WGIL Meeting Minutes - 4th May 2006

SCONUL Working Group on Information Literacy
Meeting no. 4

4 th May 2006

1. In attendance and apologies .

In attendance: Hilary Johnson (Chair), Wendy White, Peter Godwin, Ellen Breen, Jo Parker, and (latter part of meeting) Janet Peters.

Apologies: Sheila Webber, Stephen Town, Jacqui Weetman, Vanessa Crane, Helen Hathaway .

2. Notes of WGIL meeting no. 3.

Accuracy: EB affiliation incorrect –the organisation she represents is CONUL. (web site www.conul.ie )
3.5 not pursued as no immediate requirements for funding.
3.6 Topic of research noted for agenda for July meeting
8. HJ had not been able to write up the survey (found that she had inadvertently deleted the actual responses after completing the summary!)
9. No further news from CETLs to report
10. Information Literacy website launched at LILAC– noted that ST had contacted the CILIP group in respect of being involved in website direction.

3. Matters arising (not on the agenda)

3.1 ‘ MOSAIC' is transmuting from U120 to T120 at the Open University. A planning meeting for the new module had been held (JoP and HJ attending). The new module, part of the ‘Relevant knowledge' series of short courses, is likely to reflect a greater emphasis on learning outcomes re new technology. The first cohort will be recruited in October.

3.2  i-Skills – the meeting noted that there was a series of workshops being advertised aimed at administration staff through the AUA. The meeting discussed the concept of ‘personal information space' as a working tool to assist with management of information. The OU runs ‘PIM (Personal Information Management' staff development sessions to which the information literacy staff contribute. This was felt to be an interesting development.

3.3  HEA literature review . HJ reported attending as the SCONUL representative the first meeting of the steering group. Plans had been hit by the departure of the project worker, so timescales were proving difficult.

4. WGIL membership

The meeting noted that the Group was in need of recruitment of new members. Since the departure of Liz Hart the Group had no Secretary, and would need to identify a new Chair at the end of the year. There would also need to be 2 new members to replace retiring members Janet Peters and Stephen Town.

The guidelines on membership from the Executive were noted. The meeting noted that the role envisaged for the Chairs of groups was rather a managerial one, and felt that the attraction of leading a SCONUL Group for a ‘SCONUL representative' might rather lie in the idea of vision, intellectual or ‘thought' leadership than in having yet something else to ‘manage'. Members also felt that the insistence on Chairs being SCONUL representatives might be unrealistic in terms of the squeeze being placed on people from ‘the day job'.

The meeting discussed the ‘member profile' for WGIL. The essential criteria should be that members should have an interest in the practice and promotion of Information Literacy. Members could reasonably be expected to also posses one or more of the following attributes; representative of geography, type of institution, level of role (practitioner/strategic lead) – that is, that the group as a whole could aim to be representative in these terms. Among WGIL membership it would be useful to include a teaching department representative. Experience of innovation or developing practice in learning and teaching would be a useful attribute, as also would be experience of undertaking research and/or of supporting researchers. Members with contacts with agencies outside of HE (e.g. Further Education) would be useful, as would experience of e.g. widening access or distance learning, e-learning or another relevant specialism.

Action : HJ to contact SCONUL Secretary to arrange a recruitment process.

5.  Position paper . The draft paper was discussed. A maximum length of 6 sides of A4 was agreed. The paper could therefore not be discursive, but contain a number of ‘pointers' to other information. The idea of ‘feature boxes' was approved. There would need to be a high level of graphic design applied. It was confirmed that the primary format was to be print rather than electronic.

Action : HJ to speak to SCONUL Secretary about the design of the publication.
Other discussion will be incorporated into a revised draft
Action : HJ

6. ‘Round-up' of IL activity.

PG reported on the ‘LILAC' conference. This had been well-attended, but not by many public librarians. A number of papers had been interesting, including reports of PDP work, contributions from Peter Brophy, Phil Candy and Dorothy Williams.
EB reported on a recent CONUL seminar, and a survey of researchers. Some universities in Ireland were establishing specific ‘research support librarians' linked to research centres. This was an interesting development. Research support could be a theme for a WGIL seminar or meeting in 2007.
JaP reported on the development of a research centre for evidence-based approaches at Cardiff .
The meeting noted that the e-Lit conference was due to take place in June in Loughborough, and the Staffordshire University meeting on 17 th May.
Action : Members to alert the mailing list to further relevant events or developments.

The meeting closed at 2.45 pm

HJJ 13/5/06

Updated May 2006 by Selena Lock S.A.Lock@Cranfield.ac.uk.