I attended a presentation yesterday entitled ‘Information literacy culture & transformative change’. The talk was given at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen by two American librarians, Carroll Wetzel and Courtney Bruch. It seems that this was a shortened form of the talk they will be giving at the LILAC conference in Glasgow in a few days time.
Around 25 people attended the talk and it seemed to be a mix of mainly RGU librarians, lecturers and a few of us from other organisations. Given that the talk was free, and held during the Easter holidays when we’re all a little less pressed for time and can do these kind of things, I suppose it was no surprise that there were so many attendees to just an hour long talk. These kinds of things are few and far between in Aberdeen and it’s good to get out of the office every once in a while.
The event started with coffee and registration, with a short time for some networking and chat. Sadly I didn’t manage to get over my inhibitions at doing this kind of thing and just sat and observed other people. I think it was worse as I knew they were all mainly RGU staff who were familiar with each other and it’s less easy to break into a conversation under those circumstances. However, I know I’m not very good at networking and it’s something I should work on if I’m going to get the most out of presentations and conferences.
The presentation began with Prof. Dorothy Williams of RGU introducing Carroll and Courtney and detailing some of the work they have been doing. From the introduction alone it seems they are working at a much different level than many UK librarians and that the US has a very different way of doing things. This was especially brought home when Carroll spoke about her library offering $3000 stipends to academic staff willing to collaborate on research with the library. Everyone just looked slightly bemused (and envious) at this statement!
The talk itself contained a lot of jargon. Maybe I’ve been out of university for too long, but I personally found some of it quite impenetrable. There were a few students sitting behind me and it did seem to have resonance with them, as one of them made a comment at the end that they had studied a key author that Carroll and Courtney had talked about and this was a set part of the course. Perhaps I need to brush up on this kind of thing.
The essence of the presentation was that without organisational change it is very difficult to achieve a fully implemented information literacy programme. Carroll and Courtney discussed resistance to change from an organisational and librarian perspective and felt that addressing these was key to moving towards being a ‘learning organisation’ where everyone is committed to creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge. Only then can an organisation see the true value of information literacy and address it fully.
At the beginning of the presentation Carroll asked us a couple of questions. She asked if anyone in the audience felt that information literacy was embedded into our organisational culture and if any of us were happy with the amount of information literacy programmes we were able to provide. Nobody agreed with the first question and I think many, including myself, were surprised when two librarians said yes to the second one.
In a nutshell then, they were preaching to the converted. We all know that information literacy is not regarded as hugely important within our organisations and that it is often seen as something that the library does, but on a very ad hoc and informal basis. Librarians are not really seen as having something to offer when it comes to enhancing the student experience and I think that is especially true of FE libraries. Many of our courses are vocational and the students and staff don’t see why they need information literacy. I have heard it said that young people today already know how to use the internet. They grow up using Google and are well used to finding information that they need. Knowing how to download an MP3 file, use itunes or Twitter, or watch movies online are very different skills though to finding information for academic purposes and I don’t think that is recognised yet.
The presentation did make me think though about how I can do more to improve information literacy within my organisation. I’m not aiming for organisational change (that’s a little ambitious!), just to see what I can do at my individual level. In previous years we had managed to have a small, but well received, set of information literacy courses that were delivered to specific classes. These have lapsed in the last year due to changes in the way the college runs its teaching teams, but maybe I need to get back in there and try again. I should definitely discuss with my manager the possibility of talking to staff in the more academic areas of the college – Social Sciences, Science, Business & management etc. These are areas where many of the students intend progressing to university after their college course. Information literacy, and making students aware of the tools available to them, could be of real benefit here.
On the whole, although I found the jargon a little too much, the presentation was interesting, informative, and made me think. I suppose I can’t ask for much more!
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