ALIA Information Literacy Forum

December 2004 Newsletter

Report from the National Policy Congress

From 19-20 November the ALIA Board of Directors, regional, national and invited delegates spent two days at the annual National Policy Congress in Canberra. The delegates represented ALIA special interest groups across the country. The energy, commitment and warmth in the room were completely inspiring. The conversations this year centred on membership and how ALIA might reach potential members (LIS students, new graduates and technicians) there was much debate about the creation of a community of practice, identity, and belonging. We talked long about the 'what's-in-it-for-me' generation x/y librarians and took a good look at what was in it for them in terms of membership in their professional association.

The ALIA vision for 2010 will focus on four main areas: Sharing the vision: The connection between the individual and the bigger picture; promoting innovation: Communities of practice, reward and encouragement, reflective practice based on research; skilling members: Lifelong learning, self-responsibility and CPD; communicating well:Inclusivity, transparency and accountability. The keywords of the weekend were community, relevance, context, diversity and inclusivity.

The president congratulated the information literacy forum on its collaborative success with ANZIIL in terms of the newly published Information literacy framework and standards. She thought it was a good collaborative venture and went on to say that the IFLA information literacy chair (to whom we send our comments from time to time) was interested in working more closely with the information literacy forum. Imogen Garner (president) and Jennefer Nicholson (executive director) of ALIA said they would be in contact with us.

So it looks like we may be more conceptually and politically active next year. I hope to be able to put more energy into the forum this year.

Lesley Ngatai

IFLA international guidelines on information literacy

Jesus Lau, the chair of the IFLA IL section, has written the draft International guidelines on information literacy, [MS Word 361KB] and has requested feedback.

UNESCO's commitment to information literacy

Recent events

ANZIIL Symposium Series Three

The third in the series of ANZIIL symposiums was held last month in Melbourne. The theme for the symposium was 'the internationalisation of education: implications for information literacy'. Stay tuned to the ANZIIL website for papers and presentations.

2nd ALIA New Librarians' Symposium: Beyond the Stereotype

NLS2 was held earlier this month in Adelaide. The main themes of the symposium were: career and life planning; libraries and the future; and libraries and the world. Lesley Ngatai and UNSW Library colleague Joanna Lee gave a paper called The invisible librarian based on critical theory by Bonnie Nardi (Information Ecologies) Ettiene Wenger (Communities of Practice) and framed within Stephen Brookfield's lenses of critical reflection. Papers and presentations will be available from the symposium website.

Upcoming events

Information Online

The 2005 Information Online conference is being held from 1-3 February at Darling Harbour, Sydney. For more information see the conference website.

Information Literacy Forum member survey

The Information Literacy Forum is a vehicle for fostering a common understanding of, and advocating for, information literacy within ALIA and the wider community. The executive would like to revisit their 'constituency' and plan an online survey, (arrangements will need to be made for those without electronic access) to find out what the ALIA Information Literacy Forum members want from this group, how we can better serve the needs of a very diverse community and how they can make a contribution. Stay tuned for more information on the member survey in 2005.

Recent publications

Lupton, Mandy The learning connection : information literacy and the student experience. Adelaide, Auslib Press, 2004, 1875145575

Rockman, Ilene and associates Integrating information literacy into the higher education curriculum : practical models for transformation. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2004 0787965278

Jacobson, Trudi E and Xu, Lijuan Motivating students in information literacy classes. New York, Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2004, 1555704972

Chelton, Mary K and Cool, Colleen (editors) Youth information-seeking behavior : theories, models, and issues. Lanham, Md, Scarecrow Press, 2004, 081084981X

Andretta, Susie Information literacy : a practitioner's guide. Extenza Turpin, Chandos, 2004, 1843340658

The Information Literacy Forum wishes you all the best for a safe and happy festive season.