on – but can it see? 

 Can I be first to posit the idea of the Digital Literacy Spaghetti Bolognese framework? It’s basically just a mess…

I don’t need IL, I just need literacy, I can’t spell Duck Billed platypus! Help me….

  

Different experiences, different institutions. Shared resources, know more about pre-he IL, less silo-ized idea of IL

 Hearing a real need for librarians to have a database of shared resources. Pointing them to your survey @jsecker [think that’s the OER stuff]

It’s a cocktail cabinet containing a Swiss army penknife to open the wine

 Don’t be mechanistic encourage enquiring minds

Do you want a dutch one? @AnnekeDirkx Grappige sessie waarin we de resultaten van onze discussies moeten tweeten

She also said: and we think the frameworks are a little but old fashioned

        We are using acrl or sconul frameworks

        Our IL is a small and spotty ladybug, a dutch cow and a restaurant menu

It is messy. It’s a dinosaur. It should be joined up. It should be holistic, not in isolation, engaging and campus wide. 

 Our action plan: create clearer smorgasbord of tasty options to communicate what I can teach

 It’s like Mr Potato Head

.............................................................................................................................

So what did we conclude?

Information Literacy will continue to evolve. It should not be looked at too prescriptively. It moves about and  is messy.
 The term IL is still the best label we have, we will need to adapt our language and approach according to the discipline, level, and subject discourse.
Librarians can get excited about it even just after lunch and we have a bright future helping our everyone to construct their information universe.

Here are the slides.

LILAC 2012 part 2

For the full list of sessions at LILAC 2012 complete with most of the Powerpoints click here. 

I would like to draw your attention to a few of the sessions I attended which I found particularly interesting so here goes :

Mary Antonesa and Claire McAvinia (National University of Ireland Maynooth)

Information Literacy and the case of the “natives”

The concept of the Digital Native started with Marc Prensky et al and encouraged librarians to do new things in order to connect with them. There has been a lot of cold water poured on this over recent years and the general consensus is that it is much more complex than this!

This presentation based on research being done for a PhD at University of Sheffield is looking at IL and its evolving relationship with literacy, the learning environment and the creation of knowledge by students. This is very much the same ground that I was looking at it

our new book so I was eager to see if her findings based on focus groups of all concerned, student observation and interviews were going to chime with what I have written.

Emerging findings emphasised :

-the importance of the transition from school to HE and the intimidating nature of online material after the transition;

-the challenge of referencing and the lack of understanding of its value ;

-in terms of teaching  : dont tell us show us;  

-they may think they should know and therefore do not  ask.

-Library instruction is more about  knowledge construction.

-Literacy development is progressive not sequential.

-It is socially negotiated.

-It depends on context.

-Need to focus on the person’s interest.

-Cannot be learned once for all time.

Amen to all these!

The second study is on the use of vles by students.

This has begun with a survey of use of undergraduate  language students. The kind of use was disappointing to me (but not surprising!) L they saw it as a place to get lecture notes, the place to keep up to date with room changes etc. Lecturers were enthusiastic  and later beginning to use e-lng tools, aaaand also giving tasters of secondary sources that opened up reading lists.

This was one of the most interesting sessions and  more time was needed to follow up these interim conclusions.

 

Maria Savova (Claremont Colleges Library) Robin Canuel (McGill University)and Chad Crichton (University of Toronto)

Mobile Technology and Information Literacy instruction ; the McGill Library experience.

This was one of the most useful sessions I attended and is the kind of thing that all HE institutions should be tackling if not now, then soon!!

The workshop “McGill Library from the palm of your hand” was given to library staff first.It covered E- content issues ; whether to download or use online ; Issues of direct online ; direct download and can be used offline ; download to pc and transfer. Current catalogue records do not clarify which type it is and therefore users need to be aware of these format issues. Html versus pdf has issues for 6 inch screen. Digital rights management and the problems this raises. Full versus mobile library web sites.

How to manage e content on mobiles and on ipads

What application  will students use to download their stuff onto? This is a big area for development and becoming part of what it will mean to be information literate.

