Research project into delivery of Information Literacy and Digital Scholarship

SCONUL (Society for College, National and University Libraries) and RIN (Research Information Network) are funding a year-long research project into delivery of Information Literacy and Digital Scholarship. There are two strands to the project. The first strand, co-ordinated by Research Information Network (RIN) on behalf of Research Information and Digital Literacies Coalition (RIDLs), aims to identify and promote "good practice in information handling and data management training and development across the (UK) Higher Education and research sectors."
The second strand, coordinated by SCONUL under the JISC Developing
Digital Literacies (DDL) programme, "aims to identify, harvest, and use materials to progress the development of digital professional expertise."
Stephane Goldstein (RIN) and Alison Mackenzie (SCONUL) are project leaders and Charlie Inskip is the project officer. More info at http://rilads.wordpress.com
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn branches, October 2012

Dissertations on information literacy

There are a few online PhD dissertations relevant to information literacy that can be accessed via the British Library's ethos service. You have to register (free). If the thesis are not already digitised (the ones below are) then you can pay £49 to get it digitised. They include
-- What is 'digital literacy'? : a pragmatic investigation. Beshaw, Douglas A. J. Durham University, Awarded: 2012 (as a shortcut, the download is actually from http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3446/)
-- Information literacy instruction for Kuwaiti students and the role of cultural relevance. Lesher, Teresa M. Loughborough University, Awarded: 2002
-- Negotiating information literacy pathways : learner autonomy in higher education. McDowell, Liz. University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Awarded: 2004.
-- Conceptions of effective information use and learning in a tele-health organization : a phenomenographic study of information literacy and knowledge management at work. Toledano O'Farrill, Ruben. Robert Gordon University, Awarded: 2008
-- Developing a new blended approach to fostering information literacy. Walton, Geoffrey. Loughborough University, Awarded: 2009. (Again, as a shortcut, the thesis is also availabe here https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/8148)
Photo by Sheila Webber: Green and gold, October 2012

UK major report: Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes

There are some new reports from Ofcom (the UK "watchdog" for the communications sector). The main report, published today, is a substantial 200 page document, and the other 2 reports which I'll mention supplement that one.
Ofcom (2012) Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report Research Document. Ofcom. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/main.pdf
The report is "designed to give an accessible overview of media literacy among [British] children and young people aged 5-15 and their parents/carers, as well as an indicative view of media use by children aged 3-4." Key research was 1,717 in-home interviews.
The report is packed with statistics about what kinds of device children access, and where they do so. 91% of children have internet access at home (for the first time, this is not an increase compared with the last report) - some children still do not access the internet anywhere. Unsurprisingly, mobile devices feature heavily, with gender differences in how the devices are used. Also, just picking up on a personal interest, in 8-11 year olds the only "creative or civic" activity that has gone up every year is creating an avatar in an online world (this year 48% had).
For some of the conclusions, I will be lazy and copy from the Executive summary.
" Children are using a wide range of media devices, and internet access is not confined to the desktop PC, laptop or netbook. Those aged 12-15 in particular are spending more time online, are more likely to go online using their mobile phone and are more likely to say that their mobile phone is the device they would miss the most.

"For the first time this report contains indicative data on the media habits of 3-4 year olds. This indicates that many in this age group are using a range of different media devices, including over a third who are going online using a desktop PC, laptop or netbook and 6% who are going online via a tablet computer.
"These trends have implications for how we consider children’s media literacy, as the requirement for media literacy skills begins at a young age, and the types of devices children need to be proficient on, and the opportunities for them to encounter media content, increase.
"Children, particularly 12-15s, are prolific social networkers with large numbers of friends – an average of 92 friends for 8-11s and 286 for 12-15s. This has implications for how children protect and share personal information, given that personal data available to “friends” on social networking sites is likely to be shared with large numbers of people."

