This year the theme of our Members’ Day/AGM is:
Facing the future: challenges and choices

What new trends and challenges are emerging in the world of e-information and how can we, as information professionals, ensure that we keep our services at the leading edge? We have invited experts from the information industry to present insights from their own perspectives.  Speakers confirmed so far include Nick Poole, CEO of CILIP, Lin Lin of EBSCO and Guy Singh of Linguamatics. 

During the afternoon session delegates will participate in a Future Café, facilitated by Sue Silcocks and John Wickenden where some of the key challenges facing information professionals in the workplace will be discussed.

Thursday 16^th June 2016

Kindly sponsored by Manzama

Venue : 11 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN
Time: 10:30 – 16:00 followed by wine and networking, sponsored by Manzama

UKeiG members: FREE / Non-members: £70.00 +VAT

This year the theme of our Members’ Day/AGM is:

Facing the future: challenges and choices

 The programme has now been announced for our 2016 Training day - Winning Friends and Influencing People

Click HERE for more information.

This new book explores critical literacy theory and provides practical guidance to how it can be taught and applied in libraries.

The approach taken in critical literacy is not to read texts in isolation, but to develop an understanding of the cultural, ideological and sociolinguistic contexts in which they are created and read.

The book introduces critical literacy concepts in ways that are accessible to readers who are new to the subject while also appealing to those with greater knowledge by exploring critical literacy from a range of theoretical perspectives and linking these ideas to current debates in information studies.

Critical Literacy for Information Professionals also contains a series of practically-focussed case studies that describe tools or approaches that librarians have used to engage users in critical literacy. Drawing on examples from across library sectors including schools, public libraries, universities, workplaces and healthcare, these illustrate how critical literacy can be applied across a variety of library settings, including online and new media environments.

The book will be essential reading for librarians, information professionals and managers in all sectors, students of library and information science, school and higher education teachers and researchers.

 -ends

Press and review copies contact:

James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk

Critical Literacy for Information Professionals | Apr 2016 | 228pp | paperback: 9781783300822 | £59.95 | hardback: 9781783301058 | £89.95

I’ve written about altmetrics for library and information professionals previously for this blog and why it should matter for them. Since then I have completed an edited book on the topic for Facet Publishing to help those in academia understand altmetrics better and devise effective ways of using them in their institution. 

The book looks at how altmetrics came about and their connection back to the first rumblings of the social web at the start of this century. It also looks at traditional research metrics and the wider use of bibliometrics before moving to the present day and tools like Altmetric.com, Impactstory and Mendeley. It is part practical, part theoretical and acts as a guide for LIS professionals and researchers who may have varying degrees of expertise on the topics of metrics, altmetrics, social media, mobile working and open peer review. 

About altmetrics

Altmetrics first appeared at the start of the decade and one of the messages that soon spread around the web was that it would break the vice like grip of traditional metrics. This message came from nowhere in particular, but like a Chinese Whisper it was one that changed with each communication. Most knew that traditional metrics were flawed and did not tell the whole picture, that they focused on just journal level metrics. It is one of a herd of elephants in the corner of the academic room. 

In a world that was increasingly being dissected and communicated across social media, traditional metrics only told part of the picture. Journals had impact factors and papers had citations, both of which took time to accrue and were focused wholly on journals. Whilst elsewhere on the web, journal papers, datasets, software, presentations, posters were being discussed, shared and cited but for the most part no one was aware of this activity. Papers were being published and in some conversations were taking place over the web but there was no system to feed this back to the authors of that paper. Altmetric platforms started to appear post 2010 with tools like Figshare, Impactstory, Altmetric.com and Mendeley among others taking the lead. 

Tools such as Altmetric.com look at the different outputs coming from a piece of research. For example with Altmetric.com, these can be tweets, mentions and citations in policy documents, Wikipedia, blogs and news outlets. They also monitor Facebook Shares, Mendeley saves and mentions on other social media platforms. The data is broken down into platforms, geographical locations, date periods and cross-indexed against other such similar research. Finally the research receives an altmetric score which is weighted depending on what platforms the research has been mentioned on, for example, newspaper coverage is worth more than a blog post, which in turn is worth more than a Tweet. 

