Information Literacy meets Library 2.0

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Web 2.0 technologies have been seen by many information professionals as critical to the future development of library services. This has led to the use of the term Library 2.0 to denote the kind of service that is envisaged. There has been considerable debate about what Library 2.0 might encompass, but, in the context of information literacy, it can be described as the application of interactive, collaborative, and multimedia technologies to web-based library services and collections.

These developments challenge librarians involved in information literacy with more complex and diverse web content, a range of exciting new tools with which to teach, and a steep learning curve to adjust to the constant change of the Web 2.0 world.

Of course my passion in this scenario is trying to understand what this all means for schools and school libraries.

So in case you haven’t heard Facet have recently published a new book, to which I contributed the School Library 2.0 chapter!

Godwin, P. and Parker, J. (eds) (2008) Information Literacy meets Library 2.0. London: Facet. ISBN 978-1-85604-637-4.

I have my own copy now, and the various chapters are jam packed with fantastic information for anyone involved in Library Services. It’s a fantastic roundup and the editors Peter Godwin and Jo Parker are to be congratulated on this excellent compilation.

“This edited collection from an international team of experts provides a practically-based overview of emerging Library 2.0 tools and technologies for information literacy practitioners; addresses the impact of the adoption of these technologies on information literacy teaching; provides case study exemplars for practitioners to help inform their practice; and examines the implications of Library 2.0 for the training of information literacy professionals.

Key topics include:

School Library 2.0: new skills and knowledge for the future

information literacy, Web 2.0 and public libraries

the blog as an assessment tool

using Wikipedia to eavesdrop on the scholarly conversation

information literacy and RSS feeds

library instruction on the go: podcasting

sparking Flickrs of insight into controlled vocabularies and subject searching

joining the YouTube conversation to teach information literacy

going beyond Google

teaching information literacy through digital games.”

It’s available from the Facet book shop and all good retailers.

Better still, the book is being updated via the Information Literacy meets Library 2.0 blog.

Buy the book and grab the RSS feed to stay in the conversation.

Thanks to Jo Parker and Peter Godwin for all the work they put into getting the book together

Photo: Earth from Sky

Dig that RSS

Posted on March 29, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Just to add a little more on the topic of RSS – I’ve also been reminded of the excellent service from the Library of the University of California.

INFOMINE is a virtual library of Internet resources relevant to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level. It contains useful Internet resources such as databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, mailing lists, online library card catalogs, articles, directories of researchers, and many other types of information.

Do a search; browse or search by subject category; pick up the What’s New RSS feed or email alert service; wander over to the General Reference; check out the Other Search Tools; or visit the INFOMINE blog.

Beyond RSS – with Alltop.com?

Posted on March 29, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I caught an interesting commentary from Clay Burrell on RSS in education – and got quite interested in the read for a while. I agree with Clay’s comments – to an extent. The thing is, there is more to RSS than mentioned here – but I’m thinking that it is outside the domain of teachers that we find the true power of RSS.

How about setting up an RSS feed on info topics, based on good selection of key terms, which are delivered directly from comprehensive journal databases, or scholarly internet resource collections, or searches that your have “rolled” yourself?? That’s ‘serious’ information gathering! RSS is not just for web info collection – that’s basic – and eventually pretty boring! Any wonder kids (and teachers for that matter) are not much interested. RSS also drives the work of students participating in the Horizon Project. Perhaps it’s the purpose for which the RSS is being used that makes it work. Check out Sue’s post on How I use RSS to Make My Life Easier – that’s an important message for teachers too!

I’m lucky – I can preach a different gospel of RSS coming from my library side, than I could coming just from my teacher side. There’s just more to learn about RSS – that’s all!

The good thing was that Clay told us about Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop service. As a fan of popurls my interest picked up again. What a great writing task set up by Clay. OK, time for me to dig deaper into the potential of Alltop.

Nah – no good! Well not for some of us anyway. Seemed to be a pretty slim representation of important education blogs. Even worse, I couldn’t find anything for education and library – either academic or school.

Good librarians are great Web 2.0 information professionals – and they are the ones who can show teachers like Clay how else to effectively use RSS and a host of other Web 2.0 tools. Plus the information flow from librarian bloggers is fantastic too. Check out the Lib Bloggers in my blogroll, and you’ll get the idea 🙂

In a Web 2.0 world collaboration is essential. It’s time that librarians, teacher librarians, media specialists and teachers learnt more from each other – and collaborated more. That’s what Web 2.0 is all about.

