Our next Journal Club blog-post discussion will be on 14 April 2014 at 8pm UK time (3pm US Eastern time), on the draft Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education which will update the Association of College and Research Libraries' Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (commonly called the ACRL information literacy standards). The first draft document contains the Introduction and Three Threshold Concepts plus a Glossary and Bibliography. A second draft document contains two additional threshold concepts. There has already been a consultation process, including open webinars, and the drafts are open for comment until April 15. Therefore we thought we would organise a discussion which is (just!) before this deadline in case it prompts anyone to make some comments.
Whilst the primary target for these standards are people in North America, the ACRL standards have been very influential elsewhere. Go to the following page for more information and links to the two documents and information on how to contribute to the consultation. http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/?page_id=133
If you want to learn more about "threshold concepts" you might want to read this:
Hofer A, Brunetti K, Townsend L. (2013) A Threshold Concepts Approach to the Standards Revision. Communications in information literacy. 7(2), 108-113. http://edin.ac/1hhaaVi
How does this discussion work? As usual, the idea is that people aim to read something of the item before the discussion . Then just come along at 8pm UK time on the 14th, and join in the discussion, through posting comments to this blog post. Of course lurkers are also welcome, but it will nice if you join in ;-) You can see how this works by looking at previous discussions (just scroll down the blog for previous posts).
Monday, April 7, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Next Journal club: 19th February: research agendas for information literacy? #ILread
What do you think of the research agendas that other people have drawn up? (see below)
What do you think are the top priorities for research in Information Literacy?
How does this discussion work? As usual, the idea is that people aim to read something (see below) before the discussion . Then just come along at 8pm on the 19th, and join in the discussion, through posting comments to this blog post. Of course lurkers are also welcome, but it will nice if you join in ;-) You can see how this works by looking at previous discussions (just scroll down the blog for previous posts).
Most of the time there will be a slight delay between people posting a comment on this blog, and it appearing. However, earlier on the day of the discussion we will turn moderation off, so posts appear immediately.
Reading to start the discussion going.
I've chosen three short documents produced from different perspectives: one paper from two of the top international researchers (Annemaree Lloyd and Christine Bruce), one from a medical librarian perspective, and one is drawn up by the (US) Association of College and Research Libraries. They are all on open access:
- Association of College and Research Libraries IS Research and Scholarship Committee. (2011). Research agenda for library instruction and information literacy. (Rev. ed.) Chicago, Il: ACRL. http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/sections/is/iswebsite/projpubs/researchagendalibrary
- Lloyd, A. and Bruce, C.S. (2011).State of the art and future challenges for information literacy research. In Social Media and Information Practices Workshop, 10-11 November 2011, University of Borås, Sweden. Preprint archived at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/47207/2/47207.pdf
- Starr, S. (2012) Improving instruction in medical libraries: the research agenda. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 100 (4), 236-238. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484950/
[Picture taken by me in Second Life, using a quote from an academic in an information literacy research project]
Friday, January 17, 2014
Next blog post Journal Club: 22nd January 8pm UK time: UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy resolution
The topic will be the resolution on Media and Information Literacy that was approved by the UNESCO General Conference in November 2013. UNESCO member countries are now encouraged by UNESCO to endorse these at a national level. This provides an opportunity to lobby governments to address information literacy at a strategic level.
Do join us for the real-time discussion of this short document at 8pm UK time on the 22nd, or you can add comments afterwards (or before) if you can't make it at that time. We realise that this is not a convenient time in all time zones, but hope that there will be comments from people from different countries, not just the UK! We will be encouraging discussion of questions such as:
- What can be done (or is already being done) in your country to lobby and challenge your government about these recommendations?
- Who can we work with on getting UNESCO member states to (quoting the resolution) "to take the Media and Information Literacy Recommendations into consideration during the planning of future strategies, policies, and initiatives on education, lifelong learning, literacy, and other areas which will contribute to building a Knowledge Society."
- How can we ensure that there isn't a focus on media literacy to the exclusion of information literacy?
- Should we rebrand all our information literacy efforts as "Media and Information Literacy" (rather than "Information Literacy"? For example, I understand that the Swedish Library Association has gone in this direction. (by the way, my view on this is a definite "no" but it will be interesting to have a debate!)
The full draft resolution is at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002242/224273e.pdf
A press announcement from IFLA is at http://www.ifla.org/node/8208
The document is short, and I will just reproduce here the bullet points at the end of the recommendations themselves:
"In particular IFLA recommends that governments and organisations to do the following:
• Commission research on the state of Media and Information Literacy and produce reports, using the Media and Information Literacy indicators as a base [I have blogged about this indicators initiative previously, it is still ongoing], so that experts, educators, and practitioners are able to design effective initiatives;
• Support professional development for education, library, information, archive, and health and human services personnel in the principles and practices of Media and Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning;
• Embed Media and Information Literacy education in all Lifelong Learning curricula;
• Recognise Media and Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning as key elements for the development of generic capabilities which must be demonstrated for accreditation of all education and training programmes;
• Include Media and Information Literacy in the core and continuing education of information professionals, educators, economic and government policy - makers and administrators, as well as in the practice of advisors to the business, industry and agriculture sectors;
• Implement Media and Information Literacy programmes to increase the employability and entrepreneurial capacities of women and disadvantaged groups, including migrants, the underemployed and the unemployed; and,
• Support thematic meetings which will facilitate the acquisition of Media and Information and Lifelong Learning strategies within specific regions, sectors, and population groups."
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. If you want to see what a blog post discussion looks like, just click on any of the previous discussion posts.
Photo by Sheila Webber
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