New book: Rethinking Information Literacy

Rethinking Information Literacy is edited by Jane Secker and Emma Coonan of ANCIL fame. It's a collection of edited chapters, including one which I've contributed on Academic Literacies. My chapter describes some of the work we've done at Newcastle on Information for Learning.This is some material I've developed aimed at teaching staff, to encourage them to integrate info lit into their teaching. The materials are available as a Blackboard module so that they can be used by our staff in Singapore. The book was published at the end of last month and I haven't seen a copy yet. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it!

This is Facet's publicity: A vision for the future of information literacy teaching.

Based on groundbreaking research, undertaken by the authors as part of the prestigious Arcadia Programme at Cambridge University, this book presents a new and dynamic information literacy curriculum developed for the 21st century information professional. The authors adopt a broad definition of information literacy that encompasses social as well as academic environments and situates IL as a fundamental attribute of the discerning scholar and the informed citizen. It seeks to address in a modular, flexible and holistic way the developing information needs of students entering higher education over the next five years.

The book is organized around the ten ‘strands’ of the new curriculum, which cover the whole landscape of information literacy development required to succeed as an undergraduate in higher education. Interweaving the authors' research and the reflections of internationally recognized experts from the library, education and information literacy sectors, including Moira Bent, Andy Priestner, Sarah Pavey, Geoff Walton and Elizabeth Tilley, it illustrates how and why this new curriculum will work in practice. Detailed appendices present the curriculum, lesson plans and tools for institutional audit, giving readers all the tools they need to implement it successfully in their institutions.

Facilitating Informed Research in the Digital World

I've put the last piece in!

Following on from the post about RIDLs and the strand 4 activities, I'm excited that our first dissemination activity takes place next week. Dr Jane Secker and I will be running a short session entitled "Facilitating Informed Research in the Digital World" at the UKCGE Digital Futures event in Manchester on 17th January.

Reflection for learning and the 7 Pillars

I've just come across an article in the latest issue of the Journal of Information Literacy (thanks Cathie) by Pam McKinney and Barbara Sen, entitled "Reflections for Learning: understanding the value of reflective writing for information literacy development". It describes research undertaken at Sheffield where a group of undergraduate students were asked to reflect on their IL development as part of some assessed work. The authors then mapped the writing again a model of reflection and against the 7 pillars model. As one of the authors of the 7 Pillars it was exciting to see the depth to which the model was studied and to know that it is proving to be a useful tool. The authors make the point that the 7Ps model doesn't make it clear that IL needs can change over time. This was implicit in the design, but it's not made explicit in terms of the Identify pillar. This is something which can be followed up if we are able to revise the model this year.