Altmetrics complement traditional metrics, they don’t replace them

Critics have taken issue with the term altmetrics, implying it is an alternative to traditional metrics, one that would replace existing systems. The truth is that altmetrics are much better viewed as alternative indicators and not some wholly new system of measurement looking to usurp citations and impact scores. Yet this is something I often hear and see with those quick to point out that (as with impact scores and citations) quantity does not mean quality.

Yet with something like Altmetric.com there is a score and one that is very visible to researchers, as there is a score on ResearchGate, but for most it means little. It is another way of showing like for like and ranking research artefacts in peer groups, organisations and journals. In a world where research needs to be more accountable and transparent it is no bad thing if used correctly. It is when the scores are used as an indicator of an academic’s value that we might start to have problems. A tool like Altmetric.com gives us new insights that we could not get from impact scores and citations; it augments or complements existing research measurement. Altmetrics allow us to see data at an article level as it no longer kept papers together thanks to their impact score. It also opened up the possibilities of measuring artefacts we had previously ignored, datasets, posters, grey literature. Platforms such as Figshare allow researchers and students to share and host these ignored artefacts and as a result communicate them and receive subsequent feedback and analytics. 

Altmetrics provide feedback long missing in academia

When I first came across altmetrics in 2012 I saw it beyond the numbers and scores, I saw it as that missing piece of the jigsaw that followed what Web 2.0 brought us in 2005. It was a feedback loop that we were long missing in academia. It was obvious from around the time of Web 2.0 that there was a change afoot on the web, sadly one that academia was slow to adapt to. Conversations had long taken place between academics and the general public on public and private discussion forums, but Web 2.0 opened up the opportunities for so much more.

 Altmetrics extends the potential for communication, feedback and potential collaboration. The thing that altmetrics brings to the table above anything is the ability to see who is talking about your research, what they think and who they share it with in what part of the world. Unlike citations, impact scores and h-indexes this new data is of interest to more than just the researcher. Anyone involved, from the fund holder to director of research, picks up on the conversation. Again the worry for the manager and the academic is that they may become too hung up on that score it generates. 

Altmetrics align with the tools that help communicate research

Research is being shared more than it has ever been, the impact agenda and REF are not reliant on altmetrics, but it does help capture the communications and discussions around a piece of research.

Many researchers are taking an interest in how to best communicate their findings, but are not sure how to. I have had lots of conversations with students to professors on how best to disseminate their work to wider audiences or target specific ones. The problem many have is that they are keen to get their work out there, but rarely think about how to measure that, or respond to it once it’s flown the nest. 

As I’ve said previously to some colleagues, putting your content on the web without a strategy and hoping interested parties will find it can be like stuffing a copy of your research paper into a bottle and casting it out to sea. There is a slim chance it will be found, but you might not discover by whom, whilst the reality is that it probably won’t be found. So altmetrics is part of a bigger strategy, it aligns with the tools that help communicate the research, but it also shows you to some extent how well it has been communicated. 

This leads to another argument among detractors, that some academics will end up being driven to communicate their existing work rather than produce new pieces of research. This would leave them with a very high score on the Kardashian Index (far more tweets than citations) and, detractors argue, altmetrics would then show the best communicators not the most productive researchers. Of course engaging with scholarly communications takes up time, but it really should form part of the same processes that seminars, conferences and webinars do. It seems a missed opportunity not to embrace the tools to reach peers and audiences globally when creating research that ultimately may have some impact on them. 

Altmetrics are part of a bigger change within academia that includes open and post publication peer review. Done properly and we all benefit, done badly and we will end up with a bigger mess than we started with. Hopefully the aforementioned book will go some way to negating many of these problems and in time we will see online scholarly communications as the norm. Altmetrics can help give value to these communications as well as provide opportunities for library and information professionals to support and engage with the research community in using them.

