Information for Learning: symposium recording

 

The symposium Information for Learning was a long time in the making. As it turned out, it was worth waiting for this thought-provoking event. The symposium was organised and then postponed due to the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, to be offered in a refreshed form online in 2021. In the meantime, the use of information for all types of learning has become more relevant than ever. The Organising Committee was pleased to present an exciting program, addressing some perennial and current issues. The event, however, exceeded our expectations. It was free of technical glitches, well-attended and our excellent presenters kept the audience engaged throughout the day. 

We know that many people were disappointed that they could not attend and asked us about a recording. We are pleased to offer now a recording of the presentations. Although we can't offer a recording of discussions during Q&A sessions, our Twitter feed gives a sense of unfolding conversations.

You will find a recording of all the presentations on the link below. Please see the symposium program for abstracts and presenters' biographical notes

ALL SYMPOSIUM RECORDINGS 

KEYNOTE INSIGHTS

Dr Tanya Notley - Young Australians’ socially-mediated news engagement: exploring the implications for civic engagement

Professor Emerita Margy MacMillan - News and the American college student: Translating research in news literacy into developing student agency

PAPER SESSION 1: COMMUNITY

Dr Yazdan Mansourian - ‘I’m learning new things, and it brings up new things’: Information seeking for informal lifelong learning as a serious leisure

Ms Kate Rowe - Digital literacy in the community and the role of libraries

PAPER SESSION 2: HEALTH

Dr Suzana Sukovic and Ms Jamaica Eisner - ‘Just the way my brain works’: exploring capabilities for data use in the health workplace

Dr Yulia Uliannikova and Mr Edward Luca -Developing a staff mentoring program for systematic reviews

PANEL

Library clients as learners: What do libraries need to know?
Each speaker started with an opening statement followed by discussion
Mr Nathan Sentance (First Nations perspective)
Ms Oriana Acevedo (Multilinguistic and multicultural library users)
Dr Danny Liu (Learning analytics)

The Organising Committee thanks our presenters for their time and effort, and to the audience for contributing to a great day of learning and professional conversations. 

LARK's Treasurer: expressions of interest

 

Do you want to engage with an active ALIA group? Do you want to keep in touch with research in practice? Can you manage some financial tasks? If your answer is 'yes', the role of LARK's Treasurer is for you.

The Treasurer is responsible for Group’s financial administration and serves as the point of contact for financial matters. 

The Treasurer is responsible for

·      providing individual event budget and the annual budget

·      banking cash received

·      forwarding cheques or credit card payments to be processed

·      approving Group’s expenditure and serving as one of the two signatories           necessary for Group expenditure.

This is not as daunting as it sounds. Most of our events are free and our finance is pretty simple. The LARK Chair will work with you and help is also available from the ALIA House finance team. 

Please get in touch if you have any questions and send us your expression of interest by email.

Contact: Suzana Sukovic 

Email: lark.kollektive(at)gmail.com 

Twitter: @suzanasukovic

Image source: https://www.worldcc.com/Learn

Information for Learning: Meet our panelists

Library clients as learners - What do libraries need to know?

Mr Nathan Sentance (Australian Museum), Ms Oriana Ocevedo (State Library NSW) and Dr Danny Liu (The University of Sydney)

LARK is delighted to present a panel session with three experts who will present their perspective on library clients as learners. The panel will address which types of information libraries have, or need to have, to support different types of learning and knowledge in their diverse communities. This panel will start a conversation by introducing a First Nations perspective and a point of view from a librarian who supports culturally and linguistically diverse people. Also, what can we learn from data? What are the possible uses for, and blind spots of, learning analytics? What can the library and information profession learn from other fields?

What are you going to ask our panelists? See our symposium page to reserve your place. Registrations close on 6 April 12 pm AEST.

About the panelists

Oriana Acevedo works at the State Library of New South Wales (NSW). In her role as the Multicultural Consultant for Public Libraries, she provides advice and supports the development of multicultural library services within the State Library and NSW public libraries. She represents the State Library in government and non-government organisations for the advancement, participation and settlement of migrants and refugees in NSW. Oriana manages the Multicultural Cooperative that assists public libraries with the acquisition of materials in languages other than English (LOTE) and also manages the State Library’s bulk loans services that provides contemporary lending collections in 43 languages.