Andrew Walsh (University of Huddersfield)

Playing games and growing trees...not sucking lemons

How Lemon Tree, a social online game based on use of library resources has been developed at Huddersfield. Works rather like Foursquare.

Here is a link to Lemon Tree

Students register with Lemon Tree and are awarded points for use of library and comments. 

Started in Nov 2011 and already 500-600 signed up exceeding expectations!
For further details strongly recommend you look at  this article in the University repository. 

Gwnneth Price (Institute of Education)

Digital literacies as a postgraduate attribute

This very interesting project is part of the JISC "Developing digital literacies" band. see here.

Staring in July 2011 it runs for 2 years. It will describe what pg students  think about use of digital tool.Different groups will have different experiences.

The next stage is to give all students an ipod touch to use for making journal of how they study.

This sounds fascinating as I believe librarians should be assisting students to gather, manipulate, synthesise digitally across platforms and devices. This project will help us to understand what is already happening and how we can tackle this in the future.

LILAC 2012 part 1

This year our annual UK Information Literacy Conference LILAC was in Glasgow. Having been to Glasgow (the former 2nd city of the Empire) twice for conferences already, I knew that this would be a cracker and so it proved. Over 120 of the 350 delegates were international : a great sign of the success of this Conference.
The keynotes Megan Oakleaf (Syracuse University), Lord Puttnam, and Tara Brabazon (University of Ontario, Institute of Technolgy) were all inspiring and so all totally different in style. I shall not attempt to summarise in deatil, but just offer a few comments and try to give  the flavour.

Megan Oakleaf 
believes that we can show evidence of our library impact on studemt learning., correlate library interactions with other student success measures, and define the library's role in achieving strategic institutional goals.

How do we show our value?

What can we do differently?

Could we impact with students before they start?

Here is link to a free version of an article by Megan Oakleaf: "Are They Learning? Are We? Learning Outcomes and the Academic Library." The Library Quarterly, 81 (1), 61-82. http://www.meganoakleaf.info/aretheylearningoakleaf.pdf

Lord David Puttnam
spoke brilliantly (no powerpoints). I remember particularly :

The Far East are well ahead.streaming of video. This  can be done easily seamlessly in education and distance learning.

Voice recognition is going to big.The iPad 3 has voice recognition instilled.

Keyboards will be  less important in future. T

Oracy needs to be in the teachers ' curriculum.This means kids will need to  be better speakers, orators. Importance of social skills.

Compare a surgeon and teacher of 1912 operating now....The surgeon could not begin to cope  but the teacher would ......

If we are just using digital technologies to deliver the  same curriculum then its a waste of possibilities which are there. 

We need to learn about student ways of operating.

 Librarians are part of this imaginative change.

Teachers and librarians are the infantry for change!

Education can provide the means to survive, and provide social security and health systems required.

But our assessment processes are way way behind.

Librarians have a brand issue. It is like a millstone round our neck. The public doesn't understand our role. We are seen as custodians.....treasure keepers.

Companies have the same problems. 

But Dame Lynne Brindley  has succeeded brilliantly with the British Library.

Tara Brabazon

Using some Powerpoints, sound and her usual flambouyant acting style...

She spoke of the need for a Digital Detox. 

Google is like the McDonalds of information management.

We dont put words into Google that we dont know and we are too easily satisfied.

(As I have said so many times : they dont know what they dont know : or with incoming students they often think they do know how to search)

She suggests digital dieting which in practical terms could mean :

Pushing students away from Google toward Google Scholar (YES!!!!)

Reduce their speed pf search by putting in intellectua; obstacles like asking for annotated bibilograhphies.

Reduce use of textbooks.

Improve and widen their vocabulary.

Help them to know what they dont know by using the curriculum. 

More about LILAC in next post.