2. Ofcom (2012) Websites visited by children: Nielsen analysis. Ofcom. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/Annex_3.pdf

The data is "derived from Nielsen's UK panel of households, comprising 45,239 individuals". This is short, but interesting in listing top 25/50 sites for 3 age groups. As with the other reports, data was gathered in 2012.
- 5-7 years old: top ten (1 to 10): Google, Google Search, BBC, Facebook, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing, YouTube, BBC CBeebies, Yahoo!, eBay, Ask Search Network
- 8-11 years: top ten (1 to 10): Google, Google Search, YouTube, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing, Facebook, BBC, YouTube Homepage, Google Image search, Wikipedia, Windows Live Messenger
- 12-15 years: top ten (1 to 10): Google, Google Search, Facebook, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing ,YouTube,Google Image Search, YouTube Homepage, Yahoo!, Wikipedia

3. Jigsaw Research (2012) Parents’ views on parental controls: Findings of qualitative research. Ofcom. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/oct2012/Annex_1.pdf

The research used a purposive sample of parents (in the UK), with qualitative methods including focus groups and journaling (it gives details of the questions etc., useful for other researchers). Parents were more concerned about issues like cyberbullying and "grooming" and the impact of internet use on other parts of the child's life (e.g. exercise, writing), rather than issues to do with access to inappropriate content (partly because they didn't perceive it as a particular problem). Some quotes from the executive summary are:
"Overall, ensuring balanced and safe use of the internet was seen as an important parenting challenge, but one where parents were not always clear on how to get it right. This was because they could not necessarily draw on their own experiences growing up, and also because they felt that the issues and risks were constantly developing and shifting".
"Overall, technical controls were viewed as a supplement to, rather than replacement for, hands-on parenting. Supervision and other forms of parental mediation were felt still to be needed to prevent all of the day-to-day issues as well as risks emanating from children’s internet usage."
Photos by Sheila Webber: Autumn chrysanthemum blooms, October 2012

Proposed criteria for describing, reviewing and assessing practice in information literacy training

The Research Information and Digital Literacies Coalition has developed a "draft set of criteria ... to help training practitioners in higher education describe and assess their training and development interventions and resources." "The criteria take the form of a set of structured questions intended to help you describe such interventions for the benefit of learners, but also for your peers in your own or other institutions."
I'm going to have to look at these carefully, which I don't have time to do today, so I may post about them again.The page from which you can download the criteria is here: http://www.researchinfonet.org/infolit/ridls/strand2/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Ripening corn plants, Hellingly, September 2012

New information literacy articles

The magazine SCONUL Focus Number 55, 2012, has been published. It includes a number of concise articles about information literacy e.g.
- The missing link: making the connection between information literacy and an excellent student experience by Christiana Titahmboh, Carol Price, Janice Wright
- ANCIL in action: progress updates on a new curriculum for information literacy by Emma Coonan, Jane Secker, Katy Wrathall , Helen Webster
- The ‘cut and paste’ of undergraduate research by Alison Henesey
The articles can be accessed freely at http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/55/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Painting on an empty shop, Hailsham: it includes a QR code (I think to link to the artist's website)

Presentations: Supporting Diverse Student populations

Presentations from the ALISS conference on Supporting Diverse Student populations (held in August 2012) are available. They include:
- Ethnicity and Study Skills: active intervention in the library setting (Suzanne White and Lisa Lawrence, Subject Librarians Coventry University.)
- Using Elluminate to deliver library training to distance/ part time learners (Helen Clough Learning and Teaching Librarian, The Open Univeristy.)
- Library support for International students (Helen Ireland , University of Warwick.)
- Online learning: Can a generic tutorial meet the disparate needs of researchers? (Jenny Coombs- University of Nottingham)
Go to http://www.alissnet.org.uk/Display.aspx?id=10737418259
Photo by Sheila Webber: seed head, Jonkoping, August 2012