Danny Liu is currently an Associate Professor in the DVC (Education) Portfolio at the University of Sydney. Danny is a molecular biologist by training, programmer by night, researcher and academic developer by day, and educator at heart. He works at the confluence of educational technology, student engagement, learning analytics/educational data science, pedagogical research, organisational leadership, and professional development. His work in educational innovation has been recognised through a number of national and international awards.

Nathan Sentance is currently a project officer in at the Australian Museum working on cultural programs with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focus. Nathan's main work focus is ensuring Indigenous perspectives and voices are part of the cultural and historical narrative that GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) institutions collect and convey as well as working on accessibility to information held in institutions to Aboriginal communities. Nathan was the recipient of the Loris Williams Memorial Scholarship 2015. He is also the current secretary of Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Issues Special Interest Group (ATSI SIG).

Information for Learning: Health

Health workers are lifelong learners. It has rarely been so apparent as during the COVID pandemic. Health systems are complex and need to work in unison to deliver critical care.  Librarians and information professionals are part of this system, providing essential support for learning in health. 

LARK is pleased to announce two presentations on much needed practice-based research related to the provision of learning support in health. What are the essential data skills and learning needs of non-clinical staff? How can information professionals contribute to and enhance systematic review in health? Do interdisciplinary connections enhance learning and practice in health? Answers to these questions are highly relevant to educators and information professionals in other sectors. 

Join the Information for Learning, online symposium, on 9 April to hear from our speakers and participate in thought-provoking conversations.

Suzana Sukovic

Jamaica Eisner

‘Just the way my brain works’: exploring capabilities for data use in the health workplace

Dr Suzana Sukovic (PLC Sydney) and Ms Jamaica Eisner (Deloitte Digital Australia)

Health organisations employ a considerable workforce in non-clinical roles, which are essential for the functioning of health systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of data-gathering, sharing and communication within health service, and across society. A substantial part of this work is performed by non-clinical staff. A research group at the Health Education and Training Institute (HETI), NSW Health, conducted a study aiming to understand issues of data-use in non-clinical work roles. The study used qualitative and quantitative data-gathering methods to explore the complexity of interactions with data in the workplace. In this presentation, we focus on findings related to data capabilities and support for learning about data. We discuss data and general capabilities, which are often combined with personal traits to enable effective data use in context. Participants discussed and self-assessed a range of skills, identifying their skill gaps and preferred modes of learning. The study findings point towards a need for a holistic approach to data-related workplace learning and information provision. Decisions about training and improvements of work with data need to consider organisational practices, cultures and a range of soft and transferable skills. Study findings have implications for formal education and are applicable in other workplace settings. 

Bio notes

Suzana Sukovic (PhD, MA, BAHons) is the Director of Research and Library Services at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College Sydney. Suzana has spent most of her career in education, including secondary, tertiary and workplace education, where she worked in a number of professional, teaching and research roles. Suzana has published papers on issues related to learning and knowledge creation, and on innovation and creativity in knowledge organisations. She also has a long-standing interest and expertise in conducting and promoting research in practice. Suzana combined insights from her academic and practice-based research and experience to publish the first book on transliteracy, Transliteracy in complex information environments. Her current professional interests relate to teenagers’ learning and information behaviours. Her research interests are in the areas of boundary crossing, transliteracy and capability development for lifelong learning. @suzanasukovic on Twitter.

Jamaica Eisner is a content strategist working as a consultant in the Deloitte Digital Sydney practice. She has experience working across government, health, higher education, telecommunications and financial services. Specialist skills include research (qualitative, user research, and socio-cultural), publication (print & digital), web design, and content and communication strategies (e.g. transformational).

