Introducing myself

Firstly I commend myself on the original title of this post, I really couldn't think of anything better. My name is Ruth Gould and I am the Team Librarian for the Central Children's Library in Aberdeen. My work focusses on working with young people up to 16. I have been interested in Information Literacy since I undertook my MSc at RGU. My dissertation focussed on the views of Academic liaison librarians on the need/ benefits of having some form of teaching qualification.

As I work with young people in a public library I am working largely to promote reading and learning. I incorporate information literacy into our competitions and leisure activities and of course in my work with primary school class visits. My main principle in designing sessions is to create challenge in order to engage the group I'm working with. If they enjoy it they are more likely to remember what they did and be able to use those skills again. Sessions can be as basic as how to find a book and look up a particular topic in that book to using key words to search on our online databases. I am currently matching my sessions to the Curriculum for Excellence with the aim of attracting more visits from local schools.

I am interested in how best to deliver information literacy to different age groups and also how people learn information skills in different settings. I am also interested in how we measure the impact of what we are doing.