Innovating Pedagogy: Open University report

The Innovating Pedagogy report is published by the UK's Open University (OU), and also has a blog. "This first report [published in June] proposes ten innovations in pedagogy that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education." The 10 are: Assessment for learning; Badges to accredit learning; Learning analytics; MOOCs n(Massive open online courses); New pedagogy for e-books; Personal inquiry learning; Publisher led mini-courses; Rebirth of academic publishing; Rhizomatic learning; Seamless learning. Some of these overlap with the NMC's Horizon report, but I think they are trying to get away from a purely technical focus (although there is still something of an emphasis on use of technology). The authors are Mike Sharples, Patrick McAndrew, Martin Weller, Rebecca Ferguson, Elizabeth FitzGerald, Tony Hirst, Yishay Mor, Mark Gaved and Denise Whitelock, all of the OU.
I think that in fact some of these "innovations" have already had an impact, and the short chapters do not explore all the issues (e.g. in the section about academic publishing), but it makes a nice starting point for discussion. The blog (from which you can download this first report, and comment on it) is at http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/innovating/
Thanks to ALISS news for alerting me to this.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea, Hailsham, July 2012

Research Information and Digital Literacies Coalition (RIDLs)

RIDLs was established last month, coordinated by the Research Information Network, with SCONUL, RLUK, CILIP and the Special Libaries Association, BAILER, the British Library, the Digital Curation Centre, the Higher Education Academy, JISC, Jorum, the UK Council for Graduate Education and Vitae. I won't spell out all the acronyms! You can check on the website for that. They aim to "promote the value of information and research data literacy for academic researchers; and to enable activities which help to advance this knowledge and skills." Professor Pam Denicolo (Universities of Surrey and Reading) is the chairperson, and there is one year's funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The funding will be used to support a programme of six broad activities:
- "establishing RIDLs and endowing it with mechanisms which enable it to function as a collaborative venture"
- "setting out, testing and disseminating criteria that can be used to describe and review training courses" etc.
- "identifying and promoting good practice in information literacy training"
- "supporting the use of the Researcher Development Framework and the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy"
- "supporting small-scale project work to advance the evidence base in this area"
- "developing links with relevant information literacy projects and initiatives in other countries"
More detail on the website: http://www.researchinfonet.org/infolit/ridls/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Water feature, Sheffield Station, July 2012

Information literacy and employability

There is now a section on the Sheffield University Library website about information literacy and employability, including short "testimonies from recent University of Sheffield graduates, reflecting on how information literacy skills learned at University are now helping them in their daily working lives." http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/infolit
Photo by Sheila Webber: yet another poppy, Sheffield, July 2012

The Digital University: A Proposed Framework for Strategic Development

Information Literacy figures prominently in the presentation that was given by Bill Johnston and Sheila MacNeill at the Employer Engagement in a Digital Age Conference in Greenwich on 4th July 2012, The Digital University - A Proposed Framework for Strategic Development. They gave a workshop around what it means to be an (information literate) digital university. I have embedded the presentation below, and you may (if you are interested in digital literacy, employability etc.) find other presentations from the conference of interest at
https://showtime.gre.ac.uk/index.php/ecentre/apt2012/schedConf/presentations
Sheila MacNeill's blog is at http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/sheilamacneill/ and she and Bill have posted on it about their ideas.

The Digital University - A Proposed Framework for Strategic Development

CILIP reaffirms commitment to Information Literacy

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (the UK's professional association for library and information) "is proud to reaffirm" the importance of Information Literacy, following on from its IL event last week. "At a recent CILIP Council meeting, it was decided unanimously that CILIP would endorse UNESCO, International Federation of Library Associations and National Forum on Information Literacy’s Alexandria Proclamation which states that Information Literacy and lifelong learning “empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals. It is a basic human right in a digital world and promotes social inclusion of all nations.”" More at: http://www.cilip.org.uk/news-media/pages/news120710.aspx

