ALIA Information Literacy Forum

April 2006 Newsletter

Who are we?

ALIA Information Literacy Forum fosters a common understanding of and advocates for information literacy within ALIA and the general community.

The Forum promotes professional development opportunities in information literacy for library and information services personnel.

Membership 2006

Our 571 members come from all states and overseas, and from a variety of sectors.

The 'other' sector covers students, retired librarians, national/state and government, as well as a wide range such as joint use libraries.

Our Committee 2006

Liz Burke, Reference and Information Services Librarian La Trobe University Library Treasurer

Mark Jones, Librarian, Brisbane North Institute of TAFE online forum moderator; Listserv and the ALIA-Infolit e-List

Jane Knowles, Librarian, University of New South Wales Library Newsletter Editor

Dr Anne Lloyd, Lecturer, School of Information Studies Charles Sturt University Committee Member

Mandy Lupton, Lecturer, Griffith Institute for Higher Education, Griffith University Committee Member

Lesley Ngatai, Librarian, University of New South Wales Library Convenor

Helen Partridge, Lecturer, School of Information Systems Queensland University of Technology Secretary

Helena Zobec, Associate Librarian University of Canberra Committee Member

ALIA IL Policy Statements

As some of you may be aware from current discussion on the aliaInfoLit elist, ALIA's Board of Directors is currently reviewing all ALIA policy statements, and has asked for suggested revisions from the IL Forum on the Statement on Information Literacy for all Australians and the Statement on Libraries and Literacy. The IL Forum Committee has sought and received your comments, and is now finalising the proposal for suggested revisions. These will be submitted to the Board by the end of April, and the Board will then discuss these revisions at their May meeting. We will advise our members when the new policy statements are available. The IL Forum Committee would like to thank all contributors for such valuable input.

NLS3 satellite event

The IL Forum proposes to hold a one day event of information literacy workshops, information sessions and case study labs as a pre-colloquium to the 3 New Librarians' Symposium being held in Sydney December 1-2, 2006 at UNSW. The event will be held in late November at UNSW Library. Participation in the workshops will qualify for CPD points. Stay tuned to the elist and newsletter for more information.

Current IL Research in the UK

Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston's continuing research project, UK academics', conceptions of, and pedagogy for, information literacy, is now in its fourth year. The project asks the questions: what conceptions of information literacy are held by UK academics; how do these conceptions relate to previous research; what is academics' practice in educating students for information literacy; what is the relationship between conceptions and practice; do differences in conception and practice correspond to differences in discipline? Progress reports, publications, and FAQ are available on the project website.

The Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning One outcome of the High Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on 6-9 November 2005 is the proclamation that 'information literacy and lifelong learning are the beacons of the Information Society, illuminating the courses to development, prosperity and freedom'. The proclamation in full can be found on the IFLA website.

Recent Events

ANZIIL Symposium Series Five

'Information Literacy: Getting Back to Basics' was held on the 10 and 11 of November 2005 at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Lorette Rayner's presentation is now available on the Symposium website.

LILAC 2006

The Cilip CSG Information Literacy Group's annual conference was recently held in Leeds. Papers and presentations should soon be available from the conference website.

Scottish petition on Information Literacy

A verbatim report of the petition on information literacy presented by Dr John Crawford, Christine Irving and Chris Milne to the Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament on 21 December 2005, is now available from the Scottish Parliament website.

Upcoming Events

Click06 - ALIA 2006 Biennial Conference
The ALIA 2006 Biennial Conference will be held at the new Perth Convention Exhibition Centre from 19-22 September. The Conference theme Click06: 'Create, Lead, Innovate, Connect, Knowledge' deliberately challenges the norm; playing with words and sounds, and asks you to think about the library profession's role and responsibilities in coming years.

Recent Publications

The January-February issue of Cilip's Library + Information Update magazine is themed 'Information Literacy', and includes an interview with Dr Christine Bruce on information literacy development in Australia.

The first issue of Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP), an open access, peer reviewed, interactive electronic journal, is now available. EBLIP is a quarterly publication.

The latest issue of ITALICS is themed Information literacy: challenges of implementation, and includes an article by Mandy Lupton, Dr Christine Bruce, and Sylvia Edwards called 'Six frames for Information literacy education: a conceptual framework for interpreting the relationships between theory and practice'.

Behen, L.D. (2006). Using pop culture to teach information literacy: methods to engage a new generation. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited. (ISBN 1591583012)

Breivik , P.S., & Gee, E.G. (2006). Higher education in the Internet age : libraries creating a strategic edge. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers. (ISBN 0275981940)

Kirton, J. and Barham, L. (2005) 'Information literacy in the workplace', Australian Library Journal, 54(4), 365-76.

Lederer, N. (2005). Ideas for librarians who teach, with suggestions for teachers and business presenters. Lanham Md.: Scarecrow Press. (ISBN 0810852128)

Sykes, J.A. (2006). Brain friendly school libraries. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited. (ISBN 1591582466)

Taylor, J. (2006). Information literacy and the school library media center. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited. (ISBN 0313320209)