Scottish Information Literacy Project

Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service started filming last week on their Libraries R 4 Learning Project: Multimedia clips. As one of those approached, I travelled north last week (2nd and 3rd February 2010) to do some filming. It was an interesting process writing the scripts for the introduction sections on Information Literacy, Information Literacy in schools and Information Literacy in the workplace and then filming them. A new experience for both myself and the film crew (Sue Cromar and one of the network librarians whose name I have forgotten – my apologises to her). I now have a great respect for news readers, it is not as easy as it looks.

During my two day visit I also had a meeting with some of the Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service staff – Primary School Librarian and Early Years / Young People in Schools Librarian plus one of Aberdeenshires Literacy Development Officers (Katherine who is an English teacher on secondment). We had an interesting session where I shared information on the information literacy work I’m involved with specifically the LTS Real and Relevant – Information and Critical Literacy Skills for the 21st Century Learner’ (Early and First Level) CPD Toolkit.

Katherine was amazed to hear that Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service is not just about books, they also have objects / educational tools – religious artefacts, puppets, costumes etc that teachers can use for lessons. As a teachers she is probably not alone in thinking that libraries are just about books. She was also not aware that tours of the service have been organised for probationer teachers and that several teachers have requested visits once they heard of the resources available from the probationer teachers. I made a note to myself to remember to include Library and Information Services as a resource for teachers in the Real and Relevant  CPD Toolkit.

I also had an interesting conversation with the network librarian at Meldrum Accademy about transition initiatives (primary 7 – S1) and also about my experience todate of information literacy in the early years specifically regarding my thoughts that information literacy involves all our senses (sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing) plus our memories not just reading of text from books and or the Internet. I think we forget about the power of visual images and how this helps us learn languages, remember / recall past experiences, knowledge etc.

The latest issue of Library and Information Research is now available online

Issue 105 contains a number of invited contribution papers (from the projects partners so) is focused on current information literacy initiatives in Scotland especially in the schools sector. 

Libraries R 4 Learning: supporting the Curriculum for Excellence in Aberdeenshire - Sue Cromar

Collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice to enrich The National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland) - Christine Irving

The future is skills - Ian McCracken

Congratulations to both Sue and Ian for their informative and interesting articles – keep up the good work.

Library and Information Research is published by the Library and Information Research Group. It publishes both refereed and non-refereed submissions. It is particularly keen to encourage

• new writers
• reporting of research (including informal or in-house research) by practitioners

So if this is you – why not contact them, they are very helpful and provide a template to aid your writing.

The project has been working with Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS):

to  identify exemplars of good practice / case studies within the cross curricular area of information literacy for dissemination through the LTS (Learning and Teaching Scotland) website which offers an important mechanism to keep education authority and school staff informed and supported.

Thanks to the above parties, LTS Curriculum for Excellence Literacy and English Team and the school librarians involved the case studies are now live and can be viewed on the LTS Information Literacy Website under sharing practice  - two more case studies are still to be finalised by LTS. Hopefully more case studies will be added in the future. 

The addition of these sharing practice case studies / exemplars of good practice linked to the Curriculum for Excellence four capacities (to enable each child or young person to be a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and an effective contributor) will add value to the LTS resources:

• facilitating access to practitioners’ good practices and classroom resources within this important cross curricular area
• demonstrating how specific information literacy competencies can be applied in practice
• identifying exemplars linked to different levels within the curriculum, subjects and resources.

This is an important development with the inclusion of information literacy as part of the Curriculum for Excellence Literacy and English experiences and outcomes specifically

• finding and using information in the listening and talking, and reading sections
• understanding, analysing and evaluating in listening and talking, and reading sections “to encourage progression in understanding of texts, developing not only literal understanding but also the higher order skills”
• organising and using information in the writing section

For more details see Curriculum for Excellence: Literacy and English experiences and outcomes also the accompanying  – principles and practice paper / document.