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

The Scottish Information Literacy Community of Practice

Christine IrvingCommunity of Practice Founding Member

Former SILP Project Officer Freelance Information Professional

CILIPS East Branch: Information Literacy Part One National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh

Thursday 30th January 2014

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

Information Skills for a 21st Century Scotland is more than a website … it is an online community of practice which is open to:

• everyone both within and outside the information profession, primarily in Scotland but also elsewhere.

• anyone who is interested in information literacy and associated skills and competencies.

Launched 11th June 2012 @ CILIPS Annual Conference in Dundee

www.therightinformation.org/ is hosted by SLIC

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

Why create a Community of Practice?

Because: • The Scottish Information

Literacy Project and the funding ended March 2010

• It was 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 skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

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

1. 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.‘

2. 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.'

3. 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.‘

' It is the combination of these three elements that constitute a community of practice. And it is by developing these three elements in parallel that one cultivates such a community.' Wenger (2006)

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

How you can get involved:• Join our community of

practice• Become a member –

sign up through the website

• Share practice, your expertise, your thoughts and ask questions

• Contribute to the communities’ knowledge of information literacy activities, case studies, news, conferences and events, new research, discussions etc.

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

Check out the community blog for news of:

• Developments, projects

• Requests for information

• Conference / event reports

• Co-ordination and synergy of

activities, strategies,

developments etc

and

• contribute to the discussion

• use the RSS feed

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland CoP Meetings

www.therightinformation.org/

First meeting - 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

Not just a website … we have bi annual face to face meetings with cross sector community members who:

• Act as facilitators for their sector• Share practice• Contribute to the communities’

knowledge of information literacy:– Activities– case studies– News– conferences and events– new research

• Become involved / engage in information literacy:– Advocacy– Strategies– Projects, proposals

Meeting minutes are posted on the blog.

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland community calendar of events

www.therightinformation.org/calendar/

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

Scottish Information Literacy Framework

• Developed by the Scottish Information Literacy Project

• Defines key skills needed for success in the 21st century.

• Included in the CoP.

We can’t stop there though. We need 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

Come and join us and contribute to what is 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)