Altmetrics: A practical guide for librarians, researchers and academics

This book, by Andy Tattersall, gives an overview of altmetrics, their tools and how to implement them successfully to boost your research output.

Order the book

Or find out more on facetpublishing.co.uk.

CILIP East of England Information Services Group with UKeiG

Deep Web Searching and Content Mining

Meeting to be held at Cambridge University Library

Wednesday 11th May 2016 - 10:00-15:45

Typical search engines like Yahoo! and Google only pick up about 1% of the information available on the Internet. The rest of that information is considered to be hidden in the deep, or invisible, web. So how can you find all the rest of this information? Come along to the meeting to find out how to develop these skills!

The Deep Web is usually defined as information that search engines such as Google cannot find. It could be databases, password protected collections, or files that conventional tools cannot easily access and index. But there are now additional constraints on the findability of information. The trend for more official information to be made freely available as open bulk data files may initially seem to make life easier for researchers but the volume and quality of the data can present new barriers. In addition, data protection legislation may restrict what links Google and other tools are allowed to show us.

Click here for the full #ARLG16 Conference Programme

#ARLG16 News Update

UKeiG is pleased to announce the winner - or winners, in this case - of our Early Career Award 2016. The Award celebrates extra-ordinary and inspirational enterprise in early-career professionals who are members of CILIP and who have no more than five years work experience since gaining their qualification. It is presented each year to the individual or team of individuals that have made the most inspirational or enterprising difference - either in their workplace or to the wider profession. UKeiG is looking for a level of professional commitment that has resulted in achievements beyond what was expected of them in the workplace.

This year's four worthy winners who will receive their cheque and trophy during the CILIP Conference in Brighton (12-13 July) are Amy Finnegan, Catherine McManamon, Helen Monagle and Siobhan Cottam - the founders of the very successful New Library Professionals Network (NLPN). As a direct result of attending the 2012 CILIP New Professionals' Day NLPN was founded: a network that aimed to ensure that new professionals in the North of England could attend, for free, events that explored emerging trends and skills in the library and information sector. Since then, there have been nine CPD events - study days, a teach-meet session at the LILAC conference, three informal quizzes and two visits - and a host of social media activities. The four say that they have filled gaps in their own CPD knowledge as well as creating opportunities for their peers to do the same - filling a void by delivering free CPD events in the North of England. As one of the supporting statements noted:

The four founder members have all demonstrated a level of professional commitment that has resulted in achievements way beyond what is expected of them in the workplace. They organise all activities in their own time and are continually looking for innovative ways to engage with new professionals through social media, development events and informal activities such as quizzes and visits.

High praise, which neatly sums up why they are this year's winners.

CILIP NW Member Network would like to invite you to visit the Royal Northern College of Music Library on Tuesday 21st June 2pm-4pm. In addition there will also be a presentation about the Archives and a visit to the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments.

UKeiG & ILI, The Library Innovation Conference, are delighted to announce their further partnership agreement in 2016, benefiting UKeiG members by awarding you a 25% discount to attend the full conference this year …

Widely acknowledged as Europe’s premier event for information professionals and libraries, and welcoming delegates from over 30 countries, Internet Librarian International delivers a truly international perspective on the successes and challenges for every library type. The conference programme is in development and will be announced at the end of June 2016. UKeiG members can register their interest in advance at: www.internet-librarian.com/2016/request/

18 & 19 October 2016 - Conference & Sponsor Showcase
(Workshops 17 October)
Olympia Conference Centre, London
www.internet-librarian.com

ILI is all about the exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience, exploring the big questions that challenge libraries and information professionals right now. 

• Which new technologies, services and business models are most appropriate today?
• Where should we focus our attentions next?
• What changes can we make to ensure our communities thrive? 
• How do we deliver 'constant innovation'? 
• How can we meet the often unexpressed needs of our customers?

UKeIG members benefit from a 25% discount to attend the full conference. Members can register their interest at:  www.internet-librarian.com/2016/request/ and access the 25% discount once online registration opens in June 2016.

