Recent articles

Journal of academic librarianship (priced publication) http://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship/
- Greer, K. et al (2012) "Beyond the Web Tutorial: Development and Implementation of an Online, Self-Directed Academic Integrity Course at Oakland University." Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (5), 251-258
- Gibbs, D. et al (2012) "Assessing the Research Needs of Graduate Students at Georgetown University" Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (5), 268-276
- Weiner, S. (2012) "Institutionalizing Information Literacy" Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (5), 287-293. [This is a slideshare of the same name, by her http://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/weiner-13631500]
- Baro, E. and Keboh, T. (2012) "Teaching and Fostering Information Literacy Programmes: A Survey of Five University Libraries in Africa" Journal of academic librarianship, 38 (5), 311-315
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn anemones and foliage, October 2012

Search skills resource for history students, in French and German

Compas http://www.compas.infoclio.ch/ is a project og infoclio.ch, which is a Swiss subject portal for the discipline of history. Compas is designed to be a resource for developing history students' information literacy and searching skills. The material is produced in two languages: French and German. I looked at the German version as my German is better than my French.
There are three themes: developing your own digital skills and support for your studies (e.g. using computers to help manage your work, take notes etc.); Researching topics in your discipline; Developing your network (including using social media, blogs and publication). For each there are subsections with advice (text is kept short), links, and the possibility to download the material in pdf.
For each theme there is a short video on the (mostly unfortunate) experience of a history student, done like silent films. Below is one of them (with German text, but I don't think you need to understand German to see what's going on). I think they are meant to convey "avoid being an idiot like Sophie" but I wonder whether it might rather say "you are doomed to fail". However the videos are professionally done and the rest of the resource is nice. But ... spot the librarian stereotype!!

Updated SMILE

SMILE was developed as a module which "develops study skills and employability skills, integrated with students academic work." There is now an updated version: SMILE 2.0 (SMILE= Study Methods and Information Literacy Exemplars). It is available as a set of zipped files in the JORUM open respository, advertised as a "Web based information literacy training package. Includes study skills and new modules on ethics, research design, group work. Version 2 of package, August 2012" http://dspace.jorum.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/17355
Photo by Sheila Webber: tips of corn plants, Hellingly, September 2012

IFLA #wlic2012 >Form@doct: quels apprentissages en ligne pour des doctorants?

Liveblogging at the IFLA World Library and Information Conference in Helsinki, Finland. Next up is Form@doct: quels apprentissages en ligne pour des doctorants? (Form@doct: Designing innovative online tutorials for PhD students in France) presented by Marie-Laure Malingre.
This concerned online training of PhD students, a collaboration of several universities in two regions of France. There were 3 main starting questions, about the nature of information literacy for PhD students, whether e-learning was appropriate/better for PhD students and which resources and tools were appropriate.
The project was stimulated by a number of factors including new higher education frameworks and the move to the virtual campus.
They had carried out a study in 2007 which had revealed some of the issues - such as the patchy nature of current coverages, the need for personalised, flexible learning. One challenge was having several approaches in the same tool, another was supporting distance learning without sufficient human resources, and also there was the issue of forming a link betwen clasroom and distance learning.
They had to decide whether they would try to cover all material comprehensive, or be more selective, also there was the balance of practical and theoretical material. There was disagreement over the latter point, so both practice and theory is included. In terms of the balance of general and specific, the material is first of all generic, but with disciplinary material inserted appropriate. There is a hierarchical arrangement, with strong granularity, so specific items can be identified and used. The 4 main ways of accessing are Tree Structure, FAQ, Search Engine and Tag Cloud.
Overall a key problem is that one of lack of human resources to develop and support the resource. However, there have been 89,000 consultations of the 40 guides. The FAQ has had increasing use, and has become a way of accessing the content. They have had some suggestions from learners of resources to be covered, and some individual questions submitted to the FAQ.
I asked whether the doctoral supervisors had been involved, and it was emphasised that the doctoral colleges had indeed been involved in development and understood the value of the material.
Full text at Form@doct: quels apprentissages en ligne pour des doctorants?
Translations: [English version here] 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)

IFLA #wlic e-Learning delivery mode extends reach to IL learners in Singapore

I'm liveblogging the IFLA World Library and Information Conference in Helsinki, Finland. The next paper is Proliferating Information Literacy - e-Learning delivery mode extends reach to IL learners in Singapore from Gee Miaw Miin.
She explained how schools in Singapore schools may not have librarians, and they look to the National Library to provide training. So there was a 5 year project (2007-2011) involving parents and teachers as well as students. They developed 26 "bite sized" IL modules, which people have to pay for, with a target of 40,000 learners.
The skills they targetted were resource skills, serach skills, critique skills and publishing, focusing on citation and presention. They used an instructional designer, with the principles:
- allow individual control of pace and learning activities (allowing pause and additional sources)
- addressing three learning styles (visual aural, kinesthetic)
- break information into bite size (the photo shows that slide)
- connect information to ptrior learning (e.g. reflecting on past searching experiences)
- create scenarios around real life information problems e.g. a housewife looking for recipes, a businessman looking for data
- provide hands on activities or incorporate games e.g. crossword puzzles
- provide templates and summaries for learners' future use
- have final assessment
In terms of marketing, to get 40,000 people to actually pay and take the modules, the speaker emphasised parttnerships with all sorts of agencies - a real variety including business sector and public sector organistions. There was support from the top level, as there was a media and information literacy initiative from government. This includes training adults (about 10% of the total of 50,00 people taking units, I think).
The Ministry of Education's 21st century Competencies framework provides a valuable context, and also there is an initiative to train all teachers, so that IL is integrated into the curriculum. They are exploring the possibility of supporting more collaborative leraning (which is not an element at the moment). A project team is also looking at delivering the IL training using mobile apps.
There is preview material at http://www.nlba.sg
Full paper at Proliferating Information Literacy - e-Learning delivery mode extends reach to IL learners in Singapore GEE MIAW MIIN (National Library Board, Singapore)

