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Entries in Work Place (5)

Wednesday
Jun102015

IL in the workplace - updating the annotated bibliography

Would recommend that you support the updating of the annotated bibliography and if you haven't read it then read it. See details below. 

Dear all,

In July 2014, Professor Dorothy Williams, Katie Cooper and Caroline Wavell, from Robert Gordon University Aberdeen, working in association with InformAll, produced an annotated bibliography on information literacy in the workplace. This document is a valuable resource, but its value would be enhanced by ensuring that it maintains its currency. We are therefore proposing to update it on at least a yearly basis, and we invite all those with an interest in information literacy – academics, practitioners, research consultants and others – to provide us with information about new or recent publications that might be added to the bibliography. We would welcome such information by Wednesday 19 August; please contact either of us at the address below.

The bibliography describes publications which, since around 2000, have addressed two key issues:

- How should information literacy be described within workplace settings? What are the priority / key information skills and abilities related to the effective use of information in the workplace?
- Is there any evidence of the value and / or impact of information literacy in the workplace?

The bibliography takes the form of a table which, against each of around forty publications – journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings and reports – provides a brief description of (i) key relevant points in the material; and (ii) how information literacy in the workplace is defined. Selected quotations from the publications are provided where appropriate, and the well-structured presentation provides a convenient, pithy overview of contemporary understanding of information literacy in the workplace. The table is prefaced by a short, five page summary that picks out major issues.

We should therefore be grateful to receive brief descriptions of additional material, in the same bulleted format as the current document. Once we have collected this, we will publish a new version of the bibliography, in September or October 2015. Of course, we will acknowledge the assistance received from all those who will be providing input.

Thank you in anticipation for your assistance; and please feel free to get back to us if you would like further information. An online version of this message (and a pdf version for circulating) can be found at http://www.researchinfonet.org/infolit/ridls/transferable-skills/updating-bibliography/

Katie Cooper – Robert Gordon University Aberdeen, k.cooper2@rgu.ac.uk

Stéphane Goldstein – InformAll, stephane.goldstein@researchinfonet.org

Tuesday
Jun172014

Information literacy is for life, not just for a good degree 

Good to see Information literacy is for life, not just for a good degree by Dr Charles Inskip a lecturer at UCL's Department of Information Studies and a member of CILIP's Information Literacy Project Board. 

In addition to the information on the web page there is a  literature review which includes work by John Crawford and I. 

Charles would like to know:

  • Have you been involved in teaching or researching workplace information literacy skills? 
  • What do you think are the main challenges around this area?

Let him and the CILIP Information Literacy Project Board know your comments via the web page

About CILIP's Information Literacy Project Board

"The main objective of the Information Literacy Project is for CILIP to be seen as a key stakeholder and participant in information literacy across a range of domains. Digital inclusion continues as an important issue for the project but information literacy in the workplace is a new area which we have just started to explore. Charlie Inskip’s literature review is a first step towards understanding this interesting area and our exploration will continue with an information literacy in the workplace event towards the end of the year.

Tuesday
May272014

how important information literacy is to empowering learning and development in the workplace

In the Weekly News from CILIP, 22 May 2014 there was an item and link to 'Social learning at work'.

What caught my eye was that I had missed Learning at Work Week which was last week Monday 19 May. The other was "Natasha and Jacqueline blog about how important information literacy is to empowering learning and development in the workplace. ... they also give an update on the work of CILIP’sInformation Literacy Project Board."

It's great to see that information literacy in the workplace is getting attention. The posting covers:

 

  • What is information literacy?
  • How does information literacy empower learning at work? 
  • How do companies benefit from promoting learning in the workplace? 

Tthe final section is: 

How can I raise awareness of the importance of information literacy?

There are lots of ways to raise awareness:

 

Wednesday
Jan082014

Cross Party Group on Digital Participation meeting 10.12.13 and a Happy New Year

I attended the Cross Party Group on Digital Participation meeting at Holyrood with Jenny Foreman on Tuesday 10th December.  Sorry about the delay in posting but I was overcome by festive season sloth and I am only just recovering. The meeting was on the theme of Digital Participation in the workplace with two speakers and there was also a presentation on Digital Inclusion and Disabled consumers.

Digital Participation in the Workplace: the first speaker was Gordon Scobbie, the former Assistant Chief Constable of Tayside who spoke about the use of social media by police officers to support community policing and improve relations with the public. He emphasised that Twitter supports two way communication and that most of the activity and contributions to social media are of a positive nature. Interestingly the most trusted tweeters are celebrities not public servants.

Ian Watson from IRISS (Institute for Research and Innovation in the Social Sciences) spoke about the role of social media in workplace learning and how organisations should encourage the development of digital literacy across the entire workforce but that lack of basic skills is a barrier to progress. Another barrier identified is the suspicion among organisations that staff will misuse electronic media leading to the blocking of websites.

The ensuing discussion certainly got me thinking about the importance of information literacy methods in evaluating the quality of social media communication given the unstructured and positively anarchic nature of some of it. Social media communications should be evaluated just like any other information source using the critical strategies available.

A briefing paper was supplied by Ofcom on disabled consumers’ ownership of communication services. This has been found to be generally lower among people with a disability than among those without, especially for Internet access. Home PC ownership is lower among disabled than non-disabled people. Disabled people are also less likely to access the Internet outside the home or via mobile devices. People with multiple impairments are the most disadvantaged.

The meeting concluded with a discussion about developments in the US which could affect the accessibility of Kindles and other e-readers. Amazon and Sony have asked the US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, whether they can opt out of new legislation requiring various communication devices to be made accessible. The Group hope to address this issue.

After the meeting Jenny and I had a chat with Ian Watson who has agreed to attend our next meeting on 14th May.

John Crawford

Sunday
Feb102013

Welsh Information Literacy Project

On Monday 28th January I attended a meeting of the Welsh Information Literacy Project at a college in Rhos on Sea in North Wales. The Project is now in its third year and plans to seek funding from Cymal, the body in Wales which funds LIS R&D,  for a fourth  year.

There were short presentations on public, school, further and HE libraries. Those on public and school libraries were the most interesting. In Gwynedd public library service, four staff are taking Level 2-3 training units (Agored Units) in information literacy. This pilot is intended to develop consistency in IL training for public librarians. Gwynedd is one of five local authorities running pilot projects on developing IL skills for library staff. Anglesey public library service is running training sessions for local people, mostly on family and local history in conjunction with tutors from a community learning and development partnership.

Information literacy champions are being appointed in all public library services to assist in the delivery of training, to keep staff up to date with IL developments and ensure that local plans are consistent with national planning.

On the school library front a secondary school in Holyhead is using IL techniques to develop the skills of children who are poor readers, something not unlike Abi Mawhirt’s work at Dundee College.

 IL awareness meetings have been held with head teachers and contact is being make with two university departments of education to raise IL awareness of trainee teachers before they go out on placement.

There are a lot of lessons for us to learn here: IL champions in public libraries, standardised training units for public librarians and meeting with head teachers and university departments of education.  Full details of the day are available at

http://librarywales.org/en/information-literacy/case-studies/north-wales-information-literacy-best-practice-sharing-day-2013/

John