Lessons learnt from Lilac:and then from eLit

Debbi Boden, Dr Jane Secker & Ruth Stubbings

CILIP Umbrella 2005

Themes

Terminology Knowledge pool Sectoral differences Political / social agenda LILAC meets eLit Are we making the right assumptions? The importance of collaboration Where do we go from here?

Terminology

Does it matter?

• IL, I-skills, information skills, user education

What attracts one type of person repels another

New term?• Critical thinking (US) • Evidence based / problem solving.

Knowledge pool

Are librarians teachers?• Pedagogy• Creating online courses

Where do librarians gain teaching skills?• Library / information courses?• Staff development

o Budgets

What expertise can librarians bring?• Technical knowledge

o Standard Microsoft office, HTML• Critical thinking, problem solving and evaluation skills• Experts in plagiarism

Sectoral differences

Information Literacy - is it just FE & HE sectors?• Does it mean the same thing in different sectors?• Is it important in every sector?

Fragmentation between sectors• how to we join it all up?

Political / social agenda

Information literacy can help:• Life long learning• Social inclusion

There is a need for an IL strategy that crosses sectors - DfES e-strategy may help here

Need to influence policy makers – how can this be done?

When LILAC met eLit: lessons from the education community

Information literacy is one of several literacies in the digital world

This is an issue that concerns the education sector as a whole

Collaboration is vital

Without information literacy you can’t have lifelong learning

Are we making the wrong assumptions?

Wilder’s challenge to librarians that information literacy is not the solution• Mini-librarians?• Don’t fight Google, work with it• Design better library systems

Wilder made us think and reflection is important

Collaboration in education is the key

Need to start with the teaching profession

Ensure they understand what IL is, even if they call it something else• Embed IL into staff development for academic

staff in HE and teachers in schools

Need hooks to get in: plagiarism, e-learning, Google

What lessons have we learnt?

Information literacy matters as it • Enhances access to information• Information leads to knowledge

Therefore Information literacy• Is an issue for the whole library profession• Is a wider social issue in the digital age• Is a global issue

Where do we go from here?

Collaboration across Library communities• CILIP, SCONUL, Cilip SIGs, SLA etc

Collaboration across sectors• Joint CILIP / Aslib / Ofcom / DCMS / MLA / BL / BC horizon

scanning conference

Independent IL web site

Proposal for an international Institute for Information Literacy: in the UK

LILAC 2006