LILAC 2009: information literacy: staff development and transition from school to HE

Although Linda Jones and Greta Figgens (University of Portsmouth) 'Destination information!: taking staff on an information literacy journey' was about library staff development some of the resulting activities did include transition for new students to HE.

Destination Information is the name of a successful staff development day held to introduce staff to information literacy (IL) and make them aware of some of the activity around IL - their own role in promoting IL and their own IL skills. The topic used was planning a holiday and the pre-selected teams had to present their plan as a poster and handout, the idea being to replicate the students’ experience. Interestingly the staff did behave like students in the strategies they employed and not those of their profession. The day was very successful  with an increase in the uptake of staff development particularly among the library para-professional staff, some of whom have gone on to be use blogs for their NVQs. They also talked about some initiatives including:

·  a University wide interactive website Prepup (includes: course information; virtual tours; student and tutor videos; useful academic development materials) to engage students pre-entry to the university

· taking part in Freshers Fair using a Pirate theme which attracted students to their stand

· using a specifically designed Fortune Teller (see short video below) to demonstrate how randomly students find information; also did one for staff / lecturers for a teaching and learning event – novel. 

 

 

The wonderful thing is that the staff development event had been inspired by a session at last years LILAC – ‘Information Literacy at the Issue / Service desk’ (Hannah Hauxwell, University of the West of England). This demonstrates what conferences like LILAC are all about sharing good ideas and inspiring people.

Short video of University of Portsmouth's Library Fortune Teller