Image: Light Bulb

School libraries leading learning

Posted on March 29, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I am currently attending an excellent conference on School Libraries and their various roles in leading learning. The conference is co-hosted by the Australian School Library Association (NSW) and the NSW Department of Education and Training. Congratulations to both organisations for an excellent two-day program.

This biennial event provides a ‘shot in the arm’ for teacher librarians wishing to keep abreast of the exciting developments in librarianship including Library 2.0.

Perhaps the Keynote speakers should be able to better model this type of engagement to teacher librarians? Ross Todd from CISSL at Rutgers University (exponent of Guided Enquiry) gave a brilliant keynote presentation – as he always does. Ross speaks well, and provides a superb approach to guided inquiry and evidence-based practice. Thank you Ross!

I was glad of his reference to social networking tools and sites, but not his demonstration of personal/professional use of Web 2.0 tools. The time has come for those who talk about Web 2.0 to BE Web 2.0 themselves in order to model Learning 2.0 or Library 2.0. I would like Ross to lead us in this journey too.

On the other hand, Jon Callow, from Sydney University, gave a lively and engaging presentation on Literacy through digital stories. Jon’s statistics on youth engagement online were current and he used some fun quizz techniques to make the point about the immersive nature of online environments. Underpinning his presentation was the vital message – that digital literacy is with us, here to stay, and therefore we must harness these learner generated contexts for higher order skills of problem solving, communication, team works and technology skills.

[Oh! I also noticed that Jon provided attributions for images used in his presentation! and music, explaining the use of Creative Commons through-out his presentation. Ross did not attribute his images! or provide a link to the source of Web 2.0 images he used.]

I was fortunate to take part in the end of day panel discussing the shape of Library 2.0 – but unfortunately the topic seems a little ahead for most attendees as we had no pertinent questions from the floor.My cameo comment focussed on the need for teacher librarians to embrace Web 2.0 and social networking in order to develop a strong professional learning community to help take school libraries forward. There are far to few Teacher Librarians active in this area in Australia – and there is certainly little scope for professional dialogue amongst them via Web 2.0 tools. The notion of collaboration and communication is still very much embedded in the era of email and listservs – very Library 1.0.

So the challenge is ahead for them as a professional group. An issue for me is the lack of a strong professional community to help each person develop their knowledge and skills. Even where I see people stepping into the Web 2.0 world (and lead by consultants in some instances) those doing the training are such ‘newbies’ that they haven’t understood which key steps to model, which tools to highlight, which techniques to adopt to streamline Web 2.0 use. So overall we have a big bit of learning still to do! quite a bit! – while our students stream ahead and leave us knocking on the doors of Facebook, Myspace and the like.

My minor keynote presentation focussed on my favourite topic of multi-modal learning – in the context of school libraries.

Learning is a global multi-modal conversation and it is [r]evolutionary. Choice, co-creation, and information access are changing what it means to be a net-savvy teacher. As we pour our own words, tags, sounds, images, and multimedia into the ever-increasing global knowledge and information pool, we have to become adept at patterns of connectivity in these learning environments. If students think of the internet as a virtual locker, backpack, notebook, diary, and communication tool, then we must create flexible learnign environments which are transfored by this multi-modal focus. More than ever flexibility and personalization are at the core of re-purposing our libraries and learning environments in a Web 2.0 world. Are you up for the challenge?

Photo: La Caverne aux Liveres

Meme – Passion Quilt

Posted on February 24, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

Oh no!! here comes another meme 🙂

Thanks to Joyce Valenza and Dianne Cordell I have been tagged to join in the Passion Quilt meme. Usually I don’t like memes, but this time I couldn’t resist as I will be meeting up with these two fabulous Teacher Librarians at ISTE’s conference in San Antonio later in the year.

So what is my passion? what image will I add to the quilt? Here ’tis!

Refocus your mind! Recharge your energy! [R]evolution Web 2.0.

My Picture
In this picture simplicity and peace are juxtaposed with Web 2.0 in order to highlight a changing mind or vision in learning. I like the picture because it shows that it is not about the rush of technology that mandates Web 2.0 – rather the mindshift that embraces learning as a multimodal conversation in our Web 2.0 world.
My Passion
I am passionate about lifelong learning, for students of all ages.

You’ve been tagged:
I’m passing this meme on to five like-minded teachers and/or tech savvy librarians:

Frances Manning HFS Conversations Teacher Librarian in Sydney

Jo McLeay The Open Classroom Teacher in Melbourne

Kathryn Greenhill Librarian’s matter Librarian in Perth (Australia)

Ewan McIntosh Edu.blogs.com Teacher consultant in Scotland

John Connell Passionate friend of teachers and librarians. Hails from Scotland, works in the world!!