M-Libraries 2011 Summary

Alex Miller has done a great job summarising the M-Libraries Brisbane 2011 Conference in a Prezi

m-libraries 2011 summary on Prezi

Reading and Writing the Wotrld : School Libraries as sponsors of Transliteracy

Here is another presentation from Computers inLibraries 2010. This time by Buffy Hamilton, whose work I have come across and applauded before. She says :

In this brief talk at Computers in Libraries (CIL) 2010 on Monday, April 12 2010 she discusses how librarians can use the frameworks of participatory librarianship and sponsors of literacy to conceptualize the ways we can integrate transliteracy seamlessly into our library programs.

Reading and Writing the World: School Libraries as Sponsors of Transliteracy

View more presentations from Buffy Hamilton.

I must admit being sceptical of another attempt at solving the tangle of literacies and would the idea of transliteracy be helpful? The first few slides included the idea of sponsors of literacy are the delivery systems for the economies of literacies. (?) But it's a really good slide show with some great images and begins with the work of Deborah Brandt defining literacy as a "valuable - and volatile property"which can potentially help individuals gain "power or pleasure,[accrue] information, civil rights, education, spirituality, status (and) money." Schools and libraries have a key role "inviting critical and active uses of media that strenthen democratic potential." Goes on to define transliteracy as "the ability to read and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, tv, radio and film, to digital social networks". As sponsors of transliteracy libraries can close the participation gap. Hey I wish I had been at that presentation. This begins to make sense. This is certainly the most interesting take on literacies I've yet seen and all school librarians should take a look - this may be a real way forward but I still worry about labels like "transliteracy". Does it sound tendentious?

LILAC Conference 2010 : discussion in Second Life

Jo Parker, my co-editor has just passed this through to me :

I went to Sheila Webber's InfoLit School SecondLife session yesterday
where a few of us gathered to talk about the recent LILAC conference,
the main UK conference on IL, held in Ireland last month. Sheila
(Sheila Yoshikawa in SL) introduced our speakers, 'Pancha Enzyme' and
'Ishbel Hartmann', and with a mix of text chat and voice they
presented some of the highlights from the conference, including an
overview of the pecha kucha technique (20 powerpoint slides of 20
seconds duration each ‑ no mean feat; we agreed that it would be
useful for getting a powerful message across though less good for
audience participation); Geoff Walton's work 'demolishing' the Sconul
7 pillars model of IL; and a research project (Stephanie Rosenblatt)
looking at the impact of IL interventions on the quality of student
bibliographies. The work being undertaken in Newcastle's public
libraries was also mentioned (I remember the tweets about this at the
time, people were very excited), along with Edinburgh's support for
students in SL (via the 'IS cream van'), and the use of QR codes on
mobiles phones to support IL.

The session lasted about an hour and I took away lots of new and
useful stuff to follow up. Sheila provided SL 'notecards' with the
links, and also a very fetching LILAC t shirt for our avatars to wear!
When we did a quick check, there were participants from the US,
Australia and the UK ‑ so if you get the timing right, you probably
get as good a spread of people as you would at a f2f conference.
Sheila usually makes a transcript of the events available, so look out
for that.

The next session is in a couple of weeks, when John Kirriemuir, who
wrote the gaming chapter in the book, will be talking about SL in
education.
I am not a regular visitor to SL (I haven't entirely mastered sitting
down, and 'flying' successfully is completely beyond me!) but there is
something strangely compelling about the environment. I'm 'Isla
Darwinian', by the way, in SL, so do introduce yourself if we bump
into each other!

Information Literacy and Web 2.0 : a paradox

Sheila Webber has already blogged about this one.
Call for Papers: IL and web 2.0: a paradox?
A stream @ ALIA Access 2010 Conference in Brisbane, Australia 1-3 Sept.

"Web 2.0 is changing the way people live, work and play. It is changing the way people experience their information worlds. What impact is web 2.0 having on the people’s information needs and information practices? How does web 2.0 affect the way in which libraries support and deliver information literacy resources and programs? How does web 2.0 affect the way in which libraries support and deliver information literacy resources and programs?

You are invited to make a submission to the Information literacy and web 2.0: a paradox? seminar being held as part of ALIA Access 2010 Conference.