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)

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

Articles: faculty collaboration; tutorials; revised ACRL standards

Having highlighted an article from a current issue of College and Research libraries news (which is open acess) yesterday, here's a few articles from back issues, this year.
From the April 2012 issue: Adam Balcziunas and Larissa Gordon "Walking a mile in their shoes: Librarians as teaching faculty" (volume 73, no 4, pp192-195); Bruce T. Sajdak "Let the faculty do it: Responsibility and collaboration in developing an information literacy program" (volume 73, no 4, pp196-199)
From the May 2012 issue: Catherine Palmer, Char Booth and Lia Friedman "Collaborative customization: Tutorial design across institutional lines" (volume 73, no. 5, pp243-248)
Perhaps most notably, in January: The ACRL Standards for Libraries in Higher Education Task Force (2012) "Standards for libraries in higher education: Approved by the ACRL Board of Directors, October 2011." College and Research libraries news, 73 (1), 34-48. http://crln.acrl.org/content/73/1.toc
Photo by Sheila Webber: Foxgloves, June 2012.

Réaliser un travail de recherche: Infographic

The Groupe de travail du Programme de développement des compétences informationnelles du réseau [information literacy working group] de l’Université du Québec (Canada) have produced a nice (French language) infographic showing the stages in searching for a topic. You can even download a zip file with the documents to print oout and paste together. The blog post explaining it (in French) is at https://tribuneci.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/infographie-et-competences-informationnelles/
Actually if you speak French (or are adept at Google Translate) the blog as a whole is of interest: https://tribuneci.wordpress.com/
Note: the picture is from the blog posting, copyright the authors on the blog post I just linked to. It shows the final stage of making the infographic from their downloaded files, namely "Relax!" ;-)

Reference Services Review: twittering

There's a Twitter focus in the latest issue (vol 40 no 2) of Reference Services Review:
- Libraries atwitter: trends in academic library tweeting: by Darcy Del Bosque, Sam A. Leif, Susie Skarl (pp. 199 - 213)
- To tweet, or not to tweet? by Susan Jennings (pp. 214 - 216)
- Students tweet the darndest things about your library – and why you need to listen. by Steven Bell (pp. 217 - 220)
- Just the right tweet at just the right time. by Ameet Doshi (pp. 221 - 223)
- Beyond broadcasting: Customer service, community and information experience in the Twittersphere. by Lyndelle Gunton, Kate Davis (pp. 224 - 227)
Other articles include:
- Reference Services Review: content analysis, 2006-2011: by Katy Mahraj (pp. 182 - 198) This analysis confirms that the vast majority of authors are from the academic sector, with 83% from the United States, and "information literacy and instruction" is the topic with the biggest share of articles.
- Information literacy on Facebook: an analysis. by Donna Witek, Teresa Grettano (pp. 242 - 257)
- Student preference for tutorial design: a usability study. by Lori S. Mestre (pp. 258 - 276)
- Engaging undergraduates in discipline-based research. by Heidi Gauder, Fred Jenkins (pp. 277 - 294)
This is a priced publication: here is the home page: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0090-7324
Photo by Sheila Webber: York castle with bluebells, 2012

Communications in Information Literacy new issue

Volume 5, number 2 (2012) of Communications in Information Literacy has been published. This is an open access journal. Articles include:
- Team-Based Learning in an Information Literacy Course: Trudi Jacobsen
- Share and Share Alike: Barriers and Solutions to Tutorial Creation and Management:Anne-Marie Deitering, Hannah Gascho Rempel
- Guiding Students from Consuming Information to Creating Knowledge: A Freshman English Library Instruction Collaboration: Carolyn B. Gamtso, Susanne F. Paterson
- Designing and Implementing an Information Literacy Course in the Humanities: Ellen Daugman, Leslie McCall, Kaeley McMahan
- Design to learn, learn to design: Using backward design for information literacy instruction: Bruce E. Fox, John J. Doherty
- Academic Libraries and the Credit-Bearing Class: A Practical Approach: Margaret G. Burke.
http://www.comminfolit.org/index.php?journal=cil&page=issue&op=current
Photo by Sheila Webber: Candytuft, Sheffield, April 2012

PRIMO (Peer Reviewed Instructional Materials Online) nominations

April 25th 2012 is the next deadline for nominations for inclusion in Peer Reviewed Instructional Materials Online (PRIMO). You can nominate online information literacy tutorials, virtual tours, or other online information literacy project "for review and possible inclusion in PRIMO: Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online." "Site submissions for PRIMO are accepted continually, but are reviewed for possible inclusion twice per year." I have blogged about PRIMO before and it is worth bookmarking for the links and reviews, including teh "site of the month". Information at: http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/sections/is/iswebsite/projpubs/primo
Photo by Sheila Webber: my cherry blossom, April 2012