Sign up for 10 Things from the Scottish Government Library

Many of you will already be aware that 10 Things is a self-directed online course developed by the SG Library which aims to encourage you to spend a little time each week developing your social media and information searching skills.

Each week we’ll post details about one or more of the tools from our 10 Things course and encourage you to try them out and reflect on them. We hope to present a realistic challenge you can fit it into your schedule.

Find out more and register at our 10 Things page and please do share this link with others.

Thank you.

Paul Gray, Scottish Government Library

Modelling information literacy from a lifelong learning perspective

It has been all go for me of late. I submitted a proposal to Edinburgh Napier University to do a PhD by Published Works drawing upon my research and development work on information literacy and lifelong learning undertaken between 2004 and 2010 as part of the Scottish Information Literacy Project (2004-2010), and which now continues with this Information Literacy Community of Practice The right information: information skills for a 21st century Scotland. Following a rigorous process, my proposal was considered at faculty level, I was intereviewd and then my proposal was considered at university level. Happily the outcome was successfull.  

I am now a PhD student currently working on a thesis, provisionally entitled The development of a model of information literacy from a lifelong learning perspective, for the award of PhD by Published Works. My PhD is on a part time basis and I'm required to submit a 25,000 word thesis by September 2015. It is a daunting thought but exciting too and I'm really lucky to have Hazel Hall as my Director of Studies, and Dr Alison Brettle of the University of Salford as my second supervisor. 

See Hazel's blog posting about me also about Iris Buunk and John Mowbray, two new research students within the same research centre (CSI):

• Modelling information literacy from a lifelong learning perspective: new work by Christine Irving 

• Two new doctoral studies related to LIS and social media 

I'm still a part-time Research Fellow in the Centre for Social Informatics (CSI) at Edinburgh Napier University, and  currently part of a Mapping the workforce: library, archives, records, information, and knowledge management professions in the UK. This is a 1-year contract funded by The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the Archives and Records Association (ARA) in August 2014.  

I'll try and keep you up-to-date with my progress. 

10 Things

What is 10 Things?
10 Things is an online self-directed course developed by the Scottish Government Library. The aim is for you to spend a little time each week developing your social media and information searching skills.

Each week we’ll post details about one or more of the tools from our 10 Things course and encourage you to try them out and reflect on them. Our aim is to present a realistic challenge that you can fit it into your schedule.

10 Things is based on the original 23 Things course which ran at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in the USA in 2006.

When does it start?
The next course will start on Tuesday 6th May 2014.

How can I join?
You can sign up for the course here. Places are limit to 50, so please do not post this link to networks or mailing lists.

When the course starts you’ll receive an email welcoming you to the course and the first ‘thing’. Then each Monday thereafter you’ll receive email notification of that week’s ‘thing’. The course will last 10 weeks as you’ll receive 1 thing a week. Once joined you can access 10 Things here.

How does it work?
Each ‘thing’ will be published and archived on our 10 Things Yammer group. Only course participants will be able to access the group. Please note that the course content is designed for Scottish Government staff – though we hope you can apply it to your own personal or professional use.

Each ‘thing’ will include some set activities for you to try, and you’ll be asked to submit your learning outcomes or any questions to our 10 Things Yammer group. If you haven’t used Yammer before, don’t worry – we’ll cover that in week 1.

How much time will it take?
We estimate you should allow half an hour a week to go through that week’s ‘thing’. We understand participants will have different working patterns, so you can choose when in the week to spend time on 10 Things. Though we do encourage you to complete each thing by the end of each week.

Course programme
Week 1 Introduction, overview of social media, Yammer

Week 2 RSS and dashboards

Week 3 Blogs

Week 4 Twitter

Week 5 SG & social media, SlideShare, Prezi, Creative Commons

Week 6 Secure collaborative tools – Knowledge Hub, SharePoint, Huddle, Collaborate, Government Communication Network, Lync, OneNote

Week 7 Non-secure collaborative tools – LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Google Drive

Week 8 Searching skills – Go Google!, Google Scholar, eLibrary subject pages, KandE (Knowledge and Evidence), IDOX, Knowledge Network

Week 9 Social bookmarking and social citation

Week 10 Alerts and current awareness tools

FE Scotland survey identifies request for information and digital literacy training

In the February edition of CILIP Update Penny Robertson talks about the 2012 ETNA survey which focuses on further education, and is intended to support the identification of training needs, and inform strategic planning and decision making.

Amongst the training areas requested were providing:

• digital literacy training
• information literacy training

Penny highlights that 'the provision of information and digital literacy training have increased since the 2009 survey'.

'Between one third to a half of all learning resource staff indicated that they would welcome training in the use of social media tools, and showed an interest in how these could be used to aid the promotion of library services and to form communities online'.

Further information on the training needs analysis survey - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=2945