This one day seminar will be to provide the opportunity for the Australian Library and Information profession to critically consider and discuss the impact web 2.0 is having on the information needs and practices of the communities they serve. The session will provide the opportunity for the LIS professionals to exchange ideas and best practice examples in the way they use web 2.0 to provide information literacy resources and programs.

Submit your abstract by February 11 2010 at http://conferences.alia.org.au/access201…

All submissions will be assessed against the following criteria:
• Relevance to session theme
• Clarity, coherence, organization of writing
• Academic or professional merit
• Originality and innovation of the work

The one day seminar is hosted by ALIA Pathways, visit http://www.alia.org.au/groups/infolit.

If you would like to know more please contact Mark Jones at Mark.Jones at deta.qld.gov.au or Helen Partridge at h.partridge at qut.edu.au.


I have been sitting on this reference wondering what to say!I've never thought of it as a paradox!

I know that it will not be me trying to be relevant,coherent, academic and original, because I expect to have retired by that time!

Therefore it is up to YOU the readers of this blog to take up the challenge!!!

Handheld Librarian Online Conference

This is my day off but last night I attended my first remote Conference and it was truly memorable. This is a holding post as I hope to post in more detail some time next week. I beleieve this was a historic conference not only because of the content but the means by which it was conducted.

With 477 attendees and so many twittering it featured as a trend on twitter!! The recent ALA Conference with thousands of attendees never managed that!! There were technical problems. I and some others couldn,t get a connection at the start of Gerry McKiernan's keynote. Half an hour of frustration! I sent a tweet about it and through this got the new URL and got in! All power to twitter again! As for following the Conference the discussion via twitter was awesome (not a word I usually employ!) and Tweetdeck was wonderful to follow it with. If you want to get samples of the discussion it is #hhlib on twitter.

It's hard to know where to start as there were so many interesting ideas and possible pointers to the future. When I post again I must remember that my focus is with IL and that may keep my enthusiasm under control!

I come away with a sense that mobiles are going to be essential for libraries to become involved with. Public libraries have a huge opportunity with e-books abd connecting with their users, but academia cannot ignore texting services.

Informal communication via mobiles has fuelled their mass adoption - question is how do libraries muscle in on this?

Tom Peters' main thrust was that we may be about to rethink our concept of place. We won't need to move around so much anymore (or "lug our guts around" as he calls it!)-which is just as well in the economic gloom. Ironically as we become less nomadic and cosmopolitan in our physical movements our local information and experience will be still global through the power of mobile devices.

I need some time out to think all this through and to catch up on the other presentations which I missed - that was another lesson - 6.5 hours of presentations with only tiny gaps in between is not good for anyone - staring at a screen, tweeting etc. - what about food and drink??

M-Libraries Conference, Vancouver, 23-24 June 2009

Many congratulations to the organisers of this second m-Libraries Conference. It was in many ways the best Conference I have ever attended. Over 120 delegates from all over the world in a stunning venue at University of British Columbia were treated to fine keynotes, a large array of parallel sessions, and excellent social events.

The opening keynote session (Lorcan Dempsey) and following plenaries on the first morning were held in the First Nation Hall with long tables - good for laptops, munching cookies and socialising. I am not going to give a long summary of these but only draw attention to points which interested me and I trust may interest you!

Lorcan Dempsey Vice-President and OCLC Research andChief Strategist, USA"Concentration, Connection, Diffusion:Mobilizing Library Services"

There will be greater investment in the economy in consumer space than in education which will mean users will be used to sophisticated services there and this will challenge us.

There will be a tension between personal learning environments and University VLEs.

Formerly we could expect student work to be around the library, because of our physical materials ; with an abundance of material online how do our sources fit into their learning and communication?

He thinks mobile communbication is more about communicxation than about mobility.

Mentioned the Nokia strapline "Our promise is to help people feel close to what is important to them".

Mobiles can be a good fit for Web generation ways of communication. They provide a sfaety net, and allow incremental social contact (e.g.husband ringing from supermarket for instructions...)

The idea of the institutional web site being prime model of delivery and browser as primary consumption environment is increasingly partial.

