WGIL Meeting Minutes - 18th July 2006
SCONUL Working Group on Information Literacy, meeting, 18 th July 2006 at SCONUL offices
Present: Hilary Johnson (Chair), Helen Hathaway, Sheila Webber, Peter Godwin, Stephen Town
Item 1: Apologies , from Wendy White, Janet Peters, Jo Parker, Vanessa Crane, Ellen Breen
Item 2 Notes of meeting held on 4 th May 2006. Accepted as correct.
Item 3 Matters arising.
MOSAIC update. The future involvement of WGIL in a ‘MOSAIC successor' programme is unclear at present. The group agreed that the MOSAIC format was now looking a little old-fashioned. The nature of the replacement modules may not lend themselves in the same way to being ‘badged' as an IL certification. The meeting discussed several options. The ‘Informs' programme was considered to be more of a framework than a curriculum. The contextuality of IL (different Ils within different subjects?) was felt to be a constant. It may be more productive for WGIL to concentrate on the idea of developing learning outcomes appropriate to the generality of UK HE, and to support other groups (IFLA, CILIP) in developing a generic certificate notion. An idea of developing a database of examples of LO's for different HE programmes was mooted. The meeting also considered the degree to which library staff in institutions had been successful in engaging with the more strategic approaches to learning and teaching, and recognised that much good work was going on at the more practice-based level, and not necessarily being reflected in strategic statements.
SW also suggested that a revisit of the Critical Success Factors would be useful. The meeting agreed that a future action plan for the Group would consider these ideas more fully.
HEA Literature Review. SW updated the meeting on progress. An extension to the period allowed had been sought, and an additional two months agreed. The methodology chapter of the report was complete. Work progressed on examining the references. The number which fell into the criteria was considerably smaller than the number of articles and reports on IL generally. There would probably be about 1500 refs considered in more detail. This was a reflection of the nature of the field – that there was a large amount of practitioner reports which were not methodologically rigorous. The new end point for the work was now the end of August. A database with the most pertinent items would be produced (although difficulties were reported with using Endnote!) Members of the Group expressed their interest in seeing the report of the work and building on it for future research activities.
Membership issues. Concern had been expressed after the last meeting about continuity of the work plan and ‘thrust' of the Group. A judicious approach to the number of ‘retiring' members was felt to be wise. A particular issue was the ability of the Group to sustain the web pages in the light of uncertaintly over the main SCONUL web. It was agreed that there should be a ‘trawl' for members in September in order to ensure the identification of an appropriate mix of Heads of Service and practitioner members. ( Action : HJ liaise with Toby about a ‘trawl')
Item 4 Update on activities
Satffordshire conference. PG reported a very successful event, which had a good programme and was well attended. The proceedings had been published very efficiently soon after the event. A community of practice approach was now being led by Staffordshire staff.
E-Lit conference. PG reported a number of interesting contributions at the E-Lit conference, including some presentations about social networking and the use of blogs. The meeting discussed the degree to which the social computing developments could be considered to be part of information literacy. Developments such as getting students to engage in blogging could be a useful tool for helping students to understand underlying concepts around communication of scholarly information. Blogs can also be a good source of information in some subject areas, so on both counts librarians need to be aware of and engage with such tools.
UNESCO Project. SW reported on news of a UNESCO project which is cataloguing IL resources, worldwide, with ‘state of the art' reports from various countries and regions.
SW also reported on her recent visit to Australia , where she had attended a Lifelong Learning conference and an ANZIIL symposium. One theme had been transitions, from junior to high school and from school to university and into work. There had also been some interesting contributions relating to ‘indigenous pedagogies' which may have relevance to developing the IL for international students. The use of diagnostic tests showed that students were not as well prepared for university study as teachers like to think. Changes in the leadership of IL activity in Australia were reported.
ST reported on his service's IL package presented at E-Lit, which had undergone a rigorous quality review process as for e-learning development. This deals with all the 7 pillars of the model, which is rare. There are possibilities regarding licensing this which ST will keep the Group apprised of.
Item 5 SCONUL Summer meeting – it was noted that WW was attending the meeting on behalf of the Group. A report will be made at the next WGIL meeting.
Item 6 Review Plan. This item will form a substantial agenda item at the next meeting, when it was hoped that new members will have been identified.
Item 7 Position Paper. The meeting discussed the content and presentation of the third draft document prepared by HJ. It was felt that the definition of IL to be used should be relevant to HE, and that essentially the model was our definition. The CILIP definition should therefore be ‘glossed' with an HE perspective, and reference to the model. (ST)
HH to re-draft section on certification.
The para about terminology should be shorter and less defensive about the use of the term ‘IL'. The section about the model should be revised using SW's text, but edited to be more succinct.
SW offered to re-draft the section on ‘Generic or Embedded' to ensure that both are clearly presented as relevant. It was noted that the latest draft had omitted mention of the CILIP group – this was to be reinstated (inadvertent omission!) Reference could be included to the UNESCO study (SW).
Reference to e-learning (ST to draft).
Lists of papers – choose around 6 that have most prominence.
Agreed that HJ to send to ST text as of 1 August, for further editing work and layout. (Action, HJ and ST)
Item 8 Date of next meeting confirmed as 3 rd Novermber 2006. The agenda for the next meeting will include discussion of the 2007 work plan.
Item 9 AOB. The meeting welcomed the CILIP IL website, and noted that a new member of the Group from the CILIP CSG IL Group was being sought. (Action HJ)
Updated November 2006 by Selena Lock S.A.Lock@Cranfield.ac.uk.