Trends in Education and Research: Developing Skills and Communication across Europe – UNICA Seminar 2006 Information Literacy Developments in Southern

Trends in Education and Research: Developing Skills and Communication across Europe – UNICA Seminar 2006

University of Helsinki, 18-19 May 2006

Cristóbal Pasadas UreñaUniversidad de Granada

[email protected]

Summary IL in the region 2003-2006 Situation of IL in Central and South East

European countries Recent developments, ongoing projects and

problems as prompted by Kaisa Sinikara IL developments worldwide between 2003

and 2006 Trends and strategic issues for the IL agenda

worldwide (IFLA Presidential Committee for the International Agenda on Lifelong Literacy)




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Situation ca 2003 S. Virkus’ headlines and conclusions:

IL as a development/departure from library / bibliographic / user instruction

Information overload + lifelonglearning as drivers Skill/competence debate not yet solved IL as a LIS issue; lack of awareness in other circles IL = information-related competencies

• Useful construct = umbrella term• Strategic goal: political, educational, work

environment, ... Standards (ACRL; CAUL): no easy transfer to other

contexts!




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Situation ca 2003 S. Virkus’ headlines and conclusions:

academic libraries and IL in Europe: Spain: optional and free configuration

credit courses; web pages and tutorials; some courses curriculum-integrated. No widespread understanding and use.

France: integration and adaptation of information components to disciplines

Italy: some activities, but no general awareness of IL issues




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Situation ca 2003

S. Virkus’ headlines and conclusions: ongoing projects and activities EDUCATE Into Info DEDICATE VERITY CHILIAS

IL groups and agencies: Spain: Alfincat: IL agenda France: URFIST, FORMIST




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S. Virkus’ overview (2003) Initiatives from formal education settings;

workplace and public libraries left behind HE initiatives: stand-alone courses, web-

based tutorials, course-related or –integrated instruction. Curriculum integration favoured

Faculty-librarian partnerships Little evidence of government commitment in

the IL Agenda Overwhelming evidence of government

commitment to [Information Society = ICT + IT only] (!!!)




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Kaisa’s prompts (2006) Success in integrating IL in academic

curricula Faculty awareness of opportunities in e-

libraries, IL and open access Library leadership and collaboration with

faculty Training the trainers Ongoing projects and activities Collaboration among academic libraries Main obstacles




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Main obstacles (Pejova) Lack of cooperation among professional

organizations Lack of articulated IL policies + programs Underdeveloped LIS systems and networks Expensive telecommunication infrastructure Shortage of LIS professionals trained in IL

issues and promotion Intimidated users not acquainted with issues

in information access and use




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Main obstacles (Pejova) Survey of IL in Slovenian academic libraries:

Lack of time, overburdened with work Lack of cooperation and support from

academic leaders and professors Lack of funding Lack of professional training staff with

pedadogical skills Lack of interest among students and teachers IL is being taking care of by others

Lack of commitment among University authorities




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What about Spain 2006 Lack of societal awareness/commitment on IL

and key competencies + qualifications issues Most LIS professionals unaware of IL issues Lack of cooperation and partnerships among

authorities / professions in provision of lifelong learning opportunities in all types of settings

Lack of training of LIS staff in lifelong learning issues for the whole population

Difficulties in the integration of IL in the curriculum

Lack of evaluation/accreditation of IL programmes and tools to assess achievement




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Curriculum Integration More and more included in France, Spain,

Italy Starting in Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia France, Spain: libraries with well established

tradition in user education + IL activities in partnerships with faculty more likely to be able to take the Bologna train!




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Faculty awareness France: starting slowly but surely. Same

question for librarians: ¿do they see the Bologna process as an opportunity?

Spain: difficult, but slowly. Strong position of University Libraries

(REBIUN) gained over the last 15 years Programs for innovation in teaching/learning:

many include partnerships with library staff Lack of review of IL issues in the evaluation of

Graduate programmes, Departments, etc.