Yulia Ulyannikova

Developing a staff mentoring program for systematic reviews

Dr Yulia Ulyannikova and Mr Edward Luca (The University of Sydney Library)

 Systematic review support is a key service to support researchers in medicine and health at the University of Sydney Library. To respond to growing demand in a range of subject areas, including business and education, the library team implemented a staff development mentoring program as part of the service design process. The program paired staff members from other disciplines, mentees, with experienced staff members from the medicine and health team, who acted as mentors, to facilitate workplace learning. The program was preceded by workshops with experienced librarians, who shared insights into their understanding of teaching the systematic review process with the aim of arriving at a shared understanding of the practice. The workshops resulted in the development of a ‘systematic review checklist’ of competencies, which was used as a training tool and rubric during the mentoring process. In our presentation we will share lessons learned from the program, and discuss how it contributed to our understanding of facilitating workplace learning. This presentation will have relevance for anyone interested in workplace learning and on-the-job training, regardless of the type of service.

Edward Luca

Bio notes

Yulia Ulyannikova has been supporting Medicine and Health disciplines at the University of Sydney Library for the past five years. Her special interests are systematic review support and service improvement with an emphasis on education and mentorship. She holds a Doctoral Degree in History from The University of Melbourne, a Master’s Degree in Information Management from RMIT, and a Graduate Diploma in Higher Education from the University of Sydney.

Edward Luca is a library practitioner and researcher. He is currently Manager of Academic Services (Medicine and Health) at the University of Sydney Library. Edward writes and speaks on topics including design thinking, academic librarianship and scholarly publishing. He is also undertaking his PhD in the discipline of Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney Business School. @edwardluca on Twitter.

Information for Learning: Community

Information is at the heart of our individual and collective learning experiences. As educators we look to research studies to enhance our understanding of information environments and help improve how we best support our students’ and citizens’ information skills.

The LARK Information for Learning Symposium (9 April online) is proud to host a number of speakers at the cutting edge of information studies and research to support LIS educators. The morning paper session provides us with an opportunity to hear from two researchers studying how information and digital habits and skills impact lifelong learning and literacies. Learning from these studies will assist libraries and librarians critically engaging with the information and digital literacy needs of our communities.

Please join us at #LARK2021 and welcome our first two paper sessions:

"I’m learning new things, and it brings up new things”: Information seeking for informal lifelong learning as a serious leisure
Dr Yazdan Mansourian (Charles Sturt University)

This paper presents selective findings of a research project about information behaviour in the context of serious leisure. Serious leisure includes a wide range of hobbies, amateurism and volunteer activities that people choose to do in their free time with a high level of passion and commitment during a long period (Stebbins, 1982). For example, gourmet cooking, food blogging, amateur photography, birdwatching, gardening, ultra-running, genealogy, liberal arts and lifelong learning are among serious leisure activities. Serious leisure is different from other kinds of leisure, such as casual and occasional leisure. It requires specific skills and knowledge and usually helps the participants form a new identity around their chosen activity. As a result, it entails a continuous pursuit of knowledge and involves various information actions including information seeking, searching, browsing, retrieving, saving, organising, sharing, evaluating, using and producing. At the same time, all these actions are embedded in an ongoing lifelong learning process.

This project has a qualitative approach using a semi-structured interview as its data collection tool and thematic analysis as its data analysis method. The results show serious leisure participants are involved in a long term learning journey with a high level of dedication and enthusiasm. However, they usually learn through informal settings such as joining clubs, exploring social media and attending informal gatherings. Moreover, most of them are passionate readers and friends of libraries. 

This paper concludes serious leisure participants are typically serious learners and have constant interaction with information resources. Their information behaviour is mainly purposeful. They seek information and look for new meanings for life and are enthusiastic about learning new skills in their chosen field.

References

Stebbins, R. A. (1982). Serious leisure: A conceptual statement. Pacific Sociological Review, 25, 251-272.

Bio note

Yazdan Mansourian is a lecturer in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University in Australia. He received his PhD in Information Science from The University of Sheffield in November 2006. His thesis's title is Information Visibility on the Web and Conceptions of Success and Failure in Web Searching. Yazdan has a MA in LIS from the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and a BSc in agricultural engineering from Guilan University. From January 2007 to June 2017 he was afaculty member at Kharazmi University. Yazdan joined CSU in August 2017, and his main research interest is human information behaviour in serious leisure. He explores the role of joy in engaging people with hobbies, amateurism and volunteer activities and how joyful experiences inspire the participants to seek, share and use information.

https://arts-ed.csu.edu.au/schools/sis/staff/profiles/lecturers/yazdan-mansourian

Digital literacy in the community and the role of libraries

Ms Kate Rowe (Doctoral student, Charles Sturt University)

After having an interest in lifelong learning and the role of libraries since I began working in libraries almost twenty years ago, in 2019 I undertook a research project with Charles Sturt University on how the community experiences digital literacy and the role of libraries in supporting the community’s digital literacy capabilities. 