Twenty-first century London contains some of the finest book collections in the world, but what about the libraries that haven’t survived? If you know where to look, London’s streets and alleyways are crammed with the ghosts of libraries past.

This walk will carry you back through London’s history, to long-forgotten libraries, readers, librarians and collectors. In the company of Alice Ford-Smith (Bernard Quaritch Ltd), Lost Libraries uncovers some of the links between London’s past and present book collections. From Bloomsbury to the City, you will hear tales of enterprise, transformation, obsession and destruction.

Meeting point: Gray’s Inn Library, 5 South Square, High Holborn, London, WC1R 5ET

Tube: Chancery Lane / Holborn

The walk’s meeting point will be the entrance to Gray’s Inn Library. This can be found through a narrow archway, between Rymans and the Cittie of Yorke pub, on High Highborn. After a brief look around the Library, we will take to the streets. The walk ends at approximately 8pm a few paces away from St Paul’s underground station. Please be ready for occasional steps, and no breaks!

Numbers are limited to 25 people, and pre-booking is essential. Tickets are £10 each. Please email Erika Delbecque (erika.delbecque@st-hildas.ox.a...) to reserve your place. This event is open to all, so early booking is recommended.

Zurab Elzarov has been awarded the 2016 London Book Fair International Excellence Award for his education initiatives on behalf of United Nations - African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

Zurab spoke about the Library of Peace in Darfur at the Library and Information History Group's AGM in November 2015. It was as a result of this event, and his association with CILIP, that he eventually published an article in Update and gained recognition for his initiative at an international level.  Well done Zurab!

UKeiG is pleased to announce that the first two of the four new Factsheets scheduled for 2016 have been published and are available on the web site as web pages and PDFs. The two Factsheets are 'A Brief Guide to Records Management' and the first of a new series which are industry or media focussed: 'Pharmaceutical R&D – Key information resources and the role of Knowledge Management'. This brings our total number of Factsheets up to 27! Factsheets are updated annually and can be found in groups under the menu headings:

• Web 2.0 - Blogs, RSS, Wikis and other 'stuff'
• Search Skills
• Intranets
• Content Management
• Managing Your e-Information
• Management
• Industry or Media Focus

The new Factsheets can be found at:

• A Brief Guide to Records Management
• Pharmaceutical R&D – Key information resources and the role of Knowledge Management
   

A new conference covering all aspects of taxonomy has been announced to take place alongside one of the conferences which UKeiG support, and at which members are entitled to a 25% discount on booking: ILI. Delegates - notes the conference home page - can "discover new applications and develop new skillsets." Whether first-timer, established information professional, or seasoned taxonomist, you can:

• Explore fresh approaches to establishing taxonomy in your organisation; from initial project sign-off to ensuring strong governance 
• Learn about cutting-edge developments in taxonomy from case studies
• Network with a ready-made taxonomy community - no need to work in isolation"

The call for speakers is given in full:

The Call for Speakers has been announced for Taxonomy Boot Camp London, a new conference covering all aspects of taxonomy which will take place on 18 & 19 October alongside Internet Librarian International.

Taxonomy Boot Camp London will be the UK’s only dedicated conference for taxonomies and will help delegates learn practical approaches to improving their taxonomy development and implementation skills.

More and more organisations are recognising the value of taxonomies to drive their data, content and information processes. The conference will cover a range of skillsets and applications with sessions designed for those brand new to taxonomies, as well as seasoned taxonomists. It will be chaired by taxonomy, metadata and search consultant Helen Lippell.

The Call for Speakers is now open and the submissions deadline is 10 May 2016.

To be held in the brand new Plymouth Central Library on Friday 20th May, 10:30am registration for 11am start, closing at 3:30pm

We want this day to be about sharing and discussing creative approaches to supporting skills for success in FE and HE: lifelong learning, academic and employability skills, information skills, digital literacies and more.

Do you have something that has worked really well that you would like to share in a ten minute ‘speed-dating’ style session?  If so please get in touch with arlgsw@gmail.com and register your interest.

