Reflections from Information: Interactions and Impact (i3) Conference

Christine Irving presenting at i3 2015 

i3 is a great event to attend and speak at.  My thanks to everyone who attended my presentation How can information literacy be modelled from a lifelong learning perspective? 

Now that the Conference is over, it is time to start writing the full paper for the special issue of the Journal of Information Science (JIS).

Before I do I want to share some information literacy highlights with you:  

• Syeda Hina Shahid citing my work Begin at the begining information and critical literacy in curriculum for excellence  early & first level nursery & primary schools in her presentation Assessing children's IL skills: findings from a multiple case study of six primary schools in Pakistan. Her paper is based on her PhD research work. 

• Dorothy Williams keynote - An information conundrum. Dorothy talked about information being so much a part of us we can't see it. That it is an everyday word, common place, part of our world. She posed the question 'The world already knows information is so important ... don't they?  

• Prof Agusta Palsdotti - Informal caregivers of people with dementia: the first stages in the information behaviour process. The ongoing study investigates how the relatives of people with dementia act as informal caregivers and support them with information. Whilst this study is situated in Iceland, Iceland is not alone in the growing proportion of elderly people. As Agusta states 'How people are able to receive support with information [is] vital for their health and welfare [it] is of great significance. Today's information environment consists of a variety of information sources that can be accessed in various ways and by different means. However, not all members of the society are able to benefit from it and people with dementia are in urgent need for support from their informal caregivers.' This study raises a number of issues including the need to support carers. As a carer myself I know how difficult it can be to locate and navigate health resources including health professionals for loved ones. It requires all your information literacy skills and capabilities plus a knowledge of the health and social landscape in your area and country. 

•  Dr. Annemaree Lloyd - Knowing and learning in everyday spaces (KaLieds): The role of Information literacy and literacies of information in supporting refugee youth learning outside school. it is always interesting to hear about the work Annemaree is involved in. The project Knowing and Learning in Everday Spaces (KaLiEDS) investigated the role that everyday spaces play in in the information literacies and learning of refugee youth. I was interested in the photo voice technique. Refugees were given digital cameras and tasked with taking photographs of the information resources that were important to them and the places where that information was located. It reminded me of an induction intitiatve that used this technique. It also reminded me of the resources that we as residents, tourists and visitors use to find our way about new cities and towns for example shopping centre catalogues/guides looking for best buys or places to go. Annemaree talks about information landscapes. A concept that I like. As she says '... information landscapes of participants are intricate and complex (e.g. faith-based groups; sporting teams; family and digital spaces). I think it is important for everyone to recognise information landscapes, their own and others who they interact with. I'm also taken with 'literacies for information'. Something to think about ... 

I have more thoughts to share but that will need to be another day. In the meantime have a look at Sheila Webber's http://information-literacy.blogspot.co.uk/ she was live blogging from the conference. The conference twitter feed was #i3RGU

Once the presentations are available online then I'll provide links to them.

LILAC 2014: bursary winners

Congratulations to the winners of LILAC's bursary scheme which was set up this year to enable access to the LILAC conference for librarians from sectors which traditionally struggle to secure funding from their employers.
 
They are:

• Public - Jacqueline Geekie, Information Literacy and Learning Librarian, Aberdeenshire Libraries

• NHS - Ruth Jenkins, Librarian, Healthcare Library, Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust

• Schools/FE - Donna Gundry, Head of Library Services, Plymouth College of Art.

Congratulations also to CILIP's Information Literacy Group / the LILAC Comittee for offering this bursary.

Health sessions help people online

I came across a small item of news in last month's CILIP Update about an initiative at York Libraries 'helping people living in the city find information about health matters'. What's great about this piece of news is that

'the NHS Helath Online sessions have been taking place in a number of the city's libraries, offering not just access to accurate health information but also teaching the skills needed to find it'.

This is great news and the sort of exemplar I was looking for my book chapter Information literacy in health management. As the article says 'combining information literacy training with the sessions should help equip those attending with skills they need to search independently in the future.'

Well done to York Libraries.

Crawford, J., Irving, C. (2013). Information literacy and lifelong learning: Policy issues, the workplace, health and public libraries Cambridge, UK: Chandos Publishing

A Healthcare Lens for the SCONUL Seven Pillars Model

A Healthcare Lens sounds like a brilliant idea and indeed different lenses or ways of looking at information literacy is something I'm a strong advocate of.

I therefore read with interest Michelle Dalton's blog post introducing a healthcare lens for the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy and the subsequent discussions that took place in the infolit journal club http://infolitjournalclub.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/journal-club-meeting-28-august-8-9pm.html

I now need to read her article in JIL

Dalton, M. 2013. Developing an evidence-based practice healthcare lens for the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy model. Journal of Information Literacy, 7(1), pp. 30-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.11645/7.1.1813

I also need to look at the updated SCONUL Seven Pillars model with regard to the Information Literacy Framework - an item that keeps slipping down my to-do-list.

Health literacy: let's think again

Catching up on my emails after being away and came across this interesting article 'Health literacy: let's think again' by Graham Kramer a GP and National Clinical Lead Self Management and Health Literacy, Scottish Government.

He starts by saying that he doesn't like the term 'health literacy' as not many people understand it. Sounds familar! Anway the intersting thing is that he says that lessons should be learned from computer literacy and instead of making everyone technically expert, computers have got easier to understand. At this point you may disagree but I remember the early days of using computers when you had to use command language to interact with computers for most things. He also gives the example of the results of an MOT which are provided in simple terms that a layperson will understand.

He argues that healthcare professionals should stop using technical words such as those used in the lab that the patient / layperson is unlikely to understand. As he says

"It's not easy – peoples' knowledge and skill levels are not as obvious as a physical disability and this   unintentionally perpetuates the problem. In fact people often go to extraordinary lengths to hide their lack of understanding and as a result we consistently overestimate their abilities and knowledge.

But if we are going to crack this problem we need to spend less time trying to get our patients to understand us and more time trying to understand them. The issue is not the poor health literacy of patients but the low ‘lay literacy’ of us professionals."

I also think people need to have the skills to ask more questions and evaluate what they receive. Difficult I know in an health related emotive situation but helps if you have these skills and competencies to draw upon.