This year’s LILAC conference was shifted online in the form of the condensed LILAC FestivIL situated over three half days on the afternoon of 6th July, the morning 7th July and the afternoon 8th July. LILAC is an annual conference organised by CILIP's Information Literacy Group and covers all aspects of information literacy. Double lucky for me, as well being online (accessible even from my Dubai location), I was offered the opportunity to virtually attend assisted by a Sheffield iSchool bursary. This was not my first time attending LILAC, and although the programme was compressed, as usual it delivered. Given the enforced deprivation of social connection during the global pandemic, the well-considered conference theme was community. This was echoed and reinforced by the conference structure on each half-day, with two daily slots being dedicated to ‘Campfire Conversations’. These informal online spaces, facilitated by small breakout rooms, provided attendees a welcome opportunity to connect, share experiences and chat with information literacy professionals from around the world.
As an IL practitioner currently working within a British HE international branch campus, I was excited to attend the masterclasses. The first day I attended two sessions that both provided great advice and practical information on improving IL teaching: Making online Information Literacy teaching engaging, interactive and accessible presented by Hossam Kassem, Benjamin Williamson and Greg Leursmy; and the brilliantly named Killer cats and flying penguins: developing bespoke and engaging Fake News workshops and webinars that remain relevant presented by Louise Frith and Sarah Webb. Hossam and colleagues shared their experiences of moving their teaching online, tips for helping to provide students with a seamless online experience, different software to encourage student engagement such as Slido and Padlet, managing logistical difficulties with different types of communication, and use of MS Teams breakout rooms to facilitate a group activity that encouraged critical evaluation of sources. Louise and Sarah’s fake news session was perfectly timed as the following week, I was due to deliver an online workshop for recent school leavers and potential new students. I was inspired by their continuing journey of subject matter delivery and development, and the necessity to continually adapt and refresh their fake news content for both co-curricular and embedded in-class ‘faculty’ workshops. I also picked up some resources that I utilised within my own session: the IFLA guide for fake news; and Snopes.com, a fact checking website.
As an IL practitioner currently working within a British HE international branch campus, I was excited to attend the masterclasses. The first day I attended two sessions that both provided great advice and practical information on improving IL teaching: Making online Information Literacy teaching engaging, interactive and accessible presented by Hossam Kassem, Benjamin Williamson and Greg Leursmy; and the brilliantly named Killer cats and flying penguins: developing bespoke and engaging Fake News workshops and webinars that remain relevant presented by Louise Frith and Sarah Webb. Hossam and colleagues shared their experiences of moving their teaching online, tips for helping to provide students with a seamless online experience, different software to encourage student engagement such as Slido and Padlet, managing logistical difficulties with different types of communication, and use of MS Teams breakout rooms to facilitate a group activity that encouraged critical evaluation of sources. Louise and Sarah’s fake news session was perfectly timed as the following week, I was due to deliver an online workshop for recent school leavers and potential new students. I was inspired by their continuing journey of subject matter delivery and development, and the necessity to continually adapt and refresh their fake news content for both co-curricular and embedded in-class ‘faculty’ workshops. I also picked up some resources that I utilised within my own session: the IFLA guide for fake news; and Snopes.com, a fact checking website.
A lightning talk on the Wednesday, Reflections on collaborative working across boundaries: innovative approaches to information and digital fluency was delivered by University of Sheffield’s own Amy Haworth and provided a fantastic example of an IL professional leaving the library setting to successfully collaborate with other university departments. Amy succeeded in becoming part of the conversation and development of the UoS Graduate Attributes project rebrand. IL skills were successfully embedded into the Graduate Attributes as digital research skills and critical thinking. By relating IL to the pre-existing Graduate Attributes, and considering the terminology used, Amy managed to make IL more accessible and relevant through incorporation into a highly visible university-wide project. Amy’s experience demonstrates the need for librarians to collaborate across university departments and not work within silos. To remain relevant, we need to constantly re-evaluate our conventions, including re-envisioning the role of the academic librarian, and our faculty or professional services partnerships. Amy emphasised collaboration not competitiveness, building trust, and cooperative mind-sets through identifying synergies.
A theme that was new to me and thought provoking incorporated through the three half days of the FestivIL was critical librarianship. This was kicked off on the main stage on Tuesday by Emily Drabinski. Emily’s role moniker has been designated by their students as the Critical Information Literacy Instructure Librarian at Sarah Lawrence University. The title of the pre-recorded talk and synchronous conversation was Teaching the Radical Catalog. The empowering session gave light to issues surrounding the politics of knowledge organisation. Emily’s emotive personal narrative described a function of their role as teaching students how to use library systems and structures to retrieve information that ‘privileged some ways of knowing and not others, some ways of being and not others’. The knowledge systems used for student’s studies is biased against them and has created ‘barriers to their own ways of knowing and ways of being’. Alongside teaching students how to use and navigate a flawed system to retrieve information, Emily recognises a responsibility to clarify that the systems created by humans ‘reflect and reproduce dominant ways of thinking about the world’. Emily delivered an optimistic message that the existing system can be reformed and be made better through radical catalogers, sensitive to different ways of being and representing, through advocacy. It was a very inspiring session and opened my eyes to issues that I regretfully had not previously considered.
Although I thoroughly appreciated all the sessions that managed to attend at the FestivIL, my only complaint would be the same as the usual face-to-face LILAC conference, of having to decide the sessions to attend and which to jettison! Congratulations to the LILAC conference organisation team who delivered a fantastic jam packed programme and took advantage of the challenging shift online by utilising pre-recorded sessions and technology to assist delegate interaction. I do however, look forward to next year’s LILAC 2022 and experiencing the conference in person at Manchester Metropolitan University.
-Laura Barber, PhD student
A theme that was new to me and thought provoking incorporated through the three half days of the FestivIL was critical librarianship. This was kicked off on the main stage on Tuesday by Emily Drabinski. Emily’s role moniker has been designated by their students as the Critical Information Literacy Instructure Librarian at Sarah Lawrence University. The title of the pre-recorded talk and synchronous conversation was Teaching the Radical Catalog. The empowering session gave light to issues surrounding the politics of knowledge organisation. Emily’s emotive personal narrative described a function of their role as teaching students how to use library systems and structures to retrieve information that ‘privileged some ways of knowing and not others, some ways of being and not others’. The knowledge systems used for student’s studies is biased against them and has created ‘barriers to their own ways of knowing and ways of being’. Alongside teaching students how to use and navigate a flawed system to retrieve information, Emily recognises a responsibility to clarify that the systems created by humans ‘reflect and reproduce dominant ways of thinking about the world’. Emily delivered an optimistic message that the existing system can be reformed and be made better through radical catalogers, sensitive to different ways of being and representing, through advocacy. It was a very inspiring session and opened my eyes to issues that I regretfully had not previously considered.
Although I thoroughly appreciated all the sessions that managed to attend at the FestivIL, my only complaint would be the same as the usual face-to-face LILAC conference, of having to decide the sessions to attend and which to jettison! Congratulations to the LILAC conference organisation team who delivered a fantastic jam packed programme and took advantage of the challenging shift online by utilising pre-recorded sessions and technology to assist delegate interaction. I do however, look forward to next year’s LILAC 2022 and experiencing the conference in person at Manchester Metropolitan University.
-Laura Barber, PhD student
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