What is information literacy?

The topic for week two of the Swimming in the Information ocean is defining information literacy. One of the tutors introduced a document that I wasn's aware of (probably should have been!) called the Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy Framework which contains 6 core standards. Follow the link to read more.

This isn't just a skill for librarians or students - now that so much information is available to everyone, information literacy has become a necessary life skill.

I created the following based on some course notes - everytime librarians was written, I replaced it with I, just to see how I felt about it. Hope I can live up to it!

I am the ultimate search engine. I know how to find the best information whether it’s in a book, a video, a pamphlet or on a website. Teaching others how to find and evaluate information is a unique skill that I bring to a society encountering a bewildering avalanche of information.

Information literacy beyond library 2.0 is an article by Peter Godwin that had some interesting ideas that reflect our times. For example, instead of making students into librarians, we should concentrate on giving them the necessary tools for building up their understanding of their chosen discipline. We should be aiming to light sparks rather than fill vessels.

Although, I'm still not sure how this works in practice. Are the two really that different? The author blasted purely theoretical positions and drew attention to the divide between researchers and practicioners, but I didn't get anything practical out of the article. Maybe the following chapters illuminate his ideas a little.

I see the students where I work struggle with finding information and I want to help them. I had a look at some universities chosen information literacy tools, like Edith Cowan's PILOT and QUT's Online tutorial. These are nice packages, but I have the feeling that students prefer to learn by experience within their subject. Still, I'm keeping an open mind...

YAY! I got 100% on my first attempt in the Week 3 quiz  :)

Swimming in the information ocean

So I've started another online course. Glutton for punishement! This one is all about how to stay on top of information overload especially as it related to the future of the library industry and providing library services. This first week, a number of our 'readings' are vidoes, so I'm working my way through them here, reflecting as I go. Feel free to join in!

Did you know 3.0? 

The thing I took away from this one is a new perspective on the modern age. Sure I know technology has been developing at the speed of light lately, but to picture a graph with time on one axis and amount of information being produced on the other, well, it's exponential. Even the number of words in our languages is going up exponentially! In the history of humankind, no people have had to deal with a situation like ours today, to organise so much data. Can we manage?

Did you know? 4.0

So this was created in 2009, a short four years ago. I think some of their statistics may already be out of date! How about the one that say the mobile device will be the world's primary connection tool to the Internet in 2020?

I suspect is already is! I totally agree when they say it's easier to reach a large audience, but harder to connect with it. I was thinking about my online reading habits. It's actually really rare for me to be searching for something really specific when I'm using social media. So much of it is browsing, scanning, surfing around almost aimlessly. Is that the way to navigate through huge amounts of data? It also seems to be all about the 'new', and things become old really quickly. I still don't really get what is meant by convergence though...

Library of the Future

OK, so there's the old way and the new way. I'm for the new way. I'm ready for a constantly growing and changing work environment, I'm all for green / sustainable libraries, and I agree that creativity and suitability for the job should determine our roles rather than job title. Bring it on!


Ted talks are brilliant. I keep forgetting how brilliant they are until I watch another one. This one's about the future of libraries, from a passionate library advocate. She poses the question - when everything is online, why come to the library? I visit the library all the time, so here are my reasons why, and it's kind of the opposite of what she has suggested. I have enough online in my life - so I go to the library to check out physical books. I like to get deeply involved in the world of my book and forget everything else. I often finish novels in one sitting when there are no distractions. I also love the fact that they are there in the middle of every community, and they are familiar, welcoming places for everyone.

Academic life

One of my favourite librarian blogs is Ned Potter's The Wikiman. He's an academic liaison librarian and does loads of cool stuff. Recently he posted this presentation on his website, which is SPOT ON! So much great research and ideas in here - really relevant for my current job.

At our library we have an information literacy program. We have library orientations for each new cohort of students, we have regular training sessions on our preferred reference manager and databases and we offer sessions-on-demand, often delivered in the student's own classrooms. But still, the most common questions I get are about Microsoft Office programs like Word, how to use the computers (their own and the library PCs) for tasks such as uploading documents and taking screenshots, and also of course help in locating research relating to their assignment questions. As well as the above mentioned points, they often mention how much time it takes them to do everything, especially searching. And how many times have I heard them say to a friend that they've finished their assignment, they just need to find some references!! These students may be technology literate, but they still need a lot of support in information literacy, especially digital information literacy.

My advice for first year students, that I spout at every opportunity...

• Understand that Google is just one place you can search for information. Google can not search the deep web, but your Library Search can
• Understand that a thorough search takes time, so start early. Attempt to search all potential sources of information before beginning your assignment
• Be critical of your sources; ask yourself how authoritative the source of information is
• Don't write your assignment, or come to your conclusions before doing the research
• Get used to using a reference manager. It will take time at the beginning, but will save time in the end
• Check your referencing carefully - its one of the most common areas where students lose marks but one of the easiest things to fix
• Understand academic writing conventions - the library has resources to help you with this
• Be patient and methodical - it pays off
• Ask your librarian... anything!

The University of York (incidentally, a wonderful little city where I lived for 2 years) is doing amazing things in education. Ned's presentation has given me some ideas about how to support students in the future. I'd love to make a presentation like this one for my students:

6 really useful things to make your academic life easier from Ned Potter (the Wikiman)

Everyone love things with titles like "6 things that will...", "The 10 best...". I think about half the books I catalogued for W.A. public libraries today (my other job...) started with something like that!