Meme: Passion Quilt

The rules are simple.
1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Welcome to St Josephs College

Posted on January 29, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

2008 heralds new directions for me – and I have had a wonderful start at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill here in Sydney.

Joey’s is a wonderful school with an imporant history amongst our Sydney schools, and is exemplified by a strong academic and sporting tradition. A ‘joeys boy’ remains a ‘joeys boy’ for life, due partly to the boarding school environment and partly to the Marist community of learners.

A recent twitter question asked me “what is Marist?”

As a Marist School, St Joseph’s College derives its charism from the founder of the Marist Brothers, Saint Marcellin Champagnat (1789 – 1840). A priest of the Society of Mary, St Marcellin was a man of warm personality, deep faith and great vision. The Christian education of youth, particularly those of rural areas, was his first love, following the terrible religious persecutions of the French Revolution. That is why he founded the Marist Brothers in 1817 at La Valla, a little village in the Loire region of France. Marcellin’s pastoral approach to students epitomises the daily work at the college and drives the values of this community of learners

“WE MUST LOVE THEM AND LOVE THEM ALL EQUALLY.”

Like many schools, St Joseph’s College is also undergoing a transformation in e-learning.

As Head Library & Information Services I’m looking after the Resources Centre and its team, where we will focus on literature, literacy, research and a strong integration of e-learning initiatives. We are going to undergo something of a transformation starting this year and into the future – and this journey of change will become part of my blogging narrative. There may be something in our journey that inspires your own adjustments to the exciting demands of 21st century learning.

Hear are some images of the outside entrance area of the Resource Centre.

Some day the inside will look equally magical!

Walkway to the Brother Ligouri Resource Centre

Standing at the front foyer, looking out to the school

Looking at the same view on the left as you approach the Centre

…..And the view from the right as you approach the Centre

New Year Honour – OBE

Posted on January 24, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

I’m excited at being able to congratulate my friend and colleague Kathy Lemaire for her outstanding achievement in earning one of the great awards in the UK which honours personal and professional contributions to society!

Kathy Lemaire, the Chief Executive of the School Library Association in the UK has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List for services to education.

Kathy has been at SLA since 1997, and was previously Principal Librarian for the Oxfordshire Schools Library Service.

On hearing of the award Kathy said

I consider this honour really to be an acknowledgement of the work of the SLA and the importance of school libraries rather than a purely personal one, so it is for all of those hardworking school librarians at the sharp end too!

I have worked (and played) with Kathy as a member of the Executive of the International Association of School Librarianship. I also had the wonderful opportunity to meet many of the hard working and enthusiastic librarians in the UK when I attended and presented a session at their annual weekend conference held in Bath, UK : 23-25 June, 2006.

Kathy has always been a gentle, kind, and professionally strong quiet achiever, putting the interests of school libraries and her association first in all her endeavours. A wonderful acknowledgement of her career. Congratulations Kathy.

So work and play combine in the picture below – a glorious evening cruise in Lisbon, Portugal, as part of the IASL annual conference in 2006. On the left is Kathy Lemaire, and on the right is Karen Bonnano, an Australian from Brisbane (and another generous and strong library professional) who manages the IASL Secretariat.

Google generation and virtual libraries

Posted on January 17, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

People have very different information needs at different points in their lives. People also search for information very differently depending on the knowledge they have of search techniques or the nature of the interface that is being interrogated.

A new report Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future provides a comprehensive analysis of information behaviours, google gen and social networking behaviour, and the implications of this for the information environment and libraries – and includes the challenges we face.

Is the Google Generation a myth? This new report, which was commissioned by JISC and the British Library, counters the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – young people born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most adept at using the web.

Lets face it – there is a world of difference between social networking conversations and in-depth information requirements, knowledge building and development. It is in this area that the report explains

that people are having great difficulties navigating and profiting from the virtual scholarly environment.

The report provides a strong message for library services, and significantly it also raises the issue of the semantic web – a topic of conversation on Twitter a few days ago.

The world wide web as we have seen and experienced it so far could be completely revolutionised by the advent of the `semantic web’. A system where, currently, humans express simple searches in everyday language, to order groceries, reserve a library book or look up a railway timetable, could be superseded by a system in which computers become capable of analysing all the data on the web.

Good Information Architecture will become more and more critical if the semantic web is to deliver information effectively.