Full details and booking to be announced shortly.

11am - 12.30pm: The Society of Antiquaries library

2-3pm: The Linnean Society library

Everyday people rely on Google for answers to their most personal, important and most trivial questions. How do we know if the information is reliable? A good place to start is with an information expert. We ask consultant and author Leslie Stebbins to investigate “How can I find reliable hotel reviews?”

Ever wonder how James Bond always seems to know, just in the nick of time, where the evil villain is hiding and how to get to him? 

Librarians are kind of like that. 

Now hold on, before you scoff and roll your eyes. Librarians are like ninjas: able to pop in and out of information sources, quickly zeroing in on reliable answers to questions.

But we didn’t get that way over night. And, in fact, with more information available at everyone’s fingertips it has arguably become more difficult to locate reliable information today than it was ten years ago. It’s counterintuitive, but with search engine optimization tricks, fake reviews, and questionable 5-star rating systems, finding reliable information remains challenging. 

This new blog series was inspired by recent research[1]  about how people struggle to find reliable information online, and how we often settle for untrustworthy information without even realising it. It is based in part on strategies I used for my recent book Finding Reliable Information Online: Adventures of an Information Sleuth. The book uses storytelling to illustrate the best (and worst!) ways to locate reliable every-day-life information, such as health information or credible product reviews. 

The search for reliable hotel reviews is a perfect example of how millions of people log on to Google, pop in some search terms, and may wind up staying in a place that wasn’t quite what they expected.

My hotel in Italy got five stars, but it was right between a garbage dump and a highway!

In research for my book I spent months determining how best to go about locating reliable travel information, and even I was surprised by what I found. The following is a brief taste, focused on using crowd-sourced travel information.

Can thousands of travelers be wrong?

I had wanted to go to Nova Scotia for years, but knew little about it. I figured I would start the same way most people start their search for information: Use Google, find a good crowd-sourced travel site, and rely on the advice of thousands of travelers. I pop online to see what Google would choose as the best place to start my travel planning:

    Google: Nova Scotia Hotels

Not surprisingly, Google brings up its own Google Reviews first, followed by other large players such as TripAdvisor. 

Lesson 1: Showing up in the first 5 hits on Google or Bing might be more a reflection of a powerful marketing team than of being reliable and trustworthy

TripAdvisor is a dominant player with revenues of more than one billion dollars a year [2].  Like other sites such as Airbnb they are wildly popular because we feel like we are getting the inside scoop from people who have sampled the product, rather than having to rely on advertisers or journalists.

Lesson 2: Large amounts of user-generated information can make reliability harder to achieve

Though I am sceptical, I decide to search TripAdvisor for a great place to stay in Nova Scotia. The results are impressive. If nothing else, TripAdvisor is a handy niche search engine to almost all the hotels and other lodging information in many parts of the world. 

The amount of reviews can be a strength and a weakness, though, as there are too many for an editorial team to check manually. As TripAdvisor states in their Review Moderation guide:

"TripAdvisor has millions of reviews and more than one million hotels, restaurants and attractions; therefore, it would be impractical for us to fact check the details of reviews."

One example of how the review process can be abused is when TripAdvisor got into hot water for the five star reviews and a “Top 100” rating given to a homeless shelter in Glasgow [3].  Pranksters inundated the Bellgrove Hotel with 5 star reviews describing its outstanding service, spa, and pool facilities even though it is actually a shelter housing 150 homeless men!

"Hotel did look a bit shabby on the outside however appearances can de deceitful. Luxurious rooms, spa and leisure facilities a real gem."

The manager of the shelter finally asked TripAdvisor to remove the reviews after confused tourists kept showing up asking for rooms.

Lesson 3: Always take your search to the next level if the information seems "too good to be true"

Of the 192 hotels in Nova Scotia, the Greendale Hotel * comes up as one of the best places to stay. It looks fantastic and everyone online is raving that it is ”excellent” and “life changing.” It seems strange that no one has had a bad experience at the Greendale Hotel. 

