Yesterday I went to the first meeting of the group which used to be the RIN Information Handling Working Group, but is now deciding on a new name to reflect a coalition of partners working on information literacy as it relates to research. It's always an exciting meeting, with so many enthusiastic supporters of IL in one room!
The different bodies associated with the coaltion include library representative
organisations (
SCONUL,
RLUK,
CILIP and the
Special Libaries Association), as well as
BAILER, the
British Library, the
Digital Curation Centre, the
Higher Education Academy,
JISC,
Jorum, the
UK Council for Graduate Education and
Vitae. I'm there in an ad hominem capacity, just as myself!
The aim of the coalition is to bring together folks from
different constituencies and professional groups which each provide
distinctive perspectives to this area. Stephane Goldstein and Michael Jubb from the
Research Information Network have worked very hard to secure funding for a year from HEFCE to support the coalition.
The funding will be used to support a range of activities,
including:
- setting out, testing and disseminating criteria that can be used to
describe and review training courses and other interventions in the
area of information literacy;
- identifying and promoting good practice in information literacy training;
- supporting the use of the
Researcher Development Framework and the
Seven Pillars of Information Literacy as instruments for promoting the centrality of information literacy in a higher education setting;
- supporting small-scale project work to advance the evidence base in this area;
- developing links with relevant information literacy projects and
initiatives in other countries, in order to share good practice and
identify possible opportunities for international joint working.
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