Open synergies and symbioses - The role of academic libraries and the importance of information literacy in the Open landscape

The next journal club discussion will take place on Wednesday 25th September at 8pm and is on the topic of Open Educational Resources.  Join our discussion by adding your comments and questions to the comments below this post.


First of all a bit of background and before that a disclaimer: I’m not a real librarian, I am a shambrarian (to utilise an occasional twitter meme). I have, however, worked with repositories since 2007 in the context of Open Access to research (OA) and Open Educational Resources (OER) and am primarily interested in sustainable models of OA and potential synergies with OER (and open education more generally), particularly underlying technology and interoperability of systems, including open standards and the potential of Open Source software (OSS).

As a focus for this discussion I would like to point you towards a report by Gema Bueno-de-la-Fuenta and John Robertson - The roles of libraries and information professionals in Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives. From August 2012 and derived from data now nearly 2 years old the report is still highly relevant; academic libraries (and repositories) are arguably still primarily focussed on access to research materials and historically have not been closely involved with the management of teaching materials which, where they are available digitally, are often in virtual learning environments (VLEs) to which the library may not have access and may be poorly integrated into users’ view of library resources. The report itself is lengthy but the executive summary provides a good overview and has informed subsequent conference presentations by both Gema and myself, the slides for which are available here and here respectively.

It is probably accurate to say that both OA and OER have recently moved from fairly niche communities to more mainstream interest, really in the last 12 months or so, due largely to the impact of the Finch report and resulting RCUK policy - at least in the context of OA and perhaps OER by association (see also MOOCs!) My own involvement with OER has primarily been through the JISC/HEA OER programme that ran in three phases from 2009-2012. I also sit on the steering group for Jorum, the national OER repository, which supported the programme throughout and which has just last week released its new interface which looks great and includes new features including item level usage stats* and a sophisticated API that gives access to content, metadata and usage data and can be used to build customised web tools and services (not yet available - formal release in October). Huge congratulations to the team at Mimas who I know have worked extremely hard and are rightly proud of the result. In terms of information literacy, Jorum are planning a bespoke collection to sit alongside their other collections and are currently collecting feedback via this survey (deadline this Friday 20th September 2013). For more information and to access a spreadsheet of suggested metadata fields and terms see http://delilaopen.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/jorums-information-literacy-collection-needs-your-help/).

* In fact stats can also be derived for groups of items, say by institution, licence type or project tag.

In the spirit of Open I have made an infolit OER of my own using the excellent Xerte Online Toolkits, Open Source software from the University of Nottingham which I hope will be suitable for the new collection and which you can find in Jorum here.

The resource is derived from the SCONUL 7 Pillars of Information Literacy and brings together the core model along with several ‘lenses’ highlighting different attributes, and using language recognised by the specific communities which they represent; it includes Michelle Dalton’s healthcare/evidence based practice lens which was the subject of the last post and discussion.

Xerte itself is an excellent tool for Digital Literacy - input is form based, intuitive enough for beginners with the option to use HTML tags or more sophisticated web-based technology. It can also be embedded on any webpage using an iframe (I would have done so here but the page design is too narrow). Moreover, as output is HTML5, unlike proprietary software like Adobe Flash and PDF, content is accessible on any device/browser including mobile. Content can also be more easily reused even without access to the software itself - just by cut and paste / right click -> save as. Like any HTML webpage.

If you would like to reuse this resource you can download three separate versions:

• This zip file for deployment on your own webserver (just unzip and upload to a webserver as a self-contained directory)
• The SCORM package for use in a VLE or other software that will play SCORM
• This archive zip file which you can import back into your own instance of XOT

Journal Club meeting: 28 August 8-9pm: A Healthcare Lens for the SCONUL Seven Pillars Model

I was extremely flattered when I was asked if I would be interested in discussing my recent paper in JIL, "Developing an evidence-based practice healthcare lens for the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy model", http://dx.doi.org/10.11645/7.1.1813 at the next Information Literacy Journal Club session.

By way of background, the idea for the paper essentially came out of my experience working in a hospital library - a very different context to a research or academic library, and one where the focus is on identifying, using and integrating evidence and information with clinical practice. We often think of information literacy in a purely education context, but recent reports such as Project Information Literacy's "Learning Curve: How College Graduates Solve Information Problems Once They Join the Workplace", highlight it as a very real issue for lifelong learning, the workplace, and everyday life.

