WILU 2nd call for papers

Another call for papers for the Canadian Information Literacy conference: WILU. The Conference will be held at The University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, May 8-10, 2013. The theme for WILU 2013 is Synchronicity: The Time is Now. Possible topics include: Merging tradition with innovation; Balancing educational theory with pedagogical practice; Providing instruction for interdisciplinary programs; Theorizing instructional technology; Distributed instruction; Information ethics; Open access resources for instruction; Literacies: information and beyond. The deadline for proposal submissions is December 3rd, 2012. More info at http://lib.unb.ca/WILU/program/call-for-proposals/

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference 2013

There is a call for abstracts for the 7th International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference (EBLIP7). This takes place at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada July 15-18, 2013. Conference themes are: Beyond the horizon (visioning the future, investigation, discovery); Ploughing new terrain (cultivating and enhancing productivity through innovation, experimentation, transforming practice); Harvesting the rewards (assessing outcomes, impact, value) and Summer fallow (lessons learnt, reflection, insight). There is a call for research papers, reviews of evidence, reports of innovative practice, hot topic discussion papers, and poster presentations. Submission deadline is 30 November, 2012. Further information at http://eblip7.library.usask.ca/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Cat in botanical gardens, November 2012

Information Science and Information Literacy conference in Romania

The 4th International Conference on Information Science and Information Literacy will be held in Sibiu, Romania, April 17-19, 2013. There are broad themes: Information literacy; Education (e.g. Teaching information literacy; Reviewing the fundamentals of education and curriculum redesign); Digital libraries; and Information science and technologies (e.g. Information retrieval; Data mining strategies for digital libraries). There is still a call for papers open. More info at http://bcu.ulbsibiu.ro/conference/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Squirrel, Sheffield, Nov 2012

London Libraries Learning Research Reading Group

There is a blog for this group ("an informal and impromtu reading group for London librarians interested in research, learning and information literacy") just set up.The group had their first meeting on 8th November and plan a further meeting in December. http://lllrrg.wordpress.com/

Manifesto for Teaching Online, 13 November

The authors of the Manifesto for Teaching Online, led by Clara O’Shea (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), will discuss the Manifesto on Tuesday 13 November, 12 noon SL time (which is 8pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/d3m6bzs for times elsewhere) on Infolit iSchool in the virtual world, Second Life (SL), http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/132/239/22 ). You need a SL avatar and the SL browser on your computer, to participate. All welcome!

The Manifesto for Teaching Online is a series of brief statements that attempt to capture what is generative and productive about online teaching, course design, writing, assessment and community. It was produced by Jen Ross, Clara O’Shea, Sian Bayne and Hamish Macleod members of the programme team on the MSc in E-learning at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and has attracted a lot of interest and debate - see http://onlineteachingmanifesto.wordpress.com/

A Sheffield iSchool Centre for Information Literacy Research event.
Picture (with one of the Manifesto statements) by Sheila Webber, taken in Second Life.

Cfp Umbrella conference (Manchester, UK)

One of the themes for the library/information conference, Umbrella, is information literacy. Umbrella takes place in Manchester, UK, 2 - 3 July 2013.
There is a call for papers, deadline 30 November. The theme name is Information to best support society: Information and digital literacy in education, work, health and leisure. Suggested topics are: The positive impact of information literacy and the importance of innovation to secure its place in a learning society; The importance of maintaining information literacy development opportunities for people as they move between different settings e.g. school/FE/HE/research/ employment; How Library and Information Professionals are adapting an information literacy offer in a social media context; Developing the developers: explorations with employers and educators to ensure that information literacy practitioners are relevant and appropriate to the environment they operate in. More info at http://www.cilip.org.uk/umbrella2013/pages/call-for-papers.aspx
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bicycles, autumn, Psychology building, November 2012

Call for Papers: 2012 Conference of Asian Media Literacy and Education

There is a call for Papers for the 2012 Conference of Asian Media Literacy and Education being held December 1, 2012 in Chongqing, China.Contact is Pro. Guo Xiaoke gxiaoke@gmail.com "Tsinghua International Center for Communications (TICC) is a founding member of the UNESCO-UNAOC UNITWIN on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (from now “Network”), created in May 2010. UNITWIN = University Twinning and Networking Programme of UNESCO. The main objective of the Network is to build capacity in each country and regional areas in order to further develop media and information literacy and intercultural dialogue programs and to contribute to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals."