On TripAdvisor you can email reviewers, so I email 16 reviewers of the Greendale Hotel; only three answer. Each of them indicates that their reviews were completely fair and not coerced, but the third reviewer ends with: 

…I've been doing this out of my own interest. However, I've found some of my negative reviews deleted from TripAdvisor many times. I've complained to them. but haven't heard back.

Perhaps this explains why the Hotel has no negative reviews? I decide to dig a little deeper into the research on TripAdvisor and review sites generally.

Trip advisor clearly states in its Review Moderation Guide that:

"As long as a review meets our guidelines, we’re happy to post it whether it’s positive or negative. The majority of our reviews are indeed positive, but we do not influence or change the content of reviews."

Research shows that 79% of consumers trust advice from other consumers as much as they trust information from a travel expert or even a friend[4].  There is also a strong link between how credible a source is viewed and later purchases based on those sources [5].  It is in the interest of a site like TripAdvisor to provide reliable reviews. However, it is important to remember, that people running hotels and guesthouses can have an influence on what reviews are posted, not just travelers. 

There are reported stories that indicate that negative reviews are sometimes deleted from TripAdvisor reviews, thus skewing the reviews toward the positive. Howard Orlarsch, writing to “The Ethicist” advice columnist in the New York Times Magazine explains:

I recently spent several days at a relatively expensive hotel. The place was deplorable and unsanitary, with an unresponsive front desk. I gave it a poor write-up on TripAdvisor.com … titling my review “An Overpriced Dung Heap.” The following day, the owner contacted me through the site with an offer to refund almost half the cost of my stay if I would retract my review. I accepted the handsome offer and deleted my post. Who was the most unethical: me (for accepting the bribe), the owner (for offering it) or the site (which enables this chicanery and therefore has untrustworthy reviews)?

The Ethicist concludes that Howard and the hotel are unethical, but not TripAdvisor. They warn people on their site to not engage in deceptive practices. But recently the UK Advertising Standards Authority ordered TripAdvisor to delete all references on their site to the words “honest” or “trustworthy,” including the phrase “reviews you can trust” [6]  after hotels alleged that there were more than 27,000 legally defamatory reviews posted [7]. 

Researchers are looking into travel review sites after discovering hotels were bribing guests to write positive reviews in exchange for room discounts or money [8].“Astroturfers” now advertise online that they will write fake hotel, restaurant, and product reviews for five dollars on sites such as Fiverr.com. Competitors have also been known to write negative reviews [9]. And, while many people are convinced that they can spot fake reviews, researchers at Cornell University found that subjects did poorly in separating fake from real reviews [10].  Other research demonstrates that between 10 and 30 percent of online reviews are fake, and software developed to combat fake reviews only catches the most obvious ones [11]. 

Lesson 4: Never rely on one source for information for something you care about

If you use TripAdvisor or similar sites, use the following strategies to check the reliability of the information provided:

1. Read the reviews; don’t rely on the aggregated star ratings. Research shows there is a 41 percent misalignment between star ratings and reviews [12].   The problem is that a simple star rating system cannot capture all the nuances involved in a review. For low starred reviews the alignment is much higher, people rate the item low and then list negative experiences. But for hotels with five stars, read through the reviews to get an accurate picture, and also keep in mind that some percentage of them are fake.
2. Check the number of reviews. Researchers found that people were more apt to focus on the rank of a hotel, such as one that came in first or second, but did not attend to the number of total reviews [13].   It is safer to choose a hotel ranked several places down on the list but has many reviews. The more reviews about a hotel the less effective astroturfers will be.
3. Look for trends. Try to spot information that appears multiple times. Also, look for specific information such as someone mentioning that the sheets were not clean or the beds were uncomfortable. Specificity combined with items mentioned by several people can suggest reviews might be credible.
4. Ignore the extremists. Extremists are more likely to be either fake reviewers or people who tend to exaggerate. Stick to the reviews that are a mix of positive and negative information.
5. Check the date of the review. If the review is more than a year or two old things might have changed.
6. Check the track record of the reviewer. See if they tend to be overly negative or positive, consider emailing them to see if they are real people.