Content is being atomised - able to be cut up, tailored and consumed. (eg BBC has invested much into this with RSS feeds to parts of its output.)

Atomisation also means use of snippets, ringtones, tags, ratings, feeds and abstracts.

To get the attention of groups a site needs to rate, relate, recommend. He thinks people are action-oriented and want to vote and give opinions.

Importance of time-shifting - in a survey at University of Bristol great support for ability to timeshift lectures so could use later.

On the use of space he mentioned a recent Economist article that said there was a "rise in demand for semi-public spaces that can be informally appropriated to ad hoc work spaces" (Take note libraries)

Challenge to libraries is to make themselves invisible, by delivering services into user workflows in a networked environment. Yet we need to be more visible. FBk and Twitter show importance of people to follow.

Libraries and persons working there need to have a signed network presence and not hide people. Libraries dont advertise their expertise enough! Our network presence is too anonymous. Put pics on Twitter, have Top Recommendations as part of a site.

Ken Banks Founder of kiwanja.net, UK, "Where Books Are Few: The Role of Mobile Phones in the Developing World"

An inspirational speaker who drew attention to the potential role of mobiles in the 3rd World. Users here need short bursts of actionable information, rather than the Web to browse.

Carie Page Programme Coordinator forthe EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, USA "Anytime, Anywhere: Reaching the Always-On Generation through Mobility"

This was a high energy presentation which I struggled to keep up with. E-mail is for old people apparently(!!) She believed students want to create their own information environments - do we help them or let them get on with it?

Great supporter of Twitter - idea of using timed tweets - same time each week.

Rent out Kindles.

Use vokis on your site - this was a new one for me - which I must follow up.

It is good to help convergence of tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube if we want to keep the attention of our users.

She mentioned some myths

"If you ban our technology, we'll simply stop using it" (they'll get round it)

"If we build it, we will come" (need to bring them in)

"We're a bunch of techno-geeks" (much more mixed)

"We want to be your friend on Facebook" (try and see)

Paul Nelson NHS Choices, Department ofHealth, UK - "Partnerships for Community Health Improvement Through MobileDevices"

NHS Choices has the ability to inform, signpost and empower individually.Most who use it come via Google rather than the front door of the site. It is a strong and trusted brand. Mobile usage is desirable because mobiles are ubiquitous. They want to change behaviour, improve knowledge and self perception.

NHS Choices drnk less is an example of an iPhone app.

Joan Lippincott Associate Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, USA - "Why m-Libraries? Making the Case for Innovation"

To make the case in our libraries we have to make mobiles a higher priority. We have to :

1.Respond to our user community's work style. See mobiles as information devices ; many Univs now on iTunesU ; researchers use mobiles for data collection ; Nielsen shows 52% increase in mobile subscribers using video on a mobile 2008-9 ; ECAR 66% of students have internet capable phones, but most dont use it yet for this.THis will change and depends on the pay structure.

2. Extend what we've always done into new areas for mobiles :

Google Bk Search, OCLC Cat search

Duke University image collection

IL podcasts ; QR codes for IL tutorials ; West Illinois University University Text me services on YouTube.

3. Get a seat at the table re. policy in the University.

In decisions like which platform, who decides, who does technical support, who selects licences.

The m-Libraries Conference site will soon have all the presentations for these and the parallel sessions.

Information Literacy sans frontieres at JISC

I presented at the JISC Digital Content Conference at Cotswold Water Park Hotel this week. It was an interesting short conference which attracted a large range of experts and enthusiasts discussing the digital future. It seemed to me to be both a celebration of JISC's work and clarion call to further action, despite the storm clouds of recession. Catherine Grout, Programme Director e Content gave aan excellent overview of JISC's work which was recorded here.
Later we heard a mind-blowing account of the work of the Internet Archive by Robert Miller from California. Can you imagine a snapshot of the Web being stored in a huge cupboard, years of tv off-air recording including BBC and Al Jazeera? His short talk is here.