Digital literacies are those capabilities that fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society. Digital literacy is the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate and create information safely and appropriately through digital devices and networked technologies for participation in economic and social life. It includes competencies that are variously referred to as computer literacy, ICT literacy, information literacy, and media literacy (UNESCO, 2018 p. 6).

The aim of my research project was to meet with volunteer participants from both the community and public library staff, from different locations throughout Queensland, to gain an understanding of how the community experiences digital literacy in their everyday lives, the challenges or opportunities they saw in an ever changing digital world and how libraries were supporting the community to build their digital capabilities. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with six community participants and four public library staff from the capital city area of Brisbane and rural and regional Queensland. Interviews questions were guided by Jisc’s 6 elements of digital capability: ICT proficiency and productivity; Information, data and media literacies; Digital creation, problem solving and innovation; Digital communication, collaboration and participation; Digital learning and development; and Digital identity and wellbeing (Jisc, 2017). The Jisc Framework was selected as it specifically included the digital capability of digital learning and development, which is not included in other frameworks for digital competent citizens, such as the European Union’s Digital Competence Framework 2.0 DigComp 2.0 (EU, 2019).

Using a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore both the community and library staff participant’s thoughts, feelings and lived experience of digital literacy provided rich authentic data with thick descriptions in the voice of the participants on how they experience digital literacy. Findings from this research project were consistent with the findings of research conducted by the Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII, 2015), which found there were significant gaps between those who are digitally included and those who face obstacles including digital affordability, accessibility and ability. Digital inclusion is influenced by differences in income, age, education levels, employment and geography and this was consistent with the findings of this research project. The research also found that the role of libraries was vital for assisting the community to access and develop their digital skills, especially for those who were the least digitally included.

This research project was approved by CSU’s Ethics Committee (Ethics Approval No H19194).

References:

ADII. (2015). Australian digital inclusion index: Discussion paper. Retrieved from https://digitalinclusionindex.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/ADII_DiscussionPaper-Sep15_webV2.pdf

European Union. (2019) The Digital Competence Framework 2.0. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/digcomp/digital-competence-framework

Jisc. (2017). Building digital capabilities: The six elements defined. Retrieved fromhttp://repository.jisc.ac.uk/6611/1/JFL0066F_DIGIGAP_MOD_IND_FRAME.PDF 

UNESCO. (2018). Global framework of reference on digital literacy skills for indicator 4.4.2. Retrieved from http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/ip51-global-framework-reference-digital-literacy-skills-2018-en.pdf

Bio note

Kate Rowe is a researcher practitioner who has worked as a librarian in academic, TAFE, public libraries and in schools for almost twenty years. Throughout her career Kate has had a passion for lifelong learning, information and digital literacy, digital inclusion and the digital divide. Kate is currently a PhD student at Charles Sturt University. She has a Master of Education (QUT) and a Master of Information Management (QUT).

Meet 'Keynote Insights' speakers, Margy MacMillan & Tanya Notley

Click on image for details

Information, disinformation, and misinformation spread on social media within hours, if not minutes. The first year of the pandemic amplified what was already there as the world intensified its digital life. In the process, questions about the way we engage with avalanches of information and online stories became more pressing than ever. The exposure of young people to the astonishing amount and range of information has become a priority issue.

LARK is delighted to provide an opportunity to discuss these pressing issues with two experts in the fields of information and media. Professor Emerita Margy MacMillan and Dr Tanya Notley bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to consider questions about information and media, and provide some answers. Both have conducted a series of research studies involving children, teenagers and university students, and provided resources to inform educational practice. Keynote Insights at LARK’s symposium will be an opportunity to hear about their insights and engage in a discussion about the issues.

