Information School News

Celebrate UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy week with the Information school Sheila Webber and Dr Pam McKinney Unesco’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week is an annual event to celebrate and promote Media and Information Literacy worldwide. This year the week of international (virtual!) events is taking place 24th-31st October, with the theme “Resisting Disinfodemic: Media and Information Literacy for everyone and, by everyone”. The Information School has co-organised two key contributions to the week: an expert panel on 28th October , chaired by Sheila Webber, and on 29th October a programme of exciting insights from Media and Information Literacy research . Both these free events are held in collaboration with FOIL: the Forum on Information Literacy. Sheila Webber and Pam McKinney are members of this new national network of information literacy researchers in the UK, FOIL, who aim to discuss and challenge ideas, and engage in critical reflection and enquiry about ...

7 Top tips for working from home!! #workfromhome #stayhomesavelives  By Sheila Webber Our Senior Lecturer, Sheila Webber, has written a blog about working from home during the current pandemic. It's full of some great tips... and a little giggle!  "I am working from home. I would rather not be. I have never, ever, fantasised about delivering online lessons in althleisurewear from my kitchen table or from under a duvet." To raise a much-needed smile at this time, you can read more on Sheila's Information Literacy blog here. 

Global Media and Information Literacy week   is a UNESCO-sponsored annual celebration of media and Information Literacy, with events organised around the world. This year’s theme is Media and Information Literate Citizens: Informed, Engaged, Empowered and the centre for Information Literacy Research (Information School, University of Sheffield)  is responding with events and activities on this theme --------------------------------------------------------- Free bite-sized webinar for Global Media and Information literacy Week: Dr Pamela McKinney: The Information literacy of food and activity logging in three communities. 11-11.30am UK time, Thursday 24 October 2019 (check the time in your country at https://tinyurl.com/globalmila ) To join the webinar go to https://tinyurl.com/globalmilabb just before the webinar start time. It uses Blackboard Collaborate (see here  for details on how to use it). You do not have to register for the webinar in advance, but i...

The iSchool will have a strong presence at LILAC 2019 , the UK’s annual information literacy conference, held this year 24-26 April in Nottingham, UK. We are a conference sponsor, and are looking forward to meeting up with current students, alumni and other visitors on our exhibition stand. During conference breaks Dr Pam McKinney and current students Elle Codling and Danielle Czerkaszyn will be happy to chat with you about our courses and research. We would love to catch up with any Information School students or alumni who are at the conference so do come and introduce yourselves! We are also leading two conference sessions. On Thursday 25th, Sheila Webber and Pam McKinney  (pictured) are running a workshop:  What's my approach? Deciding on the approach to use for your research . Sheila said “There’s increasing interest from practitioners in carrying out research in the workplace, to improve practice and inform decisions. Before starting the project it’s a good idea t...

Information School Senior Lecturer Dr Andrew Cox has been involved in a collaboration to edit a major new collection of papers about Information and the body for the journal Library Trends. The centrality of embodied experience in all aspects of human life makes the relative neglect of the body in information behaviour studies surprising and potentially problematic. Two special issues of Library Trends bring together an international group of researchers interested in embodied information, including how we receive information through the senses, what the body knows and the way the body is used as a sign that can be interpreted by others. Contributing authors include Professor Marcia Bates. The first of the two issues has just been published. The second issue is due out later in the year, and includes a paper by former student Kondwani Wella, with Senior Lecturer Sheila Webber. Read the full text here.

Pamela McKinney, Sheila Webber and Peter Holdridge represented the iSchool at Sheffield University's annual celebration of Technology Enhanced Learning: TELfest .   McKinney and Webber gave a presentation Comparing use of TEL in an on campus class and a distance learning class , reporting on ways in which Technology Enhanced Learning is used in the on-campus and distance versions of the core Information Literacy module. The presentation is available here: https://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/comparing-use-of-technology-enhanced-learning-in-an-oncampus-class-and-a-distance-learning-class Sheila Webber (one of the educators on the University of Sheffield Exploring Play MOOC ) contributed to a panel on Learning Through Play . She talked about Dr Peter Stordy's innovative use of Lego in the Information Organisation module, and about learning playfully in the 3D virtual world, Second Life (including learning through virtual dance! ) Peter Holdridge was a panel membe...