Lesson 5: Pick sources who value their reputation and do not write anonymously, who work for you not the travel industry, and who know they will only get repeat customers if they provide reliable information

For the Greendale Hotel I read reviews, checked the number of reviews, and so on. Everything checked out, but I ended up booking somewhere else after double-checking the hotel and several other places I found on TripAdvisor by doing the following:

• Using reliable travel blogs that do not accept sponsorship such as National Geographic Travel.
• Using good old fashioned guidebooks such as Lonely Planet and Fodor’s that are now making a comeback [14] (I accessed them online through my library)
• Relying on expert travel journalists who work for old and new media. (Type your destination + hotel + favorite online newspaper or trusted site.) Journalists follow a code of ethics and have a reputation to uphold.

One final trick if you want to really scope out a hotel before you get there: go on Google Earth and see what it really looks like!

*The name of the hotel in Nova Scotia used in this article has been changed to protect its reputation.

Facet Publishing have announced the release of Barbara Allan’s latest book, Emerging Strategies for Supporting Student Learning.

It is both an exciting and challenging time to be working in higher education as the sector experiences rapid changes including: an increasingly diverse student population with evolving expectations; changes in technology such as the rise in the use of social media; increased emphasis on employability and internationalization; development of new social learning spaces; as well as an ever-decreasing resource base. As a result of these changes, new approaches to supporting student learning are developing rapidly.

In the past five years, developments in both the theory and practice of learning and teaching have created a complex landscape which it is sometimes difficult to navigate. Emerging Strategies for Supporting Student Learning provides practical guidance and brings together theory and practice in an accessible style. The book covers a wide range of tools and techniques (relevant to face-to-face, blended learning and online practices) which will suit students in different contexts from large groups of 500+ to very small classes of research students. 

Making extensive use of case studies, examples, checklists and tables, the book covers key topics including, digital literacies, working with diversity, employability and designing, delivering and evaluating learning and teaching activities. 

Author Barbara Allan said,

“In writing this book, I wanted to capture the many different ways in which information professionals are supporting student learning in a time of rapid change. As ideas about learning and teaching have changed, so have professional practices which involve supporting students online, in social learning spaces, the library, as well as in classrooms. Practitioners use a variety of technologies ranging from their institution’s virtual learning environment through to social media. The relationships between students and information professionals is changing and the idea of ‘students as co-creators’ is producing new forms of working together. Overall, this is an exciting (although challenging) time to be supporting student learning and this book explores current practices.”

Emerging Strategies for Supporting Student Learning will be essential reading for different groups working in colleges and universities such as library and information workers, staff developers, educational technologists, educational development project workers, educational change agents and students of library and information science who are planning their careers in higher education institutions.

-ends

Press and review copies contact:

James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing
Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk

David Ball's one-day workshop gives an overview of developments in openness in Open Science, Open Data, Open Access and Open Monographs, framed within the context of a disruptive technology. 

Who should attend?
Research, information and library professionals keen to understand the impact of Open Science, Open Data and Open Access on their work, their institutions and the current and future services they provide for their users.

CILIP’s Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB)
2. Knowledge and information management: 2.2 Information management
2. Knowledge and information management: 2.3 Data management
2. Knowledge and information management: 2.5 Knowledge transfer
4. Research skills: 4.1 Understanding research
5. Information governance and compliance: 5.1 Information governance
5. Information governance and compliance: 5.3 Copyright, intellectual property and licensing
7. Collection management and development: 7.1 Collection management
7. Collection management and development: 7.3 Selection of materials and resources
12. IT and communication: 12.2 Library, information and knowledge technologies

The March 2016 issue of Catalogue and Index is now available. The theme of this issue is metadata teams and workflows. We have a number of articles from institutions who have moved to Ex-Libris’ Alma system and have reviewed their workflows both pre and post implementation and team structures. There is also
a focus on eBook workflows in a number of articles, specifically in an article from Leeds Beckett University.

