EMPATIC News No 4: October - December 2011

Information Literacy News

Information Literacy Committee, Poland 

At the beginning of the year 2011 the Polish Librarians’ Association (SBP) formed the Information Literacy Committee (KEI, Komisja ds. Edukacji Informacyjnej). The Committee members are both librarians and LIS researchers. The nine-member team is currently chaired by Ewa Rozkosz (President) from University of Lower Silesia Library in Wrocław .

The KEI’s structure includes a Board of the Committee serving as the executive body. The Board  meets its duties by: developing programmes and providing expertise in the field of Information Literacy (IL); arranging meetings (conferences, trainings) of scholarly or professional character; developing analyses on current state of IL in Poland; providing information on the IL level or nature in foreign countries.

The Committee’s involvement takes the form of a consultation and supporting body. The KEI activities, however, have not only an opinion giving character. Since its foundation in January 2011, it has been involved in different projects raising the level of IL within the Polish library community. The Committee also takes up promotion and information activities. It aims to provide a picture of the state of Polish Information Literacy  and to propose a way forward.

Focusing on the importance of Information Literacy within the global context, the Committee is to adopt certain measures to establish successful international cooperation with the IL-related foreign bodies. In June 2011 the KEI  members took part in the international EMPATIC workshop Information Literacy Development in the School Sector  aimed to discuss issues of IL development in the school learning sector across the UE, organized by the Institute of Information and Library Science of Jagiellonian University in Kraków. They also initiated and co-organised workshop in the IL field  entitled Training the Trainers in Information Literacy  held at the University of Warsaw Library in September 2011.

The Committee has announced its Work Programme for 2011-2013  with a list of specific actions for the current year defined.  They have also released a publication entitled Poland: Information Literacy State-of-the-Art Report   (June 2011) and the Polish language version of the Guidelines on Information Literacy for Lifelong Learning , developed in August 2011 as a direct result of on-going cooperation with the IFLA Information Literacy Section.

All the mentioned documents are available at the official Polish Librarians’ Association website: Polish , English
Further information on current KEI activities can be also found from Ewa Rozkosz’s blog : 

Conferences, Workshops and Seminars

Webcast of talk by Alison Head

10 January 2012
Berkman Center, USA

On January 10 2012 Alison J. Head, Berkman Center Fellow, will talk on Searching for Context: Modeling the Information-Seeking Process of College Students in the Digital Age webcast live and then archived.

"What is it like to be a college student in the digital age? In this talk, I present a working typology of the undergraduate information-seeking process, including students' reliance on and use of Web sources. Since 2008, as part of our ongoing study at the University of Washington's Project Information Literacy, we have surveyed more than 10,000 students at 40 colleges and universities (including undergraduates enrolled at Harvard College). We have investigated how college students find information and conduct research—their needs, strategies, and workarounds—for solving information problems that occur during course-related research and in their everyday lives. We have found the large majority of students we have studied across all types of higher-education institutions in the US still attend college to learn, but many are lost in a thicket of information overload. They struggle with managing the IT devices that permeate their lives. Our findings indicate that nearly all students intentionally use a small compass for navigating the ever-widening and complex information landscape they inhabit. These and other findings of Project Information Literacy have profound implications for teaching, learning, work, and play in the 21st century."

Manchester Library Teachermeet

17 January 2012
John Rylands University Library, The University of Manchester 
Manchester, UK

There are still places available at the Manchester Library Teachmeet.

Teachmeets are about sharing experience so please volunteer to present there are 5 minute and 10 minute presentation slots available. Examples of titles are:

• Effective assessment: a tough nut to crack (Kaye, Huddersfield)
• Keeping the attention of your audience (Anne-Mary, Huddersfield)
• Resource Discovery: two worlds colliding (Chris Keene, Brighton)
• Using Skype with media students (Sarah Ison, Brighton)
• Livening up library induction sessions the low tech way (Lucy Keating, Newcastle)
• Lunching with Renoir: demonstrating why wikis should be more than just content (Linda Crane, Liverpool
• Library posters: engaging your students (Liz Osman, Cambridge)
• Debunking the myth of the Google generation (Nicky Adkins, Cambridge) 

View details

Moving on up... School/FE/HE transition

19 January 2012, 
Durham University, UK.

Durham University (UK), College & Research Group (Northern Section) has organised 'Moving on up... School/FE/HE transition'.

"This Event is aimed at School, Further Education and University Librarians and examines the transition that most 16 -18 year olds make from School to College to Higher Education. It will consider what support there is for students making the transition and what can we do to help.

There is an impressive programme of presentations delivered by respected and knowledgeable speakers who will be sharing their broad range of experiences and skills.”

Speakers include: Jackie Dunn and Ann-Marie Laws: "Bridging the Divide: Information Literacy the Forgotten Link"; Elizabeth Astan & Julie Archer: "Mind the [information literacy] Gap: moving from School or FE to HE". 

To reserve a place, please contact Helen Ashton , Bishop Auckland College,
Tel: +44 (0)1388 443018

How to make Google behave: techniques for better results

8 February 2012
University of Birmingham, UK

This event is a seminar held at the University of Birmingham organised by UKEIG and run by Karen Blakeman "Course Outline:  Having problems with Google? Fed up with it ignoring your search terms and giving you something completely different? Or confused by irrelevant tweets from complete strangers appearing in your results?