At the i3 (information interactions and impact) conference held in Aberdeen, Scotland, there were two presentations from the iSchool. Sheila Webber presented a paper coauthored with Professor Nigel Ford, Dr Andrew Madden and Mary Crowder , reporting on quantitative findings from a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) on Deep critical Information Behaviour . The paper was entitled Mapping the development of critical information behaviour through school and university and the slides are at https://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/mapping-the-development-of-critical-information-behaviour-through-school-and-university Jessica Elmore , who had ealier received the Mark Hepworth Award for Best paper at i3, presented on Information sharing in the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classroom: a case study . Sheila Webber (who co-supervises Jessica's PhD with Dr Peter Stordy) liveblogged her talk at http://information-literacy.blogspot.co.uk/2017...

Information School PhD student Jessica Elmore (co-supervised by Sheila Webber and  Dr Peter Stordy) is recipient of the inaugural Mark Hepworth Memorial  Award. The award commemorates Professor Hepworth  (1955-2016).  Jessica  received the award for submitting the best abstract to the i3  (Information: interactions and impact) conference. Her paper, which  she presents on 29 June at i3, is entitled "Information Sharing in the  ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) classroom: a case study" She is shown here with i3 Chair Professor Peter Reid and Professor  Graham Matthews, from Loughborough University, where Mark was a  faculty member.

Professor Stephen Pinfield, Dr Briony Birdi, Dr Sheila Webber, Pam McKinney, Peter Holdridge and Paula Goodale have been awarded a Teaching Excellence in Social Sciences Award for Outstanding Practice in Learning and Teaching' by the Faculty of Social Sciences. The award recognises the team's delivery of our innovative distance learning programme, MA Library & Information Services Management. The award will be presented at the TESS End of Year Celebration event later this month.

There was a strong presence from the iSchool at the European Conference on Information Literacy , which took place in Prague, Czech Republic, October 10-13 2016. Sheila Webber presented a paper on Information Literacy, Threshold Concepts and Disciplinarity with Bill Johnston (University of Strathclyde, Scotland) and chaired and presented in a panel session Radical, Critical? Exploring discourse around information literacy , with fellow panelists Professor Annemaree Lloyd (Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Sweden), Dr Ola Pilerot (Swedish School of Library and Information Science) and Bill Johnston (University of Strathclyde). In the Doctoral Forum, Evanthia Tramantza presented her ongoing PhD research into the information literacy of engineering students and Webber (who supervises both PhD students) presented on behalf of Syeda Hina Batool , whose completed PhD research is on information literacy of primary school children in Lahore, Pakistan...

Sheila Webber presented an invited talk on Information Literacy in Europe, MIL and Sustainable Development Goals , as part of the IFLA Information Literacy Section's session at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Columbus, Ohio, USA on 16 August. The powerpoint is embedded below. Another invited presenter in the session was Dr Jesus Lau , Director, Research Center on Veracruzana University Documentation, México and an alumnus of the Information School's doctoral programme, who talked about the UNESCO Media and information literacy (MIL) assessment guidelines, and MIL in Latin America.

Free IFLA/NPSIG/CPDWL Webinar, July 26 2016 (at 4pm UK time): Information Literacy in My Career (in Adobe Connect, link at the end of this message) Speakers: Emily Wheeler, Sheila Webber, Pam McKinney, Liam Bullingham IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Section and IFLA New Professionals SIG have partnered with the American Library Association to present a one-hour webinar Information Literacy in my career. Professionals at different stages of their career will talk about what information literacy means to them, how they engage with it in their job, and how they see information literacy featuring in their future. Keynote and moderator: Sheila Webber (@sheilayoshikawa) Sheila is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Information Literacy Research in the Information School, University of Sheffield. She is a committee member of IFLA Information Literacy Section (http://www.ifla.org/information-literacy and interim co-chair of UNESCO’s GAPMIL (...

