ACIL Meeting Minutes 7th February 2003
Notes of the second meeting of the SCONUL Advisory Committee on Information Literacy, 7th February 2003.
Present:
- Hilary Johnson (Chair)
- Janet Peters
- Wendy White
- Helen Hathaway
- Peter Godwin
- Deborah Bragan Turner
- Jo Parker
- Stephen Town
Also present: Kathy Ennis (CILIP)
Item 1 Apologies received from Martin Jenkins
Item 2 Notes of meeting held on 18th November 2002 were approved.
Item 3 Matters arising
Key skills work. Jo Parker reported that further work had been
completed on drafting Level 1 and 2 of a Key Skills qualification in information
literacy and that Chris Dillon was in contact with the QCA, which is reviewing
Key Skills qualifications.
Customisable Shell. A meeting is scheduled for 28th Feb at
the OU to take forward the intended pilots at Reading, Nottingham and Southampton.
To report to next meeting (Action JoP)
MOSAIC. Jo Parker further reported on the second cohort of
student undertaking the U120 module. 240 had submitted a portfolio, and marking
is in progress. The use of the First Class conferencing system had been noticeably
more active this time, perhaps due to more of the students being continuing
students. A number of course teams in the OU were working on integrating parts
of the ‘SAFARI’ system into their courses.
Secretary/Membership of ACIL. Hilary Johnson reported on discussions
with SCONUL Secretary about identifying someone willing to undertake the role
of Secretary. An approach was agreed. (Action HJ). The draft Terms of Reference
for the Committee will be considered by the next SCONUL Executive meeting.
Big Blue. Deborah Bragan Turner reported on discussions with
Malcolm Batchelor of JISC, who had been charged with following up the recommendations
from the Big Blue Project. A ‘glossy’ publication is in hand to
publicise the results. A meeting of JCALT will consider further actions. A colloquium
may be held in May. (Action: DBT to keep ACIL informed).
HESDA. Hilary Johnson reported that the HESDA Skills Development
Group had held a further meeting. Again the focus of activity of the group had
been Basic and Generic skills development. A conference on the subject had been
mooted, but no further information was available, and the projected changes
to HESDA may mean that the initiative is delayed.
ACHS. Hilary Johnson reported that she and Wendy White will
be attending the meeting of SCONUL ACHS on 14th February. ACHS remained interested
in the further investigation of information literacy within the healthcare profession.
ILTHE. Janet Peters reported that the publication of her piece
on the work of the SCONUL Task Force had been put on the ILTHE web site and
had led to contacts from interested parties.
Researchers’ skills development. Stephen Town reported
attending a meeting on Research Libraries support to consider the RSLP report
(which however had not yet been published). Sheila Webber also attended. It
is important to remember that researchers are not only located within universities,
and that information skills for this group could need to be considered in that
wider context.
TFPL meeting on workplace skills. Stephen Town reported. It
would be useful if the meeting presentations were to be published, as there
had been a good contribution from an industry participant.
UNESCO forum (John Lindsay). It appeared that the meeting to
consider input to the UNESCO forum had been postponed and had taken place in
January. No-one from the ACIL had been able to attend. (Action: HJ to contact
John Lindsay).
Item 4 CILIP and information literacy.
Kathy Ennis outlined recent developments at CILIP which related to information
skills. Some of this had begun under Library Association auspices. The launch
of CILIP had signalled a wider representative engagement among the whole information
profession. Kathy drew attention to three documents which indicated key policy
and action areas
- Libraries & Lifelong Learning
- Start with the child
- CILIP in the knowledge economy
A theme running through these is the necessity, in the context of social inclusion
and the development of the knowledge economy, for information professionals
to recognise the need to help clients develop the skills to manage and exploit
the use of information. This meant staff in libraries and information units
developing their own information literacy skills and engaging with the teaching
of those skills to others. One issue encountered was the need to be able to
define ‘information literacy’ in a way that allowed for the varied
professional and other groups to be able to work together.
Discussion identified a spectrum of potential activity, from activities related
to the idea of ‘reader development’ through to commercial concepts
of knowledge management. Members of ACIL expressed interest in talking with
others from other sectors about definitions and objectives of IL programmes.
A possible starting point for debate could be the ‘7 Pillars model’.
A critical issue is that of information professionals themselves ‘re-skilling’
to be able to deliver information literacy development, and currently there
were little signs of this – for example the recent ISNTO Skills Foresight
exercise had not recognised this need. The review of the CILIP professional
development framework might be a useful way to take this aspect of the work
forward.
(Action: KE and HJ to liaise over the idea of a CILIP-sponsored seminar on information
literacy to which members of ACIL could contribute).
Item 5 ‘Open meetings’ called for by the SCONUL Executive. The meeting noted that this need will be met by the joint event in planning between ACIL and UCISA TLIG.
Item 6 SCONUL Conference, Lancaster, 2-4th April 2003.