Whilst I often refer to and use a number of IL models in my instructional practice (particularly ANCIL), the SCONUL Seven Pillars Model struck me as a useful framework for developing an Evidence Based Practice Model for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the 2011 revision increased the emphasis on skills and behaviours compared with the older version, and so I felt the SCONUL model was a bit more 'up to date' than the ACRL Standards for instance, which are currently being revised. But the primary reason was the lens feature, which allows the original generic core model to be adapted for specific user groups and needs, to increase the context and relevance. There is currently a research lens, a digital literacy lens, and an open educational resource lens. This flexibility was a big attraction, as I felt I could tailor the basic model, to incorporate the specific needs and information problems of clinical staff based on their feedback from interviews. The lens format can potentially be adapted for lots of different user groups, and I would love to see additional lenses developed in the future.

I would love to hear any comments people may have regarding the paper, and the use of the lens in practice. One of the biggest limitations with the study is the small sample size, so I think a larger study may produce even richer data. Or perhaps other groups, such as GPs, could be a useful population to study to compare and contrast information behaviours. I'm looking forward to lots of discussion on the 28th!

For those seeking a shorter version of my paper, I also have a slideshare from a recent pecha kucha presentation on the full paper.

Diagnosing Information Literacy - A Healthcare Lens for the SCONUL Seven Pillars model from Michelle Dalton

Journal Club meeting: 24 July: Barbara Fister's "outrageous claims" for university librarians

The next online online blog-comment information literacy Journal Club meeting takes place at 8-9 pm UK time on Wednesday 24th July 2013 (see http://tinyurl.com/ow3kfxz for times elsewhere).

The topic will be Barbara Fister's stimulating keynote paper, aimed at academic librarians, presented at the LOEX (USA information literacy) conference in May. The paper is online at:
Fister, B. (2013) Decode academy. Paper presented at LOEX, 3 May 2013. http://homepages.gac.edu/~fister/loex13.pdf

There is information on Barbara here. Barbara starts by asking what libraries, universities and knowledge are for. She says, for example, that "knowledge will set us free. Knowledge liberates us from the ignorance and prejudice and helps us make sense of the world". She then goes on to make some "outrageous claims", namely
- Research papers should not be part of the first year experience
- We should stop teaching students how to find sources
- Very rarely are citations needed
- We should stop policing plagiarism
- We should stop implying "scholarly" means "good"
- Librarians should spend as much time working with faculty as with students
So - do you agree? Barbara's whole paper is not enormously long, but if you have very little time, home in on the claim you find most interesting/ agree with most/ disagree with most.

As before, the real-time discussion will take place in comments to this blog post during the hour mentioned above, with me helping the discussion along. People are also very welcome to add comments and questions before and after this real-time event. Note that moderation is usually turned on for comments (because otherwise we get spammed!), but we will turn moderation off on the day of the discussion, so that your comments appear immediately.

The picture is one of those which Barbara uses in the paper: it is by juggzy_malone (2007) on Flickr.

London Libraries Learning Research Reading Group meets on 5th June

The London Libraries Learning Research Reading Group is next meeting on 5th June - this is a face to face meeting (not virtual ;-) at the LSE in London, UK. They will be discussing Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy: Creating Strategic Collaborations for a Changing Academic Environment. More info at http://lllrrg.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/june-meeting/

TeachMeets: discussion on 21st May

The next online journal club will take place at 8pm UK time (see here for times elsewhere in the world) on Tuesday 21st May here on this blog, as a discussion in blog comments.

The topic will be TeachMeets - originating in the schools sector, a TeachMeet is an ‘unconference’, organised by teachers for teachers. The TeachMeet has been adapted into the LibTeachMeet, with the first Library TeachMeet taking place in Cambridge in 2010. 

The role of librarian as teacher has gained increasing prominence over the last few years, with a range of conferences, resources and networks appearing to support this. Many librarians do gain some kind of teaching qualification, but this formal education can be complemented by informal sharing of ideas through events such as TeachMeets. 

The following article gives the background and provides the starting point for our discussion:

Chapter: Tumelty, N., Kuhn, I., & Birkwood, K. (2012). TeachMeet: Librarians, learning from each other. In P. Godwin & J. Parker (Eds.),Information,Literacy Beyond Library 2.0 (pp. 191-201).  London: Facet Publishing.  http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/244069

As well as running a LibTeachMeet in Newcastle (ToonLibTeachmeet), I’ve recently been attending some teachers’ teachmeets to gain inspiration. My blog post about this could provide some ideas for discussion: 

#tmblakes13– a TeachMeet with real live teachers and real live music, hblanchett.com

Whether you’ve been involved in organising or participating in a LibTeachMeet, or are simply interested in the concept, join in our discussion. 