I presented in a session concerning Libraries of the Future , under the title "Information
Literacy sans frontieres", which is on Slideshare here. I wanted to draw attention to the importance of Information Literacy in 2009, how it sits at the centre of all the literacies, and the part that librarians can play working academics embedding their contributions. No-one had seen the uNESCO Information Literacy logo!! As it was about the hottest day of the year I was so lucky that the room was air-conditioned and the discussion afterwards did not get too heated!! The abstract for my talk is here, and the whole conference is here.

Back from Vancouver

June has been a lean month on his blog as I have been gadding around more than usual. Highlight and lifetime ambition was a visit to Vancouver for the Second International M-Libraries Conference. What a place with 2.3m living in Greater Vancouver in a stunning setting.I shall be posting fully about this Conference shortly. I gave a session on "Information Literacy gets mobile" and the slides are on Slideshare here.

Libraries of the Future

Recently I produced a short opinion paper for JISC about the current state of Information Literacy entitled "Information Literacy sans frontieres" for the Libraries of the Future Campaign. It is linked to from the Libraries of the Future blog. I shall also be taking part in the Looking into the Future Libraries of the Future strand at the JISC Digital Content Conference 2009 at Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel 30 June-1 July. Registration for this major JISC Conference is free and still available here.

Back from LILAC

The LILAC Conference was in Cardiff this year. on th eright is a view of their recently opened new Public Library. Sheila Webber has blogged about the Conference already so I refer you to her posts.

I was delighted that a workshop on Web 2.0 and Information Literacy was overbooked (I didn't go along!) ; that has made all these efforts seem worthwhile!!

I presented under the title"Information Literacy meets the Mobile Web." This is a pretty new field, rather like this one when I started out in 2006! It can be seen as an extension of 2.0 toools like podcasts, vodcasts and concepts like being where they are. Sure there are lots of limitations like different mobile devices, lack of Wireless hotspots and rental costs : but the potential remains.

Information Literacy and Web 2.0 seminar

Sarah Whittaker and Alan Cann have undertaken a project at University of Leicester "Using Web 2.0 to Cultivate Information Literacy via Construction of Personal Learning Environments".
This was done with first year medical students learning about medical ethics, and third year students on medical ethics, law and human rights. On Wednesday 14 Jan. they ran a live TAN session to outline and promote the outcomes.

"The aim is to explore information literacy that incorporates Wikipedia, YouTube and ‘Beyond Google’ for all undergraduate students. We hope to be able to gauge opinions and expectations from other staff.
Library staff should continue to develop their understanding of web 2.0 tools and how they can utilize them to promote information literacy across the University.
The library will continue to develop librarians’ roles as their future depends on the ability to build relationships, and add value to external tools such as Google Scholar. Web 2.0 can facilitate this, but this requires a change of culture for librarians and academics.
Students are generally reluctant to change their habits unless there is a clear tangible benefit to them. If we believe information literacy skills are worth developing, we must make them a requirement not an added extra."
Alan Cann posts about the TAN session on his blog "Science of the Invisible". Around 40 people attended the face to face session with a number of people contributing online via Twitter.
A very interesting project which is likely to present at LILAC 2009.

Online Conference, Olympia, Dec. 2008

I've been quiet lately because I was at the Online Conference in Olympia. The Key Note speaker on Day 1 was Clay Shirky (author of "Here comes everybody") and it was inspiring. When asked about librarians he recalled the quote of us as "happiness engines". So, we are about increasing the happiness of our patrons, helping them to find the next thing to read or watch. This can be done by joining up groups of people who should be talking to one another. Later on he talked about the social origin of good ideas and putting experts and amateurs together which improves both groups. This reminded me of the potential power of a Library OPAC which could combine taxonomies and user tagging. I must read the book! If you want a full version of the talk see Jenny Levine's report in The Shifted Librarian.

