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.

Information Literacy and Welfare Reform: challenges and opportunities

Welfare Reform ChallengesInformation Literacy and Welfare Reform was the title of the fifth presentation at the IL Symposium. Gregory Colgan, Head of Corporate Debt and Welfare Reform, Corporate Services Department, Dundee City Council certainly presented a picture of what he called challenges and opportunities around welfare reform. Connected to that is the digital world we live in and the necessary skills people need.

According to Gregory, we are digital by default. Dundee City Council stopped advertising jobs in newspapers, they are all now advertised online. For many other employers the situation will be the same.  

Gregory presented some demographic figures relating to Dundee citizens and benefit claimants, lower income, deprived areas compared to the Scottish averages (see slide 2 for specifics - a link to the presentation is at the end of the posting).

He then went on to list the welfare reform challenges as:

• Universal Credit
• Universal Support Delivered Locally
• Claimant Committment - Day 1 Conditionality
• Universal Job Match
• Job Searches / Activities
• Digital Access / Skills 
• Literacy / Numeracy
• Local access to Services
• Budgeting
• Banking
• In work Benefits

To tackle these challenges Dundee City Council has set up strategic partnerships within and outwith the council that relate or need to respond to Welfare Reform. Included is: Employability and Learning; Supportive Initiatives; Scottish Welfare Fund: Housing Services; DLA to PIP; Universial Credit.

Employability and learning includes upskilling individuals. Equipping locla people with employability skills. Partenrship is seen as key: DWP (Department of Work and Pensions), Libraries and Voluntary Sector. Gregory saw an opportunity for library and voluntary sectors. 

Examples of activities taking place include:

Opportunities Room - This project operates within the Central Library in Dundee, where they have created a space which is around IT, learning and Development. The project also recruits volunteers who train individuals on IT skills.

IT4 Work. This project is funded from the DWP local flexible fund and provides IT support in local community centres to those who are looking to enhance there IT skills to assist them in entering the job market. It is a 6-8 weeks course with Adult Learning Tutors that results in a certificate. Gregory said there was a 'clear referal path from the library to the project'. Some of the quotes on the slide/s showed that it was helping people for example

Browsing from home, I saw a job and applied for it as I now know how to do it. 

I was also interested in the following quote "I go regulalry to Douglas Library, I didn't have the confidence before". Confidence building was an outcome / benefit that John Crawford and I found in a library employability course study. People attedning these course often have had a bad or poor experience of mainstream education resulting in poor confidence.

Another aspect that interested me was using visual digital resources e.g. videos for those who are illiterate. The resources are create by Dundee College with captions for the deaf. I have heard of and seen visual resources created by Dundee College in the form of graphic novels. 

The key message from the presentation was 

Universal credit will be a bit of a challenge to us with information and digital literacy problems. The only way we will make a difference is is we work in partnerships.

I would certainly reiterate and endorse that last sentence. I know from experience the difference partnership working makes. 

Gregory's presentation slides are available on slideshare so please have a look at them.  

For those working in public libraries, they are already seeing some of these challenges particulalry in the present economic climate with the loss of staff and in some places library servcies. I couldn't help but think that for those working in Public Libraries it may seem like a dam is about to burst on them. I not sure if the rest of us are aware of the challenges: I think we are obilvious to the impact the welfare reform will have on libraries. However hopefully Gregory's presentation highlighted some opportunities and strategies that public libraries can take advantage of. 

SCVO digital participation update

Busy working through my emails after the easter break and came across an email from the Digital Participation team at SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) about the first fortnightly update from them.

Items in the update were:

Basic online skills award opportunity

The Big Lottery Fund has announced the shortlist for its basic online skills award. We are working closely with both Tinder Foundationand with BT / Citizens Online to develop and, if successful, deliver activity across Scotland. Right now we are looking for local delivery partners and welcome expressions of interest from anyone who would like to get involved. 

Making digital real

The Carnegie UK Trust published a new report on digital participation, including case studies of the great activity going on at the Wheatley Group and at Digital Fife. The report also includes seven helpful tests for anyone designing projects to promote digital participation.

UK Government digital inclusion strategy

The UK Government has launched a new Digital Inclusion Strategy and Digital Inclusion Charter, with an aim to reduce the number of people who are not online by 25% by 2016. Participation has been a central pillar of the Scottish Government's digital strategy for a number of years now, and we are looking forward to refreshing this in the weeks ahead.

SCVO digital participation

There aim is to

 "keep you up to date with news, events and information about digital participation in Scotland and beyond". They "would love to hear what you are up to" and "if you have news to share" to get in touch with them.

I was curious about receiving the update and SCVO's stance and involvement in digital participation. On there website is a digital participation webpage which says that:

Digital participation is about empowering people and communities to pursue the things that matter most to them.

The third sector will play a critical role in ensuring that everyone is included in the new digital age. SCVO is stepping up its activity on digital participation, working across the public, private and third sectors to promote a Digital Scotland for all. Initiatives intended to raise digital participation must go with the grain of peoples’ lives, and work through the people and organisations that are already trusted sources of support and advice.

This is good news as the third sector is a large sector and involved in a wide range of interests often with people and groups that are not engaged with other sectors or have found them less than supportive.

I would recommend that you have a look at their website and their thoughts / activities. There looks like their our common causes that information literacy / our community could link into / support.