Questions

• What do you think of the concept?
• In what way are TeachMeets for librarians different?
• What techniques did you find successful? What didn’t work?
• Why do you think there haven’t been more LibTeachMeets?
• How could you see TeachMeets changing? What would you like to see?
• How else could librarians support each other in their roles as teachers?

Further Links

CambridgeLibTeachMeet

ToonLibTeachMeet

Teachmeet.org.uk

Some links from last week's ANCIL discussion

There was a good discussion about A New Curriculum for Information Literacy (ANCIL) last week (and you can still add a comment if you want: the post is here http://infolitjournalclub.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/online-journal-club-13-march-ancil.html#comment-form)

I said I would gather up the links that were mentioned during the session, and here they are:

- ANCIL website http://newcurriculum.wordpress.com

- ANCIL wiki http://implementingancil.pbworks.com/w/page/48731612/Introduction

- UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy curriculum for teachers http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-and-communication-materials/publications/full-list/media-and-information-literacy-curriculum-for-teachers/

- Helen Webster's ANCIL: Information Literacy First Aid http://implementingancil.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/49095011/Information%20Literacy%20First%20Aid.pdf

- Alexandria Proclamation http://archive.ifla.org/III/wsis/BeaconInfSoc.html

- Welsh Information Literacy project http://librarywales.org/en/information-literacy/project/

- Scottish Information Literacy project http://www.therightinformation.org/archive-silp/

- Sturges, Paul, and Almuth Gastinger. “Information Literacy as a Human Right.” Libri: International Journal of Libraries & Information Services 60.3 (2010): 195-202. copy here

- 10th ALDinHE Conference 2013: Celebrating Learning Development Plymouth University 25th – 27th March 2013 http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/plymouth13.htm

Online Journal Club: 13 March: ANCIL

The next online online blog-comment information literacy Journal Club meeting takes place at 8-9 pm UK time on Wednesday 13th March 2013 (see http://tinyurl.com/chs7qu3 for times elsewhere - and note that this is one of those pesky times of year when the difference between times in the UK and times in North America are different from usual, because we go over to summertime later than the USA/Canada!).

The topic will be A New Curriculum for Information Literacy (ANCIL). For those new to ANCIL, you may want to start with the Executive Summary, which is here:
http://ccfil.pbworks.com/f/Executive_summary.pdf
or by paging through the powerpoint which is embedded below.

As before, the real-time discussion will take place in comments to this blog post during the hour mentioned above. During that time the authors of ANCIL, Jane Secker and her colleagues, will be present and helping Niamh Tumelty and me facilitate discussion. People are also very welcome to add comments and questions before and after this real-time event. Note that moderation is usually turned on for comments (because otherwise we get spammed!), but we will turn moderation off on the day of the discussion, so that your comments appear immediately.

There is lots of information about ANCIL on the ANCIL website at http://newcurriculum.wordpress.com/. On the website it explains that "ANCIL is the product of a two-phase research fellowship funded by the Arcadia Programme at Cambridge University Library. The original project research by Jane Secker & Emma Coonan (May-July 2011) produced A New Curriculum for Information Literacy, a structured and holistic framework for meeting the information literacy needs of undergraduates entering higher education over the next five years. A second phase researched by Helen Webster and Katy Wrathall (October-December 2011) looked at Strategies for Implementing the New Curriculum at a number of UK higher education institutions, including Cambridge."

There has been much interest in ANCIL internationally so we hope people will take this opportunity to discuss it ;-)

We will add some questions for discussion nearer the time!

Developing and implementing a new curriculum for information literacy from Jane Secker

Online Journal Club: 13th February! #ILread

Scroll down to see, and join in, the blog-post discussion of today's article!
The next blog-post discussion for our online Journal Club will be on this open-access article:
McKinney, P., and Sen, B. (2012). Reflection for learning: understanding the value of reflective writing for information literacy development. Journal of Information Literacy, 6(2), http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/article/view/LLC-V6-I2-2012-5

The date and time will be Wednesday 13th February 8pm-9pm UK time (see http://tinyurl.com/byg2dze for times elsewhere) . The live discussion will take place by posting blog comments on this blog. You can see what happened at the last discussion, here: http://infolitjournalclub.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/first-journal-club-discussion-thurs.html. People are obviously welcome to post comments before and after the "live" session.