Sheila Webber chaired the opening session of the 2nd European Media and Information Literacy Forum , sponsored by UNESCO in Riga last week, and she also presented at the first plenary session. The opening session included a welcome from the Speaker of the Latvian Parliament, Ināra Mūrniece. A key message of Sheila's own presentation (embedded below) was picked up in the title of a news report: Media and Information Literacy is a tool that enables life . Sheila, who is interim co-chair of the European Chapter of the Global Alliance for Partnerships in Media and information Literacy , was also part of the drafting committee for the Riga Recommendations on Media and Information Literacy in a Shifting Media and Information Landscape , which were published at the end of the conference.

On 2nd June Pamela McKinney presented a paper, coauthored with Sheila Webber , at the 8th Creating Knowledge conference , which took place  in Reykjavík, Iceland. It is embedded below. Teaching the next generation of Information Literacy educators: pedagogy and learning from Sheila Webber

Last week at the International Qualitative and Quantitative methods in Libraries Conference held in London, Sheila Webber gave an invited plenary talk: Trends and Challenges to Future Libraries: Exploring Research Approaches , which is embedded below. In it she presented the challenging future of (academic) libraries, described examples of phenomenographic, ethnograpic, autoethnographic, case study and action research, and finally explained how qualitative research can develop librarians and libraries and enable them to meet future challenges. Trends and Challenges to Future Libraries: Exploring Research Approaches from Sheila Webber

Last week there was a strong showing from the Sheffield iSchool at the European Conference on Information Literacy held in Tallinn, Estonia. Sheila Webber led a workshop on Supporting Information Literacy in MOOC Learning , and was co-presenter (with Bill Johnston, Strathclyde University) of Information Literacy and the Scottish Independence Referendum (2014): An Autoethnographic Exploration of Political Decision-making . She had also been asked to be raporteur for the conference and presented her summing up as part of the closing session. In the doctoral seminar, Jess Elmore presented on Exploring the Information Literacy Experiences of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Learners: A Discussion of Methods and Evi Tramantza on Electronic Engineering Student Information Literacy Needs: A Pilot Study at the University of Surrey . Jess Elmore also presented a paper based on her Masters research: How Do Home Educating Families’ Experiences of Information Literacy Relate ...

Sheila Webber was the acting chair of the inaugural interim board meeting for the new European Chapter of the Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL), the UNESCO-supported initiative on Media and Information Literacy. The meeting took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris last week.

Congratulations to Sheila Webber , Senior Lecturer in the Information School, on being announced the prestigious UKeiG’s 2015 Jason Farradane winner .  The award is in recognition of Sheila’s excellence in education and teaching in information science, and for raising the profile of the information profession.  Her nomination included her deep insight into the library world and understanding of the pressures of a modern information workplace which together make her a fantastic supervisor and mentor who always supports her students, even those who are not on campus. Further information on Sheila’s award can be found here . Many congratulations to Sheila.

Four iSchool members presented at the i3 conference in Aberdeen, Scotland in June 2015. Sheila Webber gave a paper on Self-identified Information Behaviour of learners in the FutureLearn “Play” MOOC . Three of her PhD students also presented on their research: Joseph Essel ( Conceptions of the Information literate teacher by teacher trainees at a Ghanaian University ), Syeda Shahid ( Assessing children’s IL skills: Findings from a multiple case study of six primary schools in Pakistan ) and Kondwani Wella ( Experiencing HIV and AIDS information: a phenomenological study of serodiscordant couples in Malawi ). Additionally, some iSchool alumni presented including Sara Chizari who graduated with MSc Information Management in 2010 ( How do cultural differences and cognitive styles affect online information searching behaviour? ) and Yi Wen Hon who graduated with MA Librarianship last year (presenting on her Masters research, Representations of privacy in the context of care.data: conf...

The Information School would like to congratulate the following members of staff on their recent achievements: Andrew Cox is now a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy . Sheila Webber has been invited to join the Steering Committee for the European Chapter of Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy (GAPMIL) . GAPMIL is a UNESCO initiative to promote international cooperation to ensure all citizens have access to media and information competencies. Stephen Pinfield has been asked to join the new Expert Group on Science 2.0/ Open Science set up by the European University Association (EUA) . Stephen was nominated for this role by UUK following their sponsoring of his recent research project on open access, conducted with Professor Peter Bath. The Expert Group on Science 2.0/Open Science will build on and extend previous EUA’s work in the area of open access, namely the creation of a task force on open access in 2012, composed of experts repre...