Report on launch of Scottish information literacy online community of practice

There is a report from John Crawford on the workshop held to launch and promote the Scottish information literacy online community of practice (CofP), Information Skills for a 21st Century Scotland, held at the conference of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland (CILIPS) on Monday 11th June 2012 in Dundee at  http://scotinfolit.squarespace.com/cop-discussion/post/1865660
Video by Sheila Webber: A summer day in Sheffield, today.

Information literacy in employability training: The experience of Inverclyde Libraries

Crawford, J. and Irving, C. (2012) "Information literacy in employability training: The experience of Inverclyde Libraries." Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 44, 79-89. This is a priced publication. The abstract reads "The study is an evaluation of an employability training programme provided by Inverclyde Libraries in West Central Scotland and the role of information literacy within the training programme. Inverclyde is an area with high unemployment and pockets of multiple deprivation. Modern, applicable skills are also lacking. The findings are based on interviews with five learners and also one with an adult literacies tutor. The interviews were conducted in August 2009 and a Learning Life Histories methodology was used. Interviewees had mainly previously worked in the service industries and none had post-school qualifications, despite which all the interviewees were highly motivated. Information literacy was found to between 30% and 60% of course content depending on learner needs. Family influence was found to be the main motivation to enrol on the course and the learners sought personal social development as well as employability skills. There was found to be a lack of appropriate, relevant training materials and a lack of collaboration between the LIS sector and Community Learning and Development in developing them. The article concludes with a number of recommendations including the need to improve recruitment and course scheduling and planning."
When announcing the publication of the article, John Crawford added that last week "at the CILIPS conference in Dundee, Sean McNamara, who is in charge of Digital participation initiatives with Inverclyde Council gave an excellent presentation on his work there and it was clear that he has been able to incorporate the recommendations into service improvement, a good example of how evaluation in information literacy can contribute to service development."
Photo by Sheila Webber: convolvulus and grass blade, June 2012

Information Skills for a 21st Century Scotland

Activists from the former Scottish Information Literacy Project have launched an online information literacy community of practice: Information Skills for a 21st century Scotland at http://www.therightinformation.org/ hosted by Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC). It includes the Scottish Information Literacy Framework, information about the Scottish Information Literacy Project (formerly based at Glasgow Caledonian University from 2004 to 2010) and a valuable archive of material, including the Project blog.
The community is open to everyone who is interested in information literacy: you can join the community, share practice, contribute to the community’s knowledge of information literacy activities news, conferences and events, new research etc. They are also looking for individuals and groups across the library and information community to work with them to update the framework with new case studies.
There is a launch event on 11 June at 10.30 – 10.45 at the Apex hotel, in Dundee, as part of the Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals in Scotland (CILIPS) Conference 2012. The launch will be followed by a parallel session from 14.00 to 15.00 "Finding the right information: improving professional practice using the Scottish Information Literacy Framework" which will be an informal discussion to help build a Scottish Information Literacy Community of Practice.
I'm happy to see that the definition that they have on their logo is the one by me and Bill Johnston ;-)

Another journal special issue! Infolit policy

Library Trends, volume 60 issue 2, Fall 2011, focuses on "Towards policy formulation" on information literacy, a special issue edited by John Crawford. This looks a very interesting issue! This is a priced journal.
- Introduction: Information Literacy Beyond the Academy: Towards Policy Formulation; by John Crawford
- Information Literacy Advocacy-Woody's Ten Commandments; by Forrest Woody Horton, Jr.
- Trapped Between a Rock and a Hard Place: What Counts as Information Literacy in the Workplace and How Is It Conceptualized? by Annemaree Lloyd
- How Information Literacy becomes Policy: An Analysis Using the Multiple Streams framework; by Sharon Weiner
- Empowerment or Instrumental Progressivism? Analyzing Information Literacy Policies; by Andrew Whitworth
- The Concept of Information Literacy in Policy-Making Texts: An Imperialistic Project? by Ola Pilerot and Jenny Lindberg
- Is There a Right To Information Literacy? A Practice in Search of a Policy; by Catherine Haras and Stephanie Sterling Brasley
- Reconnecting Information Literacy Policy with the Core Values of Librarianship; by
Heidi LM Jacobs and Selinda Berg
- A Framework for Analysing and Comparing Information Literacy Policies in European Countries; by Carla Basili
- National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland): Pioneering Work to Influence Policy-Making or Tinkering at the Edges? by Christine Irving
- Think Global, Act Local: Expanding the Agenda for Media Literacy Education in the United States; by Vanessa Domine
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/library_trends/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Winter trees, Sheffield, January 2012.