Information School News

For World Book Day 2021, Information School Lecturer Dr Pam McKinney shares her thoughts. As a parent I have spent the last 8 years participating in world book day, making costumes for my children to wear to primary school based on their favourite characters. But WBD is far more that a glorified dressing up competition (although I won’t lie about the competitive aspect of making a good costume!). WBD encourages children to engage in reading for pleasure, and numerous studies have shown that reading for pleasure is directly related to academic success, through increasing vocabulary and confidence in reading, and affecting performance across all subjects, not just English. As my kids get older and are at secondary school I can see the importance placed on reading in this context, with tests of reading age informing assessments of progress and ability, and the central role that a school library, staffed by a qualified librarian in supporting reading for pleasure. So I will continue to get...

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 ...

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...

24th-31st October is Global Media and Information Literacy week , the initiative sponsored by UNESCO. The iSchool is celebrating with a number activities that demonstrate its engagement with this field. We have organised three webinars, free and open to all: 2pm-2.30 pm UK time (which is 10-10.30am US EST) Tuesday 30th Oct. Dr Laura Sbaffi  (Information School) presents her research on What makes us trust online information? The perspective of health information . Join the webinar (via Adobe Connect) at https://sheffield.adobeconnect.com/globalmilweek2 Enter as a "guest". You may need to download the free Adobe Connect application, so please allow a few minutes for that. 2pm-2.30 pm (which is 10-10.30am US EST) Wednesday 31st Oct. Sheila Webber  (Information School) and Stephen Wyber (IFLA Manager, Policy and Advocacy.) will give their  Impressions of Global MIL Week feature conference. Join the webinar at  https://sheffield.adobeconnect.com/globalmil...

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...

Information School Lecturer Pam McKinney is one of only a small number of Faculty of Social Sciences staff to win a 'Teaching Excellence in Social Sciences (TESS) Award for Outstanding Practice in Learning and Teaching' this year. The award follows research-informed teaching methods she has employed, especially around group work. You can read some of her research on the topic in her paper 'The use of technology in group-work: a Situational Analysis of students' reflective writing.' Director of Learning and Teaching for the School, Dr Peter Stordy, has this to say: "Pam is an inspiring and reflective teacher who is highly respected by both staff and students. She consistently attracts glowing comments in student module evaluations and motivates students to produce a high standard of work. Her tenacious determination to provide genuine opportunities to develop students' employability and team work skills distinguishes her from other excellent teachers. ...

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.

The iSchool's Pamela McKinney (pictured right) has been giving regular reports on the LILAC conference being held in Swansea, Wales, 10-12 April, both through the iSchool's Twitter account and via the Information Literacy Weblog . She's reporting on the last day of the conference today.

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 (...

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

Pamela McKinney of the Information School has undertaken a project, which explores student’s perceptions of group work and how they work with each other in formally assessed, and casual group work situations. In order to research this complex topic Pamela adopted the “Draw and Write” methodology first designed by Jenna Hartel from the University of Toronto to investigate student conceptions of information. Students from across the Information School were asked to create a drawing on a square piece of paper (10cm x 10cm) called an ‘isquare’ that describes or shows their conception of a phenomena, in this case their experience of group work.  They were then asked to write a brief description on the other side of the isquare of what their drawing represents.  This unusual data collection methodology led to the creation of rich qualitative data that gave an interesting insight into what students think about group work.  This builds on Pamela’s research a...

Funding is available through the University of Sheffield SURE scheme to employ a student researcher within the Information School.  The researcher will work with Pam McKinney during the summer of 2015 on her “student conceptions of group work” research project. The position will run from Monday 15 June to Friday 24 July and the researcher will be paid £180 per week (£1080 for the full six week project).  The researcher will assist in the cataloging, scanning and photocopying of drawings made by students in response to the question “what is group work”.  They will also assist in the design and running of a focus group and will analyse the data gathered using Nvivo software.  Full training will be given on all aspects of the work, and valuable research experience will be gained which will be beneficial when completing a final year dissertation.  In addition, the student researcher will have the opportunity to present the results at a conference in November wit...

Pamela McKinney and Emily Wheeler (former MA Librarianship student, now Research Support Advisor at University of Leeds Library) presented at the UK's information literacy conference, LILAC, this week. The presentation, Teaching or training? Academic librarians’ conceptions of their IL activities , was based on Emily's 2014 Masters dissertation.

Today a number of iSchool academics are presenting at the the University of Sheffield Faculty of Social Sciences learning and teaching conference. The talks are: Pamela McKinney and Barbara Sen : Situational analysis of group work: student reflective assessment Paul Clough : Utilising MOLE for multiple choice assessments: a case study in the Information School Peter Stordy : Back to the future: reinventing exams Sheila Webber : Futurelearning! Reflections on teaching in the Future Learn Play MOOC Briony Birdi: Supporting isolated adults via the Six Books Challenge in Sheffield: developing student cultural awareness and community engagement

Pamela McKinney and Dr Stephen Pinfield provided a feature article ( Career support for LIS students ) for the popular monthly discussion group that takes place on Twitter, #uklibchat . The lively Twitter discussion took place on March 3rd: the hashtag is obviously #uklibchat, and their twitter stream is here https://twitter.com/uklibchat

Dr Barbara Sen and Pamela McKinney of the Information School are among the speakers at LILAC 2014 , which takes place at Sheffield Hallam University from 23 to 25 April 2014.     On Wednesday 23 April Barbara and Pamela will be delivering a workshop entitled ‘Supporting information literacy educators: reflective pedagogic planning improving information literacy practice’ , which draws on research in reflective practice which has been carried out at the University of Sheffield. Barbara will also be speaking in two further sessions at LILAC 2014.  On Thursday 24 April she will presenting on ‘Innovation, creativity and change: utilising appreciative enquiry and reflective practice to achieve asset based information literacy’ in collaboration with Vicky Grant and Denise Harrison of the University of Sheffield Library; and on Friday 25 April she will speak with Hannah Spring of York St John University on ‘Supporting young people’s health information needs’ . L...

Pam McKinney, Coordinator of the School's undergraduate Business Intelligence module, has secured arrangements with four local businesses to bring real-life issues to the lecture room for students to address. The Undergraduates will work in small groups to investigate the issues, and then present solutions which the businesses can put into practice. This year's partners are: Regather Airy Fairy Emmaus Aspire  As in previous years, these links have been forged in collaboration with the experts at University of Sheffield Enterprise .