They say "In light of the fact that teenagers and college students are the main users of internet media, the theme of the conference is how to effectively raise media literacy in institutions of higher learning and teenage education." Therefore their key topics are: Status-quo of media exposure of teenagers and college students; How to raise media literacy and conduct media education of teenagers; Challenges from social media to Journalism education; Study of China’s online public opinion. Papers should be 4,000- 10,000 words, with a 300 word abstract and biography of the author.The abstract should be emailed by November 15, 2012 and the full text by November 20, 2012 to nadnew@163.com
The following was given as the contact website, but when I just looked at the Google translation of it, I couldn't immediately see anything about this specific conference http://www.media.tsinghua.edu.cn . I found the information originally here.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Trapped autumn leaf, Royal Standard, November 2012

Online Digital Literacy Forum , November 14th (this is my 2250th post!)

The American Library Association's Digital Literacy Task Force is running a session Creating a Culture of Learning: How Librarians Keep up with Digital Media and Technology on Google Hangout on November 14, at 7pm EST (which is 12 midnight in the UK).
"Creating a Culture of Learning will explore how information professions can stay ahead of or on the learning curve with our students, colleagues and patrons as new devices, software and Internet-enabled services emerge. It is part of a series that began at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference and will continue in December with a discussion on assessing digital literacy." Speakers are:
- Caroline Haebig, instructional technology coordinator, Adlai E. Stevenson High School.
- Jamie Hollier, a technology, project management, and library consultant
- Gwyneth Jones, aka The Daring Librarian, a middle-school teacher librarian at Murray Hill Middle School in Laurel, Maryland.
- Bobbi Newman, aka Librarian by Day, currently enrolled at Iowa State University pursuing her second master’s degree.
- Anu Vedantham, who directs the Weigle Information Commons at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
"Join the conversation by watching a live-stream of the panelists on YouTube and chatting with other viewers and tweeting with the hash tag #digilit12. Questions and comments will be submitted to panelists throughout the program. The URL for the YouTube broadcast will be tweeted and posted to the District Dispatch by 6:30 p.m. EST, at the latest. Please RSVP at alawash@alawash.org." More details at: http://www.districtdispatch.org/2012/11/oitp-confirms-speakers-for-culture-of-learning-in-online-digital-literacy-forum-november-14/
Photo by Sheila Webber, taken in Second Life.

cpf LOEX posters

For the LOEX (US Information Literacy conference) there is a call for posters (deadline January 25, 2013). It is open to "Students currently enrolled in a graduate program in library and information sciences along with librarians in resident or intern programs". The web page is here: http://www.loexconference.org/posterproposals.html

Open Access Week - and - How Open Is It?

Open Access Week is 22-28 October 2012. The main website listing events, publicity etc. is at http://www.openaccessweek.org/
Another resource I just saw tweeted by Lyn Parker is How Open Is It , a guide (in several languages) to help judge the extent to which an item is "open access". The guide is short and has a spectrum of open-ness for key elements (e.g. reader rights, re-use rights). It can be downloaded at http://www.plos.org/about/open-access/howopenisit/
I might as well mention Lyn's Copyright Compliance Scoopit, too: http://www.scoop.it/t/copyright-compliance
Logo downloaded from http://www.openaccessweek.org/page/englishhigh-resolution-1

International panel on information literacy associations, 21 November

An international panel talks about information literacy associations on 21st November at the first event to be jointly sponsored by the Sheffield iSchool Centre for Information Literacy Research and the the Association of College and Research Libraries Virtual World Interest Group.
When: Sunday 21 October 2012 noon SL time, 2012 (which is 8pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/9h2j3pe for times elsewhere)
Where: Farradane Centre, Infolit iSchool, in the virtual world Second Life, http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/91/34/22
You need a Second Life avatar and the SL browser installed on your computer to attend. All welcome!
Panellists:
Sheila Webber (i.e. me, Sheila Yoshikawa in SL), Senior Lecturer, Information School, University of Sheffield – UK (British IL Associations)
Ewa Rozkosz – Saba Pearl in SL (Polish IL Association)
Elvira Saurina (Mariae Habana in SL) -, Sistema de Bibliotecas. Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile Santiago de Chile
Stylianos Mystakidis (Sylianos Ling in SL)- E-learning and Virtual Worlds Specialist at the Library and Information Center of the University of Patras, Greece
Valerie Hill – (Valibrarian Gregg in SL) LISD Library Media Specialist, Adjunct Instructor, TWU School of Library and Information Studies- USA (AASL 21st Century Standards Information Literacy)