Personalisation, localisation, social networks and semantic search are all being used by Google in an attempt to improve relevance but it can all go horribly wrong. Austria suddenly becomes Australia and Google decides that coots are really lions! Nevertheless, just one really good result in the top five is often enough to persuade us to return to Google again and again. There are many tricks we can use to make Google return better results and this workshop will look in detail at the options that are currently available to us."

View details  

LILAC Draft  Programme

11-13 April 2011
Glasgow, Scotland, UK

The preliminary programme for the LILAC  (UK information literacy) conference is now available.

HEA’s 1st annual learning and teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) conference call for papers

12-13 April 2012
University College, London

The Higher Education Academy’s first annual learning and teaching STEM conference will take place on 12 and 13 April 2012 at Imperial College London, one of the world’s leading centres of excellence for teaching and research in the fields of science, technology and medicine.  This conference brings together the STEM disciplines and replaces the annual ICS conference that has been so successful for so many years.  

STEM subjects are recognised as having strategic importance in higher education for the economy and employers. The student learning experience in STEM subjects is vital in ensuring sustained growth in the uptake of these key disciplines. Furthermore an excellent learning experience ensures that students developed the right skills at the time of graduation and beyond through continued professional development. The Higher Education Academy (HEA) provides national leadership in developing and disseminating evidence-informed practice in learning and teaching in higher education; this conference will provide a platform for this for the HEA’s STEM disciplines. The key conference themes applied to STEM disciplines are:

• innovative practice in STEM learning and teaching;
• gender issues in STEM subjects;
• Mathematics and Statistics in an interdisciplinary context;
• work-based learning in STEM subjects;
• teaching and assessing large classes;
• assessment and feedback;
• employability;
• flexible learning;
• internationalisation;
• retention and success.

They are interested in papers that apply to specific STEM disciplines as well as generically, across all STEM subjects. Together with planary sessions, the conference will run as separate discipline-specific threads to maintain individual subject identity.

• Abstracts of up to 300 words should be submitted by Friday 16 December 2011  and are subjected to double-blinded peer review; a response will be sent by 16 January 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference.
• A full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 17 February 2012.  
• Full paper submissions and authors will have reviewers’ comments by 2 March 2012 . 
• Camera-ready papers should be returned to the conference committee by 16 March 2012 for inclusion in the proceedings.

Proposals are invited for one or more sessions for one or more of the three Summit locations. Breakout sessions and panels will be 50 minutes long and should include audience interaction or discussion.

Hands-on lessons and demonstrations (and/or practical takeaways) are encouraged.

Some suggested topics are:

• partnerships with faculty and administrators;
• living in a post-text world; defining media literacy;
• rethinking credibility in a 2.0 world,
• new approaches to teaching searching.

Propose a breakout session  

Deadline for proposals is January 6, 2012.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Neighbour's door, December 2011

QQML Conference, Limerick, Ireland- Extension of deadline to January 20th

22-25 May 2012
Limerick, Ireland

The 4th Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries International Conference (QQML2012),  have extended the deadline for submission of proposals for a paper /abstract /poster /workshop to Friday 20th January 2012.

Relevant conference themes are:

• E-Learning and the contribution of the libraries, archives and museums
• Information literacy: Information sharing, Democracy and lifelong learning

Contributions may be realized through one of the following ways

• Structured abstracts (not exceeding 500 words) and presentation
• Full papers (not exceeding 7,000 words)
• Posters (not exceeding 2,500 words)
• Visual presentations (Pecha kucha). These presentations consist of exactly 20 slides, each of which is displayed for 20 seconds.  Total presentation time is precisely 6 minutes 40 seconds and so it is important to use the transition feature in PowerPoint to time your presentation exactly.

View details

Critical Thinking & Library Instruction

21-26 June 2012
Anaheim, USA

There is a call for proposals for the Library Instruction Roundtable (LIRT) Conference Program, Critical Thinking & Library Instruction: Fantasyland or Adventureland? during the 2012 American Library Association Annual Conference .

"As librarians move beyond "how to" instruction sessions, understanding and incorporating educational principles and practices, such as critical thinking, will help leverage their collaborations with user communities."

"Successful proposals will:

• Include at least one learning objective
• Effectively engage the audience for a 15-minute presentation
• Offer practical applications/examples of incorporating critical thinking (CT) in library instruction
• Suggested topic areas: collaboration with faculty on CT, teaching methods for CT, CT in the “one-shot session,” collaborating on CT in general education courses"

 Four 15-minute presentations will be selected and must be presented in person at the session (on June 24. Please include the following information in prposlas on 2 pages:

1. A cover sheet with your name(s), title(s), institutional affiliation(s), mailing address(es), fax number(s) and email address(es).
2. A second page without any personal identifying information. This page must include: the presentation title, a brief abstract (250 words), learning objective(s), and a paragraph describing how you will deliver the presentation (e.g., PowerPoint, learning activity, etc.).

To submit send an e-mail to: Arianne Hartsell-Gundy , 

The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2012.

Information literacy meets E-learning: Let's talk about interconnections and outcomes: cfp

11-17 August 2012,
Helsinki, Finland

There is a call for papers for a session at the World Library and Information Congress : 78th IFLA General Conference and Assembly.
 The session is organised by IFLA's Information Literacy Section and the E-learning Special Interest Group.

Proposals should include an abstract of paper approximately 500 words, and the author'(s) details (name, institution, position) and brief biographical statement of no more than 50 words. 

Proposals should be sent to: infolitelearn@gmail.com  no later than February 5, 2012  and indicate “IFLA proposal” in the subject line.

For more information, please contact: agnes.colnot@univ-rennes1.fr  or g.hallam@qut.edu.au