Jenny also gave an excellent presentation "New Channels New Media and New Approaches for Libraries." I remember her emphasis on the importance of users as "collaborators" with user generated content becoming more important. Librarians need to become more nimble in approaches to their users : Yale University for example invite users to text a science librarian, and use Twitter and Facebook. She believes we are ahead in the use of Bloglines and iGoogle and therefore should be pushing these to our users. She made some of the same points in her presentation at Bridging Worlds 2008 and I can highly recommend this.

Marydee Ojala gave an interesting paper "See it, hear it" highlighting the inadequacy of the subscription services in keeping up with multimedia content. There is no single source. However, I picked up several sites to follow up including
Voxalead, (lets you search through multimedia content like audio and video podcasts).
Podscope,(lets you search the spoken word for audio and video that interests you)
Blinx (World's largest video search engine).

Anne Morris (Dept. Information Science, Loughborough University) presented aboput a survey undertaken about student perceptions and use of Library 2.o applicatioons. Main message to me and IL practitioners is the warning that publicity and awareness of the services by the user is crucial.

Guillermo Lutzky speaking about the ORT Argentina Virtual Campus project (which I chaired) showed how powerful Web 2.0 can be in schools to increase collaboration and community> The use of blogs there had produced over 250 active blogs since June 2007. ORT Argentina currently holds two educational complexes, two technical high schools and two post-secondary junior colleges with over 7000 students.

Fiona Lennox (Ofcom, UK) gave an interesting presentation about recent Ofcom reports
Media Literacy Audit: Media literacy of UK adults from ethnic minority groups

Online Conference and Exhibition, London Olympia

I shall be away at this Conference during the week and chairing a session on Wednesday featuring offsetting Media and Information Literacy.
Media Literacy matters. (Fiona Lennox, Policy Executive, OfCom, UK) "In this presentation, Fiona will discuss the findings of recent Ofcom research which sheds light on how people in the UK population access, understand and create digital communications. She'll examine the skills gaps highlighted by the research and discuss how media literacy initiatives can help to address these."
Ort Argentina virtual campus project: a case study about information and media literacy in K12/compulsory education. (Guillermo Lutzky, Professor, Virtual Campus CEO, ORT Argentina ORT.)
I'll be blogging about it in due course.

Also on Wednesday I shall be giving a free Information Seminar in the Exhibition area called
Supporting Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs Today, which will about our innovative curriculum for Business students at University of Bedfordshire where I work.

WILU 2009 Conference | Montreal, Canada | Call for Papers

Several months ago, Peter was gracious to post a first call for papers for the WILU 2009 conference to be held May 25-27, 2009 at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. I'd like to post a second call for papers for this conference.

The conference theme of "Reflections" may resonate with many of you who are using social media to deepen the reflective work of your pedagogical practice.

WILU 2009
38th Annual Workshop on Instruction in Library Use
38e Atelier annuel sur la formation documentaire

Université Concordia University
Montréal, Québec, Canada
May 25-27, 2009 / 25-27 mai 2009

Submission deadline: Monday, December 8, 2008
Date limite pour soumettre une proposition : le lundi 8 décembre 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS
Conference theme: Reflections

We welcome papers that present variations on reflections, a word that signifies different aspects of our information literacy work and experience.

More at: http://library.concordia.ca/wilu2009/index-en.php

WILU Conference, Montreal, May 2009

Cameron Hoffman (one of our contributors)has asked me to post this first call for papers :

WILU 2009
38th Annual Workshop on Instruction in Library Use 38e Atelier annuel sur la formation documentaire
Université Concordia University
Montréal, Québec, Canada

May 25-27, 2009 / 25-27 mai 2009
http://library.concordia.ca/wilu2009/index-en.php

Submission deadline: Monday, December 8, 2008 Date limite pour soumettre une proposition : le lundi 8 décembre 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS
Conference theme: Reflections
We welcome papers that present variations on reflections, a word that signifies different aspects of our information literacy work and experience.

Making Academic Conferences more efficient

Have been doing quite a lot of presenting lately (more of that another day) so that's why I 've been so quiet. Catching up with my blog reading I found this wonderful suggestion from John Kirriemuir (who wrote the chapter in our book on digital games) which may amuse you. It's about combatting the slump at lunch time...