Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland

An online information literacy community of

practice

The Scottish Information Literacy Framework

CILIPS Autumn Gathering3rd October 2012

Christine IrvingIndependent Information Professional

He’s back!

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

Launched 11th June 2012@ CILIPS Annual Conference in Dundee

New online information literacy community of practice: Information Skills for a 21st century Scotland.

More than a website …

Hosted by Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC)

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

• Scottish Information Literacy Project and the funding concluded end March 2010

• Important not to loose all the valuable work the Scottish Information Literacy Project and it’s partners did, achieved and to continue the work …

• Information literacy is important … – It is the cornerstone of learning and absolutely essential in this digital age. – It supports learning and decision making in all areas of human activity: education

from early years through school to higher education, the workplace, adult and lifelong learning and skills development.

– It helps people make informed choices about health care and gives people the information they need to cope with long term medical conditions.

– It helps people to develop new skills and make them more employable. – Perhaps most important of all, in a period of political change, it gives citizens the

information they need to make informed decisions about the future of their country.

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

What’s there?

• Scottish Information Literacy Framework - a national overarching framework of information literacy skills and competencies which all sectors of education can recognize and develop or which can be applied to the world of work, equipping learners with skills needed for the 21st century.

• Valuable archive of material built up over several years:– information about the Scottish Information Literacy Project – project blog.

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

What’s there?

• Community of Practice open to everyone who is interested in information literacy (IL) and associated skills and competencies. The aim is to connect up practitioners in a range of sectors who are all working towards the common goal of creating an information literate Scotland.

• What is information literacy?: definitions, frameworks, information literacy and lifelong learning, information literacy and education– Literacies that are associated with or are required to be used in conjunction with

information literacy e.g. critical literacy, digital literacy, media literacy – definitions given

• Blog roll: – Library and Information Literacy Websites – Education, Learning and Development

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

Work is on going – some changes will be:

• Banner improved to show all age groups involved in information literacy

• RSS feed to be added• Events listing to be included • Promote the use of creating

resources under Creative Commons Licence.

More to come / be added but we need your help, engagement and participation

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

How you can get involved?

Scottish Information Literacy Framework

We need your help, we are looking for individuals and groups across the LIS sectors/community to: • continue to develop the

current version• updating it to incorporate new

research, adding case studies, and so on …

• use and promote the framework.

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

How you can get involved:

Community of Practice

Share your expertise, ask questions and get involved!

Join the Community of Practice:• Become a member - sign up • Share practice, • Contribute to the

communities’ knowledge of IL activities, case studies, news, conferences and events, new research etc.

Information skills for a 21st century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

Communities of practice have become a common term but:

– What is a 'community of practice' (CoP)

– How can we participate and engage in them

– How can we use them as an approach to knowing and learning?

Communities of Practice are“groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”. Etienne Wenger, 2006

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

Wenger identifies that there are three characteristic which are crucial to a community of practice:

• The domain. 'A community of practice is not merely a club of friends or a network of connections between people. It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain membership.‘

• The community. 'In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. A website in itself is not a community of practice.'

• The practice. 'A community of practice is not merely a community of interest. Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems - in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction.'

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

How you can get involved:

Use the discussion board to:• solve problems, request

information, seek and share experience

• reuse assets• discuss developments• map knowledge and identify

gaps• document projects• announce events or report

back from them• coordination and synergy of

activities, strategies, developments etc.

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

Community of Practice: first meeting of interested parties – cross sector

The main areas of interest: • Developing core IL skills in FE;• Assessing the impact of IL training;• Advocacy for IL; • Instructing teachers in IL, • IL as an employability skill; • IL toolkits for young people; • Teaching IL skills in public libraries;• Links between schools and public

libraries, • Use of electronic IL resources in public

libraries; • Online training packages in HE (short

demo of SMILE); • Workplace IL skills social media; training

materials for teachers. • NLS the Toolkit being developed - looking

for partners to work with in the different sectors on the toolkit.

• Identify training and CPD needs

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

Come and join us and contribute to what will be a vibrant community working towards the common goal of creating an

information literate Scotland.

Thank you

"To prosper in the Digital Age, people must become masters of information." Dr. Carolyn M. Stern for the NFIL/NCLIS/UNESCO 2003 Prague meeting of information

literacy experts - Information Literacy "Unplugged": Teaching Information Literacy Without Technology.(p.3)