Information Literacies Track call for papers

There is an information literacies conference track for the eighth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS8). COLIS 2013 takes place at the Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen, Denmark, 19-22 August, 2013. The call is for short or long papers presenting empirical research within information literacies and/or discussjng methodological issues. The deadline for submissions is March 1st 2013. Among the accepted papers on information literacies, one paper will be awarded the inaugural iilresearch Best Information Literacies Paper Award. The call for papers is at http://www.iva.dk/english/colis8/call-for-information-literacies-track/ and the COLIS conference web site is at http://www.iva.dk/english/colis8/ Questions regarding the workshop should be directed to Camilla Moring, member of the iilresearch-network and Local chair (cm@iva.dk). General queries regarding submissions should be directed to Jeppe Nicolaisen (jni@iva.dk), Chair of Publications and Proceedings.
Photo by Sheila Webber: duck, Sheffield, October 2012

WILU 2013: call for papers

There is a call for papers for the Canadian Information Literacy conference: WILU. The Conference will be held at The University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, May 8-10, 2013. The theme for WILU 2013 is Synchronicity: The Time is Now which "reflects the increasing need for Instruction Librarians to balance a myriad of seemingly competing demands. We invite proposals that consider what it means to provide timely information literacy programs in a world of synched devices, decentralized instruction, and information overload, all while serving institutions in flux." Possible topics include: Merging tradition with innovation; Balancing educational theory with pedagogical practice; Providing instruction for interdisciplinary programs; Theorizing instructional technology; Distributed instruction; Information ethics; Open access resources for instruction; Literacies: information and beyond. The deadline for proposal submissions is December 3rd, 2012. More info at http://lib.unb.ca/WILU/program/call-for-proposals/
Photo by Sheila Webber: yet more autumn anemones, October 2013

Just give me 10 minutes… online talk at 3pm UK time today

At 3pm today (UK time) there is a free online talk "Just give me 10 minutes…” Information Literacy in the Age of Web-Scale Discovery from Alison Sharman at the University of Huddersfield, UK. This is part of a webinar series from Serials Solutions, a ProQuest company. There are further talks with a searching/ information literacy theme; e.g. on The Impact of Serial Solutions’ Summon on Information Literacy Instruction: Librarian Perceptions from Stefanie Buck and Margaret Mellinger of Oregon State University Libraries on 11 October 2012 at 6pm UK time (1pm Eastern time USA). For information about the whole series http://www.serialssolutions.com/en/webinars/upcoming/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Coffee morning in the iSchool on behalf of Macmillan Cancer Care last week

Intergenerational Literacies: call for papers

The IFLA Literacy and Reading and Information Literacy Sections are seeking proposals for a joint programme to be held at the IFLA Conference in Singapore in August 2013: Intergenerational Literacies: texto / techno. The closing date is November 30 2012.

The challenge of new information and learning landscape can lead to all sorts of information gaps. One of them is a gap between texto and techno generations which can cause intergenerational isolation and separation. The program will showcase innovative and effective library programmes that intend to bridge this gap.
Proposals are requested for as many as ten tabletop presentations which will be given simultaneously. After an opening plenary keynote address, audience members will rotate to three different fifteen-minute presentations of their choice. Presenters will therefore be asked to repeat their presentation three times for three different sets of people.

Proposals chosen for presentation will be specific about how libraries and/or associations have tackled issues related to texto and techno literacies in their particular setting, thus developing intergenerational literacies, dialogue, digital inclusion and social cohesion. They should be grounded in theory, research, and/or practical applications. Because these projects will be presented in an informal, small group setting, speakers should plan some visual accompaniment such as a poster that can be set up on the table. Presenters may also want to bring brochures or flyers to hand out. People submitting successful proposals will be asked to write a brief paper summarizing their library programme or project for publication in the IFLA Proceedings. All chosen presenters will be listed in the official Conference programme.

