Literacy Information

Firstly, an open access version of
Archambault, S. and Masunaga, J. (2015) Curriculum Mapping as a Strategic Planning Tool (post-print proof) Journal of Library Administration. 55(6) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/susan_gardner/19
"Curriculum mapping is a procedure for documenting and visualizing student learning at the programmatic level. The process allows libraries the opportunity to record where information literacy skills are taught across the curriculum in order to locate gaps and redundancies within a library instruction program. It also allows for alignment of the library’s learning outcomes with the learning outcomes important to the institution. This paper presents a review of the history of curriculum mapping, followed by a case study of how Loyola Marymount University (LMU) used the process to support information literacy in a new core curriculum."

Secondly, recent items from the priced publication International Information and Library Review (2015, not yet allocated to an issue at time of writing)  http://www.tandfonline.com/action/showAxaArticles?journalCode=ulbr20#.Vb0j6kZOOZM
- Perceptions of Faculty about Information Literacy Skills of Postgraduate Engineering Students by Mamoona Kousar and Khalid Mahmood
- Perceptions and Knowledge-Sharing Behavior of Pre-University Students by Shaheen Majid and Chitra Panchapakesan
Abstract extracts: "Knowledge sharing is an essential element of a collaborative learning process. The purpose of this study was to investigate students' knowledge-sharing behavior with their classmates, frequency and type of knowledge shared, preferred communication channels, and the factors likely to motivate or inhibit knowledge sharing. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection and 220 higher secondary students (equivalent to “A” levels) from India participated in this study. ... It was found that the top three sources for seeking study-related information were the internet, teachers, and classmates. The primary motives of sharing knowledge were to improve understanding of concepts discussed in the class and to build good relationship with classmates. For group assignments, more knowledge sharing occurred within the group members than with other groups. The major barriers to knowledge sharing were the lack of time, lack of a sharing culture, and inadequate depth in relationships"
- Everyday Life Information-Seeking Behavior of Marginalized Youth: A Qualitative Study of Urban Homeless Youth in Ghana by Evelyn Markwei and Edie Rasmussen
Abstracts extracts "Forty-one homeless youth, ages 15 to 18 years participated in this qualitative study. Participants were identified by snowball sampling and data was collected by field observations, an adaptation of the critical incident technique and in-depth interviews. The results show that (1) information needs of the homeless youth in the study relate to basic needs following Maslow's hierarchy of needs; (2) their information sources are primarily interpersonal and comparatively limited in range; and (3) the most important information-seeking behavior is a community approach, characterized by free sharing of information among their social network of friends. The results further revealed that participants relied on their social network of friends to meet 8 of the 11 information needs identified in the study."
Photo by Sheila Webber: plums, Farmers Market, August 2015

Liveblogging from the i3 conference held this week at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. Syeda Hina Shahid is one of my doctoral students at Sheffield University in the Information School, and is also a faculty member at the University of the Punjab, Pakistan. Her talk, which reported on some of her research findings, was Assessing children’s IL skills: Findings from a multiple case study of six primary schools in Pakistan. A large proportion of the population in Pakistan do not have education past primary level, and therefore looking at information literacy at this level is particularly important. There is also a lack of research into information literacy in Pakistani schools. Syeda has carried out six case studies, in different kinds of primary school (both public and private), investigating the information literacy of school children in her home city of Lahore, Pakistan. She interviewed teachers and (where there was one) the librarian, conducted focus groups and task-based activities with the children, and looked at documents and the physical setting of the school. It is worth noting that some of these schools had a lack of resources for students and teachers to use, but Syeda also included (for example) an elite school.
In this talk, Syeda focused on the task based activities with the children. She had devised exercises based on existing frameworks for primary schools and she gave examples of how the children had responded to activities. For example, in one activity she read out a story about a lion, and asked the children to draw a lion, house and food. There were different levels in their response, not following instructions at all (drawing something completely different) through to combining background knowledge, and using all the information from the story. She had developed a model identifying thesedifferent levels.
She finished by identifying that her research should contribute to local literature and practice, as well as contributing to the knowledge of IL more widely.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Dunnottar Castle, Stonehaven, Scotland, June 2015