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Collaboration with faculty France: hard; librarians try, but it works fine

only in a few places. IL not to succeed until faculty feel concerned + involved. It will take time

Cyprus: only a few professors understand the issues at stake. Need more marketing and promotion of IL among them

Anywhere: librarians to understand that most faculties do IL training without being aware and without overall planning. Librarians’ role: put the pieces together through analysis and proposals for sound planning




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Training the trainers France: initial training at ENSSIB (not

enough). Continuous training at regional level through URFIST/FORMIST

European proposals for curriculum reform in LIS education

Training of all professionals having to do with multiliteracies

Spain: Moodle course for LIS professionals and educators on IL issues and programmes (design phase)




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Ongoing projects and activities France:

Rencontres Formist; Referentiel EruDist; lots of courses for 1st. year students. FORMIST materials

Chevillotte’s blog (blogformist.enssib.fr) Spain:

IL plans following evaluation exercises and certification experiments in almost every University Library

On-line materials (e-COMS; Alfin EEES; Alfamed) Gómez Hernández’ blog (http://alfin.blogspirit.com)

Slovenia: ICPE’s activities (Pejova): proposal for an IL agenda at local/national level

Italy: see Carla Basili’s list of projects/initiatives




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Academic libraries partnerships URFIST/FORMIST as an example of

cooperation and coordination at regional/national level

FORMIST = learning objects database Joint strategy for all libraries:

CILIP-SCONUL IL joint venture as a recent example to be followed

ALFINred in Spain I Plan (2007-2011) Library and Documentation

Centers System in Andalusia




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Main challenges (Chevillotte) ECTS as opportunity to embed IL in the

curriculum Training of all first year students + going on

with training of more advanced students IL definition, standards, levels (IL paradigm) Strong professional associations to fight for IL

agenda Big gap among universities in IL provision IL as a team endeavour Assesssment of outcomes (SAILS, ETS,...)




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Main trends/needs (theory/practice) National standards and tools adaptables to

local circunstances (not reinventing the wheel)

Levels: assessment of achievement (SAILS), including information production according to disciplines

IL approaches in networks, not in isolation, local, regional, national, international: IL Fora to take care of IL developments




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Main trends/needs (theory/practice) Focus on 1st. year/cycle students Analysis of courses and programmes to discover IL

training practices of professors Successul libraries in meeting the Bologna

requirements have been engaged in IL programmes and awareness raising for quite a lot of time

IL as formally introduced in the teaching and learning programme at local level

Status of teachers/trainers: librarians recognised as faculty?. Clarification of roles, responsibilities: very important for the planning and delivery of training, levels to be achieved, assessment and certification.




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Main developments 2003-2006 Prague Declaration Alexandria proclamation IFLA Raseroka’s motto: Lifelong literacy WSIS Geneva-Tunis: contribution of libraries UNESCO IFAP includes IL as priority for all UN

agencies Developments in performance evaluation and

quality assurance in libraries: from input/process/output into outcomes/impact evaluation

Rising awareness about the education / information divide (not only “digital divide”)




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Main developments 2003-2006 DeSeCo framework of key competencies:

Using tools interactively: Using language, symbols, etc. Using knowledge and information Using technology

Constellation of competencies/literacies IL as key competence to be

measured/assessed internationally (DeSeCo framework + PISA, ALL)




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Issues in the international IL Agenda IFLA Presidential Committee’s Priorities (P)

and Strategic Actions (SA): P1: advocacy and awareness raising P2: fostering cooperation and collaboration of

all stakeholders in the lifelong learning agenda SA1: Framework and map of literacies SA2: Evidence of contribution of libraries SA3: Training of trainers SA4: Curricular framework for IL programs:

• Accreditation/Evaluation of programs• Assessment/Certification of achievements




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And my thanks go to...

The University of Helsinki (¡Gracias, Kaisa!)

UNICA’s crew Sylvie Chevillotte France), Carla Basili

(Italy), Zita Correia and Julio Anjos (Portugal), Georgia Roiduli and Agni Zioula (Greece), Andreas K. Andreu (Cyprus), Zdravka Pejova (Slovenia)

My ALFINred colleagues in Spain




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My sources IL in Europe, 2003, (ed. C. Basili) European approaches to IL (ed. S. Virkus), 2003,

Library Review, 52, 7 Virkus, IL in Europe: a literature review, 2003,

Information Research, 8 Pejova, 2006, Workshop on IL inititives for Central &

South East European Countries Chevillotte, 2005, Bibliothèques et IL: un état de l’art,

BBF, 50, 2 Stoll & Blin, 2005, Formation des usagers dans

l’enseignement supérieur, BBF, 50, 6 Pasadas & Gómez, 2006, ALFIN y bibliotecas: agenda

de desarrollo; Information Research, 11 (forthcoming)

Documents

Trends in Education and Research: Developing Skills and Communication across Europe – UNICA Seminar 2006 Information Literacy Developments in Southern