Hilary Johnson reported on discussions with Gail Downe, Kathy Wiles (LTSN) and
Sue Roberts. Kathy Wiles and Jane Core will be offering a workshop at the conference,
which will have as a theme relationships with stakeholder groups. A discussion
group session scheduled for the Thursday afternoon (3rd April) could be used
to focus on information literacy issues, which can follow on well from the LTSN
workshop. Suggestions were made as to possible speakers to contribute to the
early afternoon session. (Action: HJ to pass ideas to Sue Roberts). It was noted
that whilst SCONUL Conferences had in the past been aimed very much at ‘Chiefs’
the intention is to be more inclusive of a range of staff levels and kinds.
Item 7 UCISA TLIG/ACIL joint event. Planning for this had
been thrown by the announcement of the Glasgow conference (the second IT and
Info lit conference). However, the meeting felt that the planned meeting should
go ahead – hopefully avoiding the dates of the Galsgow meeting. A focus
for ACIL can be the use of VLE/MLEs for the delivery and assessment of information
skills delivery and student achievement. Peter Stubley (Sheffield) and Jenny
Brook (Huddersfield) were mentioned as possible contributors. A speaker from
the LTSN subject centre (CTI) was also suggested. Sheffield Hallam had done
work on key skills online. Workshop suggestions were ITLiteracy and the 7 Pillars
model, using webboards and online conferences for info skills work, how to use
technology to set and mark assessments, and the relationship between marketing
using the web/VLE and information skills. The ILRT (Emma Place) may also be
able to contribute. (Action: JaP to check with Martin Jenkins about date and
venue, HJ to log ideas about content for further work by planning group - WW,
PG HJ & MJ)
Item 8 Glasgow conference. The meeting discussed possible contributions.
The deadline set by the call for papers is 28th February. It seemed unlikely
that the ACIL could make such a large ‘showing’ as on the previous
occasion, as lines of action (e.g. on MOSAIC) were not far advanced. (Action:
all to consider options and submit papers if possible)
Item 9 Action Plan.
Hilary Johnson tabled a revision of the Action Plan in the light of previous
discussion. Peter Godwin undertook to produce a revised text for a flyer. (Action:
PG) Specific items for the next meeting’s agenda were noted as the Web
site plans, liaison with Sheila Webber over her AHRB research project, and the
development of researchers’ information skills (contact Michelle Shoebridge?).
(Action: agenda/invitations – HJ) In the light of interest (stimulated
by Janet Peters’ ILTHE contribution) from an Art & Design academic,
Janet was asked to pursue the notion that Art & Design could be a focus
for a subject study of some kind. (Action: JaP to sound out through ARLIS/ Vanessa
Crane) It was noted that this subject brings to the fore the related concepts
of media and visual information literacy.
Item 10 AOB
TQEC report. The meeting noted the report, which was clearly
going to have a major impact on the support for quality enhancement in learning
and teaching in universities. It was felt that SCONUL should respond to it (Action:
HJ)
In discussion, it was decided that it would be useful to undertake a quick and
dirty survey on the SCONUL mailing list to find out the state of play of information
skills/literacy within institutions’ Learning and teaching strategies.
Also the suggestion was made that SCONUL could publish as part of the
series of working papers, any specific L&T strategies from academic libraries/information
service units. (action: JaP)
UCISA TLIG. Janet Peters noted that the annual TLIG meeting
which reviewed activity with other groups is soon to take place, and that the
content of today’s meeting can be relayed (and to the SCONUL Executive).
Peter Godwin asked Kathy Ennis about CILIP’s activity in training
the trainers in relation to information skills The Training and Development
section is running courses for a range of professionals, and this is likely
to feature in ideas about career planning and development linked to re-thinking
the new professional accreditation report, which is to become a portfolio.
Date of next meeting : Wednesday 30th April
Please note that the SCONUL meeting room is not available
on that date. Thanks to Helen Hathaway who will investigate the possibility
of meeting at the University of Reading instead.
The meeting closed at 3.30 pm HJJ 9/2/03
Action checklist
- Customisable shell. Report outcomes of mtg 28th Feb (JoP)
- Secretary/Membership of ACIL. HJ to approach agreed name(s).
- DBT to keep ACIL informed re Big Blue follow-up.
- HJ to contact John Lindsay re. UNESCO forum meeting outcomes
- KE and HJ to liaise over the idea of a CILIP-sponsored seminar on information literacy
- SCONUL Conference HJ to pass ideas to Sue Roberts.
- UCISA TLIG/ACIL joint meeting. JaP to check with Martin Jenkins about date and venue, HJ to log ideas about content for further work by planning group (WW, PG HJ & MJ)
- Glasgow conference: all to consider options and submit papers if possible
- Revise text for a flyer PG
- Action Plan agenda/invitations HJ
- JaP to sound out subject focus idea on Art & Design through ARLIS/ Vanessa Crane
- TQEC report draft response – HJ
- L&T strategies survey and publications – JaP
- UCISA TLIG – JaP
- Next meeting 30th April – HH to check for venue at Reading.
Next agenda
- Customisable shell
- Big Blue follow up
- CILIP liaison
- UCISA TLIG/ACIL joint meeting
- Web site /ACIL Flyer
- Researchers’ information skills development
Updated November 2003 by Selena Lock S.A.Lock@Cranfield.ac.uk.