Current student Yuki attended the LILAC Conference - the Information Literacy Conference - in April and shares her thoughts below!
I attended LILAC this year as a MA Librarianship student at the Information School. Attending the conference was an incredible opportunity to meet other library professionals from across the world and learn about information literacy from a variety of perspectives.
Each day of the conference I had the pleasure of representing the iSchool at our sponsor booth setup. It was enjoyable to chat to prospective students about the programme, as well as make connections with past alumni who came up to the table to share about their experiences. I felt encouraged meeting alumni who were employed in a variety of roles after their time at the iSchool.
Within the conference sessions themselves I enjoyed seeing information literacy principles put into real-world application. I got to take my learning beyond the classroom and gain insight into current IL trends, challenges, and needs. There were many sessions I enjoyed, and I’ll illustrate 2 key learnings here.
1) Different Populations Have Different IL Practices and Needs
During the parallel sessions, Andy Lacey presented his research on Information Practices of the Homeless. He found that issues of distrust present a major barrier to information access for people experiencing homelessness and encouraged library professionals to prioritise relationship-building in order to combat this barrier.
This session opened my eyes to the variety of ways in which information literacy can be practised, as the interviews from Andy’s study indicated that some people understood information best through drawings (e.g. drawing out, scene by scene, what to expect in upcoming court proceedings) or reminded themselves of upcoming appointments by placing sticky notes in a refrigerator.
Finally, Andy illustrated that people experiencing homelessness are likely to engage with information that is most readily available, as many individuals expend significant amounts of physical, mental, and emotional energy securing items or information they need which may be at far distances from each other. In this way, landscape layouts are not simply a matter of convenience but bear significantly on a person’s ability to get their physical and informational needs met during periods of homelessness.
2) Forming Relationships in Higher Education Librarianship
Andy wasn’t the only presenter emphasizing the importance of relationships. Sheila Corrall presented her scholarship on the Social Turn in Literacy Development & Education Strategy and its Impact on Library Practice. She focused on shifts in Higher Education librarianship from transactional to relational approaches.
Sheila noted the network society that we currently live in, pointing out that social networks underpin so much of what we do, and this makes it necessary for students to undergo ‘life-wide learning’ in order to become successful global citizens. Attending this presentation further cemented my perspective that librarians aren’t simply ‘knowledge cashiers’, but rather are perfectly positioned to be active partners with library users in their information and knowledge engagement journeys.
Comments