tfpl blog

Making a difference - IL in Schools

'Information literacy' has earned its place as a valuable role/outcome/concern for many information professionals, and nowhere is the topic more relevant than in schools and further education.  IL skills are an integral part of learning - they are also life skills.

Yesterday CILIP's Information Literacy Group ran a workshop 'IL in schools and FE' which explored current relevant research and practitioner practice.  The event was not only lively, illustrating the energy and commitment among librarians in this sector, but also demonstrated that the challenges and principles are not dissimilar to other sectors.   IL is not a stand alone skill - it has to be learnt and developed in context.  Librarians need to work collaboratively - with teachers and pupils -to develop effective techniques.  In order to gain the attention and cooperation of their teaching colleagues they must understand the challenges and imperatives of the school and the staff.  They must speak the right language.  Their IL 'services' and 'products' must have an articulated and valued outcome.

Being a school librarian may be one of life's real challenges, but it obviously has the potential to make a real difference to the development of an information literate society and to be immensely rewarding.

The speakers' slides will be mounted on the CILIP ILG website and its is hoped that the workshop will be repeated later this year.

The workshop was hosted by TFPL.

Is IM a new profession? Or a blurring of disciplines?

TFPL has  been working with the recently formed Information Management Group (IMG) to identify the set of skills that make up Information Management.  The IM Group, whose members include  the Metropolitan Police, Yell, Henley Management Centre and CILIP,  argues  that the  capability  that enables  organisations to effectively manage and exploit information call for a range of skills not currently well understood by the IT community.  There is, they suggest, a 'new profession' waiting in the wings.  The immediate objective of IMG is to develop a set of IM specific skills which will influence the development of the 4th edition of Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).

A joint TFPL/IMG workshop on 6th March explored these arguments, the skills included in the current version of SFIA and the IM responsibilities identified by TFPL in its  'Information Management Framework: responsibilities in the e-landscape', and the developments needed.   The outcomes of that workshop are currently being summarised but the overall impression was that IM and IT skills are different - but interdependent, and that the development of one Framework addressing both IT and IM communities would be difficult.   But a look at the SFIA website with its four supporting organisations, and consideration of the range of organisations and professional groups that make up the non IT information professions, illustrates why IM is poorly understood.  IM is all pervasive - but poorly articulated.  Many of the skills required exist but are not visible; others are in short supply. The information profession needs to keep talking to SFIA and other organisations - it needs to ensure that IM becomes a key competence, not an 'also ran'.

Your opinions and comments would be very valuable.

TFPL's Information Management Framework is available on our website - the white paper called 'Who's managing information?'

The IM Group presented their arguments at a seminar at Online Information last December, and have written a number of articles.

The SFIA Foundation is jointly owned by the British Computer Society, E-skills UK (the sector skills council), Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS),and The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

"The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems (IS) making use of Information & Communications Technology (ICT)".   

New copyright courses

For Spring 2007, we are launching two new copyright training courses.  We asked Paul Pedley to explain why and how the copyright landscape is changing.

"In 2005 the Labour Party manifesto promised to modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age.

This resulted in the Gowers Review which published its findings in December 2006. The government accepted all of the review's 54 recommendations. Some can only be implemented if there is international agreement, but the UK government is committed to implementing all which are within their powers to implement, and they are doing so during the period 2007-2008.

The UK's Intellectual Property Office is responsible for implementing the majority of the Gowers recommendations. But some are being implemented by other parts of government - such as the DCA, DTI, and Office of Fair Trading. A Gowers Implementation Team has been set up to oversee the implementation process.

There are issues around the creation of a digital library which have come to the fore - such as how to deal with "orphan works" (where it isn't possible to identify or else to locate the rightsowner in order to get the necessary permissions) or how to deal with out of print works."

TFPL courses:

Introduction to copyright

Digital copyright