Our February article reports on the use of a reflective information literacy report as part of the assessment for a business intelligence module, where the main piece of coursework was a business report (for a real local company). Hopefully you will have time to read the whole article, but I have also put up a few powerpoint slides to summarise the main points (see below) The article is by two of my colleagues here at the Information School (and I taught this module in the past).
I've set up some questions below, but people can jump into the discussion with their own questions and comments:

Questions for discussion could include:
- What did you think of the "Sea Change" model of reflection? (it is explained in more detail, with a clearer diagram here: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.232881!/file/Modes_of_Learning_Reflective_Learning_Sen.pdf )
- The students were told to use the SCONUL 7 Pillars as a framework for reflection, and the authors mapped the students' reflections against the Pillars and elements in them. Students reflected more deeply on some pillars than others e.g. for "Evaluate" there were quite a lot of reflective statements, but they were not at a particularly deep level, whilst the reflections on "Identify" were deeper. Deeper reflection is taken as an indicator of deeper learning with "critical self-questioning, and ability to see others point of view". Question: Have you noticed any differences in the depth of students' reflection from one Pillar to another?

- Do you think the student quotations might be helpful when working with other students?

(and more broadly)
- If you have input into modules (e.g. in a Business School) which entail producing a company report or market analysis, what kind of assessment is used, and are you involved?
-  Have you used reflective reports for learning and assessment of IL (in any subject)?
(Photo by me, boat reflected in Torshavn harbour)

Here are a few slides in which I have identified what I think are some key points in the article:

Slides highlighting key points in McKinney and Sen (2012) from Sheila Webber

More journal clubs

We hope that this blog can be "home" for links to other people's blog posts discussing articles etc. and also for news on other Journal Clubs.

1. The other club which I have been co-organising (with Marshall Dozier) for a couple of years meets in the virtual world, Second Life (see right, November 2012). The next meeting is this week:
When: Weds 23 January 2013: 12 noon Second Life time, 8pm UK time.
Where: Infolit iSchool, Second Life, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infolit%20iSchool/106/208/30/ (you need a SL avatar and the SL browser)
What: Marshall Dozier (Edinburgh University) will lead a discussion of: Detmering R, and Johnson AM. (2012) "'Research Papers Have Always Seemed Very Daunting': Information Literacy Narratives and the Student Research Experience." Portal: Libraries and the Academy 12(1), 5-22. Available from: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/portal_libraries_and_the_academy/v012/12.1.detmering.html

2. A face to face group started up last year is London Libraries Learning Research Reading Group: they had a meeting in November 2012 and their blog is here: http://lllrrg.wordpress.com/ and Jane Secker outlined what they would discuss here.

If you run a Journal Club (i.e. any group meeting face to face or virtually, to discuss articles or other literature in the library and information field) please let us know, e.g. by commenting below. If you run one and would like to post information about upcoming sessions on the blog regularly, do contact us.

First Journal Club discussion Thurs 17th Jan at 8pm UK time!

The first Information Literacy online Journal Club is on Thursday January 17th 2013. The live discussion will start at 8pm UK time (which is 3pm US Eastern Time, see http://tinyurl.com/avadgw3 for times elesewhere) and end at 9.15pm. We will be discussing the 2011 revision of the SCONUL 7 Pillars model of information literacy, available here: http://tinyurl.com/bxdp5sy. The 7 Pillars diagram is reproduced on the right (under a Creative Commons license). This is the UK's chief framework for information literacy in Higher/Further Education, and the first edition came out in 1999.

The Journal Club discussion will take place in the comments beneath this introductory blog post. You can start adding comments now if you want.
The live discussion hosted by Niamh Tumelty and me (Sheila Webber) will be between 8pm and 9.15pm on 17th January. As facilitators, we will be aiming keep the discussion going and introduce the questions through the session. In the next few months we will probably be trying a few different channels for this online journal club (e.g. possibly a Twitter discussion) so we will be grateful if people are willing to stay for a bit after 9.15 to tell us how/whether the blog comment format worked.

Of course people can also contribute to the discussion by commenting (on the topic or the format for discussion) after the 17th January. Alternatively (or additionally!) you can write your reflections on your own blog now or later. Just make sure to tag it ILread and give us the link) or comment on Twitter using #ILread. These are the questions we thought of, to stimulate discussion. Do add further ideas for topics and questions as comments, below.

- How do you think the SCONUL model compares with other models or information literacy standards (e.g. ACRL)?

- Have you used the SCONUL 7 Pillars in practice? If so, how and what are your thoughts about it? for example:
- - Do you mostly just use the basic headings and diagram, or the longer explanations?
- - Are there pillar(s) that you find more difficult to address (or that learners find more difficult to understand)?
- - How do academics take to the model?

- What do you think of the various lenses that are already available for this model (e.g. the Research lens and digital literacy lens) and are there ones that have not yet been written but you think should be?