Catalogue and Index is now an open access publication so there is no need to log on to the website to read it.

The Open University press release is as follows:

Welcome to this new free course produced by The Open University. If you enrol and complete the course you can gain a digital badge and a Statement of Participation as a record of your achievement. Digital badges are a new way of demonstrating online that you have gained a skill. Schools, colleges and universities are working with employers and other organisations to develop open badges that help learners gain recognition for their skills, and support employers to identify the right candidate for a job.

This free course, Succeeding in a digital world, will develop your confidence and skills for life online, whether study,  work or everyday life. It explores a range of digital skills and practices, including digital identity, digital well-being, staying safe and legal, finding and using information and online tools, and dealing with information overload. The importance of developing a critical approach to life online is emphasised throughout, whether consuming or creating information. You'll be encouraged to reflect on your own situation and to apply what you learn to real-life scenarios, using a digital skills plan to keep a record of progress.

The course takes about 24 hours and can be completed in as little as eight weeks. It can be found at:
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/succeeding-digital-world/content-section-overview

Gamification was a huge part of LILAC this year and is growing momentum with many Librarians.

In this full day workshop, Andy Walsh will be running his (now famous) workshop on how to use Lego in teaching. We will explore how Lego® (or other model making materials) may be used in teaching situations in libraries.

We will introduce briefly the concept of Lego® Serious Play® and carry out some exercises based upon it. The outline programme below is indicative only and subject to change based on the activities / attendees on the day.

Attendees will have the chance to take part in an activity inspired by Serious Play® before going onto creating their own ideas based upon the methods discussed.

We will then use the materials in a slightly different way, using them to solve problems as a group, then go onto building models that can be used for evaluation at the beginning or the end of a teaching session.

By the end of the day, attendees should have an appreciation of how model making, particularly with Lego, may be used in teaching, and have planned a specific teaching intervention to apply in their own work situation.

We are offering a discounted price for CILIP members and can only accept 25 bookings due to the interactive nature of the event.

Note - LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this workshop.

Terms & Conditions

Bookings close:  30th May  ​

Preferred method of payment is by BACS; alternatively, cheques should be made payable to “CILIP ARLG Eastern Group. Cancellations received after 1st June will incur a £20 charge. Cancellations within 24 hours of the event will still be charged.

The following press release published on DIGITAL-PRESERVATION@JISCMAIL.... is likely to be of interest to members. It is quoted here in full. Comments or queries to the original author: Sarah Middleton, Head of Communications and Advocacy, Digital Preservation Coalition - Tel: 01904 601952 / Email: sarah@dpconline.org

Paul Wilson, formerly of the Office Systems Division at The National Computing Centre, has contributed a new addition to the Case Notes now available on the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) website.

In this new Case Note, Paul narrates his attempts to create a preservation plan for a small personal collection. In the fuller article (which can be downloaded as a PDF), he outlines his experiences to provide insights into the practical outcomes of using published guidelines and tools for preservation planning. Since he could find no preservation planning process appropriate to individuals, Paul obtained a slide set detailing a simple preservation workflow from the Digital Preservation Coalition, and used that as a foundation on which to establish an approach to the work.

This general approach and accompanying documentation was tested and refined on two of his personal digital collections (one of 800 mementos and the other of 17,000 photos).

“I recounted my PDF experiences not to alert others to specifics about PDF (about which I know very little) or the eCopy software (which I am generally very pleased with),” he explains, “but to illustrate how complicated and time-consuming work on file formats can be.”

The detailed account of his research and preliminary trials provides a set of guidance for any individual or institution looking to preserve their own small, digital collection. Paul has also provided the documents he created from scoping to maintaining his collection, along with blank template versions that can be easily used and adapted by others. All of the documents, as well as blank templates, are available to download as a Toolset.

This case note also appears in the DPC’s Technology Watch Report Personal Digital Archiving by Gabriela Redwine.

A one day workshop provided on behalf of the CILIP West Midlands Member Network – FREE to members of CILIP.