Presentations from CILIP Information Literacy day #infolit2012

There was a one-day event on Information Literacy at the UK's Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals yesterday. Speakers were:
- Chair’s Welcome and introduction to Information Literacy: Debbi Boden-Angell, Director of Information Learning Services & University Librarian, York St John University
- Welsh Information Literacy Framework: Andrew Eynon, Library and Learning Technology Manager, Grŵp Llandrillo Menai
- Developing digital literacies: Paul Bailey, Programme Manager, e-Learning, JISC
- LolliPop & Sir LearnaLot: Moira Bent, Faculty Liaison Librarian & National Teaching Fellow, Newcastle University
- A new curriculum for Information Literacy: Jane Secker, Copyright and Digital Literacy Advisor, at Centre for Learning Technology, LSE & Emma Coonan, Research Skills and Development Librarian, Cambridge University Library
- SMILE - Supporting the graduate skills and the employability agenda: Debbi Boden-Angell, Director of Information Learning Services & University Librarian, York St John University
- Information Literacy: the cure for health information obesity: Caroline De Brún, Clinical Support Librarian, University College London – Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- Workplace Information Literacy: Mark Hepworth, Reader in People’s Information Behaviour, Department of Information Science, Loughborough University
- The Public Library Information Offer: Sally McMahon, Head of Libraries and Information Services, Brighton & Hove City Council
The presentations, powerpoints in pdf form, are all here: http://www.cilip.org.uk/infolit2012/pages/presentations.aspx and the twitterstream is here: https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23infolit2012
Photo by Sheila Webber: Foxgloves (lightly photoshopped), July 2012, Sheffield.

Project mapping Twitter rumours, in graphics

A project which shows, graphically, how rumours spread via Twitter about events in the 2011 UK riots won a Data Journalism award: First Prize for ‘Data Visualisation and Storytelling". These visualisations could be useful if you are working with learners on topics to do with information, misinformation and social media. You can move the timeline along and see key tweets, and see how the tweets are connected (see the screenshot, which is taken from the site which I linked to below).

The project was led by Dr Farida Vis, who will be joining us here at Sheffield University in September. She has a research fellowship and is attached to my department, the Information School, so it will be exciting to work with her. The Twitter project was "carried out in collaboration with Dr Rob Procter from the University of Manchester, the project lead and Dr Alex Voss from St. Andrews University. The team analysed 2.6 million tweets to show how rumours ebbed and flowed across Twitter as claims were bolstered or debunked. Topics covered ranged from the absurd – animals on the loose after damage to London Zoo – to the true, such as the arson attack on Miss Selfridge in Manchester."

The website is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/dec/07/london-riots-twitter

Developing Digital Literacies Briefing Paper

Last month JISC published a short Developing Digital Literacies Briefing Paper which provides soundbites from 12 projects it is funding in UK Higher and Further education. JISC defines digital literacy as "those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society" and there is a focus on digital literacy for employability and academic success (rather than a more socially constructed view of digital literacy). There are some emerging messages which seem common sense e.g. that students need to be supported by staff in developing their digital literacy. The report is at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2012/developing-digital-literacies.aspx and the Developing Digital Literacies programme page is at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/developingdigitalliteracies
Photo by Sheila Webber, June 2012

Powerpoint on "Contract Cheating"

Interesting ppt from a recent conference, The New Challenges Of Contract Cheating by Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke (Birmingham City University). Contract cheating is putting up details about the assignment you want written for you, and people bid to do the work. The ppt explains the process and ways in which it might be detected. http://www.bcu.ac.uk/_media/docs/ContractCheatingSIG_220612_LancasterClarkeKeynote.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Millennium sculpture and pontoon outside 02 dome on the Thames, from cable car, June 2012

New report on "evolving value for academic libraries"

Creaser, C and Spezi, V. (2012) Working together: evolving value for academic libraries. Sage. This newly-published report is the outcome of a project for Sage (the publishers) undertaken by LISU at Loughborough University, UK. The report is fairly short (16 pages). The findings are based on investigating some "best practice" at 8 universities: 2 in Nordic countries, 2 in the UK and 4 in North America, plus a questionnaire which was publicised via discussion lists etc. and got 630 responses. There are short sections on "embedding information literacy", "integrated teaching", "other support services", and "integrated research services". There is also a chapter on marketing issues. Recommendations are made for individual librarians (including developing teaching skills), library managers, and the wider institution. I'm not sure there is anything startlingly new here, but the report and the examples it gives could be useful when planning or putting together a case about services. The report is free (you have to give your contact details before downloading the report), downloaded from the "Report" tab on the project blog at http://libraryvalue.wordpress.com/
Photo by Sheila Webber: poppies, by the Sheffield tram stop, June 2012