Twitter conversation:

@heyjudeonline Web design juxtaposed against information design – now there’s a pretty challenge yet basic building blocks for semantic web.

@Tuna XML mainly as RDF is just lacking in practical application in real world schema (dodges flames)

@Heyjudeonline real world schema is the real issue isn’t it. Structured approaches and metadata were the first line of attack in web

@Tuna correct.. the break out of the meta information flow is critical to the webs development beyond a search farm. We can direct and translate and ensure like goes with like or people have the chance to join their like with like

@heyjudeonline exactly! We know that single data domains with simple keyword tools are rapidly obsolete. Move beyond RDF resource primer

The best bookmongers

Posted on January 12, 2008 by Judy O'Connell

During my holidays I have had plenty of opportunities to visit bookshops, and my favourite local library. Searching for a book I wanted to buy at a variety of bookstores, I was struck by the changes that have taken place in marketing, accessibility and presentation of at our best bookmongers.

I must say that in a few of the stores I found myself foundering – where do I find the book? Is it there? Here I was, an information professional, confused and disoriented as I tried to make sense of the layout and organisation of the store!! Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything. Bad luck bookstore.

But in two places (both highly successful and well patronised) I felt at home – and clearly so did everyone else – ages ranging from toddlers to grey-power!

What was the common feature of these two places:

visually appealing furniture, layout, and spaces
nice displays and signage
easy to understand organisation e.g. scifi/fantasy, crime, biography, history, travel, sport
no shelf clutter, with attractive jackets on display
lots of comfy chairs to sit and browse
magazines, dvds, audio books and more
a handy computer so that I could carry out a catalogue search to help me find what I wanted – easily with a good human interface, not a “library” interface
wireless access
my favourite – a great coffee shop!

I love the carpet that’s on the floor and the different places you can settle down and read a book.

I love the use of object architecture to add interest.

Oh, and I’m a regular visitor of the coffee shop in the last picture.

So the two most successful places are Borders book store and my favourite Library, which does have its own fabulous coffee shop – including a super outdoor terrace with water features.

This is interesting don’t you think? It slams home the changes needed in our school libraries quite nicely.

But you know the great thing is that our public and school libraries can offer a lot more than even the best bookshop – loads of extra services, learning support, community support, meeting and study rooms, lots of computers, reference and information services.

Better still, at my favourite library I can scan and issue the books out to myself – sometimes after I have picked out new releases to borrow that I have just read about in the Saturday paper! Good one! Saves me a bomb.

How can a bookstore compete with this service, especially since some of the books I get are ones that I have reserved online at home.

The astounding thing is that its all free!!

First Photo: At Borders

Technology-rich learning spaces

Posted on December 3, 2007 by Judy O'Connell

Recently I had the opportunity to both attend and take part in the 2nd International LAMS conference with my own presentation on School libraries for 21st century learning.

What I found particularly exciting was the opportunity to learn something about the design considerations for planning new libraries, the innovations in furniture and fittings, the re-conceptualization of learning priorities, the understanding of learning needs, and much more.

Thanks to the presentation by Maxine Brodie, Maquarie University Librarian, I have a number of very useful leads to add to my personal knowledge-base about learning and libraries in 21C.

Two of particular interest are:

Scott Bennett from North America and the Library Space Planning site.
Joint Information Systems Council (JISC) from the United Kingdom and their Planning and Designing Technology-Rich Learning Spaces

A wealth of information, case studies, research, photo evidence etc is available at each site. Even just trawling the JISC Flickr photos provides inspiration, before getting into more detail!

Some key questions were offered for our consideration – from Scott Bennet – which can equally be applied to school libraries as to tertiary settings since we all understand that:

Space designs that acknowledge the social dimension of . . . learning behaviors and that enable students to manage socializing in ways that are positive for learning are likely to encourage more time on task and more productive studying, and thereby yield a better return on the investment in physical learning spaces.

Question 1.

What is it about the learning that will happen in this space that compels us to build a bricks and mortar learning space rather than rely on a virtual one?

Question 2.

How might this space be designed to encourage students to spend more time studying and studying more productively?

Question 3.

For what position on the spectrum from isolated study to collaborative study should this learning space be designed?

Question 4.

How will claims to authority over knowledge be managed by the design of this space? What will this space affirm about the nature of knowledge?

Question 5.

Should this space be designed to encourage student/teacher exchanges outside the classroom?

Question 6.

How might this space enrich educational experiences?

There are many insights to these questions to be learned from the two resources, as well as from collaborative discussions about these issues amongst us all.