SCONUL Seven Pillars model: Digital Literacy lens

Durham lumiere: Lord Londonderry snowdome c. A Bent

Since we launched the new SCONUL Seven Pillars model last April, we've had a lot of feedback, mainly positive, about the new approach. The main difference from the original approach was the addition of attributes relating to understanding and approach as well as abilities. This is underpinned by a core model which can be viewed through a series of "lenses", depending on the audience or environment. We launched the research lens alongside the core model, to demonstrate how this might work and I'm really excited that over the last few months colleagues have been developing other lenses. The latest addition, created by Helen Howard and Alison Mackenzie, is a Digital Literacy lens. It's already available on the SCONUL WGIL website in draft form and is very timely, given the current JISC activities around developing digital literacies. I hope folks will have time to look at the new lens - if you'd like to post comments about it here I can take them back to the Group.

Finland National Library

One of the first things we noticed about the National Library of Finland was how many people were using the microform readers - 7 folks busily working away. The Library building is beautiful, though very traditional, and I hope to add some of Ruth's photos to the blog soon.

I liked the way they display their journals (see left) and also that patrons should have "clean, dry hands"

Thoughts from Finland

After our second conference talk I enjoyed chatting to a couple of smaller groups of Finnish librarians. In the large conference they had been unwilling to ask many questions, but that wasn't the case in the smaller groups! We talked about how to engage researchers in developing their IL and I mentioned the self assessment tool I use at Newcastle. This just encourages folks to reflect on their own abilities and to identify areas they want to develop. A cut down version of it is going to be published soon as a Vitae booklet called the Informed Researcher.

Cafe in Finland provides blankets for customers brave enough to sit outside in November!

How we created the new Seven Pillars model

Our second talk in Helsinki was a very practical one about the process we went through to create the new 7Ps model and research lens. This was the first time Ruth and I have tried to describe the whole process and I think we both enjoyed the experience. We talked about the original model and how well it has been adopted around the world, using our own institutions as examples.
After more discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the model, we went on to describe the (often painful!) process of creating the new version. There was a lot of interest in the Information Literacy Landscape (see link above) as well as positive reaction to the concept of moving away from skills to encompass attitudes and behaviours.
We used the "one thing" technique I've used before to gather feedback from the group and I'll summarise that on the blog once we've had time to analyse it.

Information Literacy models

Our first talk to the Finnish information literacy librarians network was entitled "Information Literacy models: learning from the past to inform the future". Our aim was to give a brief overview of some existing models as well as dipping into some teaching and learning theory to stimulate discussion on the use of models in IL. We looked at some of the issues and criticisms of models as well as discussing how they can help in IL. Ruth and I both believe models can be helpful and were keen to explain how we have built on existing theories and pedagogy in developing the revised SCONUL Seven Pillars model. You can find our slides here.

The Information Literacy Network of Finnish University Libraries

Ruth Stubbings and I are in Finland at the invitation of the Finnish IL network to talk about how we went about revising the SCONUL IL model. The Finns have their own model, called a recommendation which they want to revise. At present it is focused on undergraduates and they'd like to extend it to include researchers. From discussions we've had, it seems that facilitating research is just starting to become a big agenda item here ( so I've recommended they all buy my book on Developing library services for research!) There are around 120 librarians at the 2 day conference, which is held every year, and the plan is to get together in groups representing the different kinds of academic library and actually start to redesign their model.

(Pictures to follow)

Helsinki

Well, I've just arrived in Helsinki with Ruth Stubbings. We are going to meet lots of Finnish librarians on Monday and Tuesday; they have asked us to talk about how we devised the new seven pillars model and chat about the role of models in general. We are both sitting here in our room in the university guest house, typing away on our notebooks, how sad are we?

Hopefully we will manage some sightseeing tomorrow, the city looks spectacular ( from what I've seen in the dark) and we may even peek into a library or two along the way...

PS Here's Roo on the ferry to Suomenlinna sea fortress