Developing your teaching skills: short article

The results of a brief questionnaire on activities etc. in teaching by librarians (mostly from the UK) are reported in:
Bevan, N. (2012) "Developing your teaching skills." Impact: journal of the Career Development Group. Summer. http://careerdevelopmentgroup.org.uk/2012/06/developing-your-teaching-skills/
Photo by Sheila Webber: wild strawberries in my garden, June 2012

Journal of Information Literacy new issue

There's a new issue of the open access Journal of Information Literacy, volume 6, number 1 (2012) at http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/index. It includes the following, plus a conference report and book reviews:
- The experiences of Chinese PhD students in Australia: Encountering information literacy challenges: Jinghe Han
- Business information literacy teaching at different academic levels: An exploration of skills and implications for instructional design: Mariela Gunn, Cynthia E. Miree
- Active and reflective learning initiatives to improve web searching skills of business students: Alison E Lahlafi, Diane Rushton, Erica Stretton
- Learning Literacies through collaborative enquiry; collaborative enquiry through learning literacies: Jo Ashley, Freya Jarman, Tunde Varga-Atkins, Nedim Hassan
- Looking to the future: Developing an academic skills strategy to ensure information literacy survives in a changing higher education world: Helen Howard
- Creating an online tutorial to develop academic and research skills: Sara L Thornes
- The Welsh Information Literacy Project: Phase 2: Cathie Jackson
Photo by Sheila Webber: Alium heads, Sheffield Botanic Gardens, June 2012

Digital literacy in social sciences: articles

Just published, the lasted issue of the open access journal ELiSS - Enhancing Learning and Teaching in the Social Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 2, May 2012) focuses on Digital Literacies. The home page for the issue is at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/journals/eliss/volume-4-2. The editorial Digital literacy: digital maturity or digital bravery? summarises the range of articles, authored by UK academics and educational researchers, which are entitled:

- Making digital literacy a success in taught marketing courses (Robin Johnson, David Edmundson-Bird and Brendan J Keegan)
- Institutional strategies for supporting learners in a digital age (Rhona Sharpe and Greg Benfield)
- Learning journeys: exploring approaches to learner digital literary acquisition (Lyn Greaves, Claire Bradley and Debbie Holley)
- The process and affective environment of students personal information management (Sara Robinson and Frances Johnson)
- Bravery, technological literacy and political philosophy: replacing oral presentations with student­-created video presentations(Pete Woodcock)
Photo by Sheila Webber: Jubilee in Tescos, June 2012

"The Power of Information" (new Government strategy)

The power of information http://informationstrategy.dh.gov.uk/ is the new information strategy from the UK's Department of Health which "sets a ten-year framework for transforming information for the NHS [National Health Service], public health and social care." As Vicky Grant noted in the talk she gave on Thursday, it doesn't mention information literacy and doesn't seem to say anything about libraries either. In fact it is using the word "Information" to mean (in a fuzzy way) technology, networks and actual information content. However, as regards information content, it seems like the focus is on the information generated within the NHS, rather than having a real perspective on patient needs for information.
I'm afraid with this one, I find it impossible to write impartially, as a quick glance at the site made me angry as a UK citizen who values the NHS. You will see from the one slide which is supposed to make the whole strategy easy to understand that basically they want everyone to go online for everything, including things like booking doctor's appointments. This will leave people like my mother (who is very alert and independent, but has worsening sight and does not use the internet) with a second class service, I assume.
"One of the key commitments is that you will be able to view your GP record online by 2015." I'm sure that this promise has nothing to do with saving the Government money - except Information Age reports that - "Online GP records will save over £2bn, DoH claims". Hmm.
On Thursday I did a post on my cpd23 blog about using Storify and coincidentally they have put together a Storify page on the new strategy: http://informationstrategy.dh.gov.uk/storify/ It would be an interesting task for an information literacy class to match the stories snagged for this Storify, and see whether they reflect the full spectrum of commentary on it, or indeed to assemble alternative stories.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Goat in Maryon Park, May 2012