Proposals in English are required, and should provide the following information: Name and institution of speaker(s); Brief biographical information; Proposal title; Brief (300 to 500 word) description of project and presentation format; Language of presentation. Proposals should be sent to Elena Corradini (Secretary of the Literacy and Reading Section) at ecorradini67@gmail.com by November 30, 2012. Please indicate "IFLA Proposal WLIC 2013" on the subject line. Finalists will be notified by December 15, 2012, and will be expected to submit final versions of their papers in one of the official IFLA languages by May 15, 2013.

For more information, please contact Leikny Haga Indergaard (Chair of Literacy and Reading Section) at: Leikny.Indergaard@bergen.kommune.no Please note that it is the speakers’ responsibility to find funding for their participation.
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn anemones, September 2012

This is Information Literacy month!

In the USA it is National Information Literacy Awareness Month. You can get the code to embed the badge on the right from here: http://www.librariesthriving.org/partnerships/2012-information-literacy-campaign If you are in the USA in one of the 13 states that has signed up to the National IL awareness Proclamation you can customise the badge to advertise that your state supports IL.
On Tuesday, 16 October 16, 2012, 10:30am – 12:00pm EST (that's starting at 3.30pm UK time, see http://tinyurl.com/9c3pmbj for times elsewhere), the National Forum for Information Literacy and Credo Reference/Libraries Thriving will host a webinar From School to Workforce: Information Literacy, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills, "focusing on the 21st century skills that all learners will need to compete effectively in today’s dynamic global economy". Panelists include: Jennifer Homer, ABC – Vice President of Communications and Career Development for the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD); William Badke, Associate Librarian, Trinity Western University, Canada; Lana W. Jackman, President, National Forum on Information Literacy. There is free registration: go to http://infolit.org/celebrating-national-information-literacy-awareness-month/

LILAC 2013 call for papers

There's a call for papers for the LILAC (Information literacy) conference (being held at Manchester University, UK, 25-27 March 2013). They can take the form of: Short papers; Long papers; Workshop sessions; Symposia; Teachmeet presentations; or posters. The closing date for submissions is 16 November 2012. More information at http://lilacconference.com/WP/call-for-papers/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Lilac, 2008.

Banned Books Week

30 Sept - 6 Oct is Banned Books Week, which is obviously AGAINST banning books. There is a home page at http://bannedbooksweek.org/ and a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/bannedbooksweek This is a US (particularly American Library Association) organised event, but e.g. you can post your favourite "Banned" title on the Facebook page.

I am part of a Banned Books Week panel Free to read, taking place in the virtual world Second Life on 1 October at 5pm Second Life Time = US Pacific Time (1am Tuesday in the UK! see http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20121001T17&p1=234 for times elsewhere) on Community Virtual Library Exhibition Area http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/61/94/24/. Other panel speakers on intellectual freedom are Pat Franks, Valerie Hill, Jane Bering, and Monika Talaroc.

2nd ASIST European Workshop cfp

The 2nd ASIST European Workshop will be held at Åbo Akademi University, Turku/Åbo, Finland 5-6 June 2013. ASIST is the American Society for Information Science and Technology. The conference theme is Digital information and institutions: changing practices of management and use. More specific topics include information behaviour and information literacy. There is a call for full research papers, position papers, panels and posters. Deadline for all submissions is February 1 2013. More info at
http://blogs.abo.fi/aew2013/call-for-papers/

ALDinHE conference 2013 cfp

The Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) Conference 2013, Celebrating Learning Development, will take place at the University of Plymouth, UK, 25-27 March 2013 Key note speakers are Professor Leslie Ebdon, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education, Dr Stella Cottrell, Director for Lifelong Learning at the University of Leeds and Dave Cormier from Canada will share his experiences of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and rhizomatic learning. Further information and to submit a proposal go to http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/plymouth13.htm
Photo by Sheila Webber: More michaelmas daisies, September 2012