New Book: Handbuch Informationskompetenz

For German speakers, an e-book published in May looks like essential reading: Handbuch Informationskompetenz (Information Literacy handbook). It has many chapters (in 583 pages), with excellent authors, and covers issues to do with information literacy in different sectors, information and digital literacy, information literacy in school and in Higher Education, teaching information literacy, changes to the "teaching library" and reports on information literacy in the different German-speaking countries. The only drawback is that is is really too expensive for an individual to buy, though the e-book format may make it convenient for a library.
Sühl-Strohmenger, W. (Ed). (2012) Handbuch Informationskompetenz. De Gruyter Saur. ISBN 978-3-11-025518-8. Price 128,95 € / $181.00 (or you can buy individual chapters for about 30 Euros each) http://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/129277
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hawthorn leaves, Hellingly, September 2012

IFLA #wlic2012 Micro-E-Learning in Information Literacy

I'm liveblogging from the IFLA World Library and Information Conference in Helsinki, Finland
The next talk in this session on e-learning and information literacy was Micro-E-Learning in Information Literacy from NICOLE KRÜGER (my phot of her, right). To quote her paper "The term "Microlearning" refers to the acquisition of a given information or learning
material in small units that can be absorbed quickly." She started by explaining why microlearning is useful - with some arguing that some e-learning is too long and ineffective, and microlearning seen as appropriate for digital natives by commentators such as Prensky.
So in her library, firstly they have an online reference service, so that users can interact via chat and email. The librarians aim to give short clear answers, but obviously this short answer may not answer the complete information need.
The second microlearning option is LOTSE, a modular online tutorial. It has multimedia content, interactive learning in a Moodle section. However, the speaker observed that this still might be too macro for the users.
Therefore they tried to merge the advantages of the two services. Thus on the reference desk they still give short answers, but also provide a link to the relevant bit of LOTSE and point out other multimedia content. For LOTSE, there is now a personal tutor available to help people orientate themselves in LOTSE. Further ideas are: making the e-learning content searchable, offering service on Facebook, forums where people can discuss their questions and publication on Youtube.
There were a number of questions afterwards, including one person troubling the notion that you have to acceed to a microlearning approach, when people still need to learn to engage more deeply (this was a point that came to me, too, as I am not happy with teh "digital native" discourse either). The speaker admitted this was a problem, but felt that since IL was so essential and the IL was not compulsory, it was at least a way of getting the information to those who would not otherwise be engaged with IL at all.
I blogged about LOTSE in more detail before: http://information-literacy.blogspot.fi/2010/09/slavic-information-literacy-tutorial-at.html
The full text paper is at: Micro-E-Learning in Information Literacy
Translations: [Français] NICOLE KRÜGER (ZBW - German National Library of Economics, Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, Kiel/Hamburg, Germany)

Information literacy meets E-learning: let’s talk about interconnections and outcomes #wlic2012

At the IFLA World Library and Information Congress on 13 August, in Helsinki, is the session Information literacy meets E-learning: let’s talk about interconnections and outcomes. You have to register for the conference (11-17 August) to attend, but there are full-text papers online already here: http://conference.ifla.org/ifla78/session-93. I will be attending the conference, so I will blog the session here, too. The session is organised by the IFLA Information Literacy Section and E-learning Special Interest Group. The papers are:
- An online information literacy course for undergraduates: early experiences: ANNE WADE and JOANNE LOCKE (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada) and PATRICK DEVEY (eConcordia, Montreal Canada)
- Micro-E-Learning in Information Literacy:NICOLE KRÜGER (ZBW - German National Library of Economics, Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, Kiel/Hamburg, Germany)
- Proliferating Information Literacy - e-Learning delivery mode extends reach to IL learners in Singapore: GEE MIAW MIIN (National Library Board, Singapore)
- Embedding e-learning into Science and Engineering Graduate Information Literacy Course: WU MING, WANG CHUN, WANG LI, JIN YING and MA XIAOMIN (National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China)
- Form@doct: quels apprentissages en ligne pour des doctorants?:MARIE-LAURE MALINGRE and ALEXANDRE SERRES (URFIST de Bretagne et Pays de la Loire, France) with ALAIN SAINSOT and HERVE LE MEN (Service commun de documentation, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, France)
- Information literacy interconnections using a virtual learning environments: DAVID V. LOERTSCHER and BLANCHE WOOLLS (San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA)
- Designing an interactive virtual learning environment (VLE) with a learner centered approach: LI WANG (The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)
- E-Learning in Information Management Education in Sri Lanka: discussion of the impact of information literacy: NAMALI SURAWEERA, CHERN L. LIEW and JOCELYN CRANEFIELD (School of Information Management, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand)
The main conference website is at http://conference.ifla.org/ifla78
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea, Sheffield, August 2012.

German study in web-skill differences when looking for health info

Feufel, M. and Stahl, S. (2012) "What do web-use skill differences imply for online health information searches?" Journal of Medical Internet Research, 14 (3). http://www.jmir.org/2012/3/e87/ This was a German study (undertaken by 2 researchers at the Harding Center for Risk Literacy, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin) involving 10 people under 30 who were more skilled in web search, and 12 people aged 50 and over who were less skilled. Participants did a digital literacy test as well, and education was another demographic factor. The researchers observed participants doing 3 web searches "to identify health information seekers’ cognitive strategies and attitudes". There were differences between less skilled and skilled users e.g. before going online the less skilled were worried about overload and their ability, whilst more skilled expressed awareness of quality issues, but interestingly "although people voice concerns about data quality issues, once they access a website, even skilled Web users are preoccupied with processing website contents" (i.e. once they actually found something that seemed relevant, the quality issue faded to the background).
Image is a Tagxedo of the article.

Information culture - different views on information literacy

An interesting new powerpoint from Thomas Hapke (University Library, Hamburg University of Technology, Germany) on the meaning of information literacy.

Information culture - different views on information literacy

View more presentations from Thomas Hapke