LARK would also like to use the opportunity to congratulate Margy MacMillan and the team working on the Project Information Literacy on the most recent award. ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association) announced yesterday that the IS Ilene F. Rockman Instruction Publication of the Year Award was granted to ‘Alison J. Head, Barbara Fister, and Margy MacMillan for their report “Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms: Student Experiences with News and Information, and the Need for Change,” published in 2020 by the Project Information Literacy Research Institute’. Congratulations on a well-deserved recognition! 

We can’t wait to hear about our presenters’ insights and comparisons of findings from two continents. 

News and the American college student: Translating research in news literacy into developing student agency

Professor Emerita Margy Macmillan 

Project Information Literacy (PIL) has studied the academic, professional, and personal information practices of American postsecondary students for over a decade. In 2017, we turned our attention to news literacy, surveying nearly 6,000 students from 11 U.S. colleges and universities. Challenging the myth of “apathetic youth”, the overwhelming majority engaged with multiple news sources daily to keep up with the world around them. For them, news was a form of social capital and being able to participate in peer discussions was worth the extra time and effort required to monitor, find, verify (sometimes), and share news with others. There was a marked contrast, however, between the high value students placed on news and the low status many professors accorded it. Students clearly used different sources of news for their academic and personal needs, and their comments revealed a range of news literacy strategies but very little formal instruction. While many faculty may be comfortable discussing the merits of peer-reviewed articles, we suspect fewer are familiar with the construction of news and its audiences.  Building on empirical results from our news study, we wrote up our recent study of COVID news coverage in the U.S. In turning news about the pandemic into a subject of study, we hoped to scaffold teaching a deeper engagement with news across disciplines. Building students’ agency in asking deeper questions about the news is critical to developing more discerning information habits they can apply across their academic and personal lives.

Margy Macmillan is a Professor Emerita at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada, and Senior Researcher for Project Information Literacy (PIL). She worked in academic libraries for thirty years, and conducted research in information literacy and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (IL) before joining PIL in 2017, where she has collaborated on three recent studies: ‘How Students Engage with News’ (2018), ‘Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms’ (2020), and ‘Covid-19: The first 100 days of U.S. news coverage’(2020). Working at PIL with a phenomenal multidisciplinary team, has provided the opportunity to participate in projects that span institutions and explore beyond higher education into societal aspects of information literacy. Since 2009, PIL has conducted 12 major studies based on interview and survey data from more than 21,000 students at 93 U.S. colleges and universities. 

Young Australians’ socially-mediated news engagement: exploring the implications for civic engagement

Dr Tanya Notley 

In a series of research projects I have examined the news practices and experiences a young Australian’s aged 8-16 years as well as their aspirations for change. One of the key findings from this research is that young people’s news consumption has become far more socially-mediated – that is, it is obtained more often through someone they know, or through social media. In this talk I argue that young people’s socially-mediated news engagement has contributed to a more expansive understanding of what constitutes news when compared with previous generations, and this is likely to be altering young people’s expectations of news and their trust in news media, while also challenging the historic relationship that has existed between news consumption and civic engagement. I argue that we need to stop assuming that young people’s news practices will change when they become adults and rather than telling young people what news sources they should rely on, educators can focus on supporting young people to critically analyse and engage with whatever news they encounter, regardless of the context. By meeting young people where they are at, media and information literacy education can be used to expand the civic engagement benefits and opportunities that are provided by their socially-mediated news engagement.

Tanya Notley is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and a member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Tanya is currently a researcher on a number of media literacy and digital inclusion projects and she has published widely on these topics. In 2017-2020 she led the Advancing the News Media Literacy of Young Australians project. She also has extensive industry experience working in the areas of media literacy, human rights and social justice and she continues to collaborate with organisations working to address these needs. Tanya is the Deputy Chair of the Australian Media Literacy Alliance (AMLA).

Dr Suzana Sukovic for the Organising Committee

LARK Symposium 2021

LARK is delighted to announce the online symposium Information for Learning. Most of the program was prepared last year, just before lockdown. But, as it turned out, it is even more relevant now when information, misinformation and learning in all its forms are ongoing foci of attention. With the program encompassing different approaches to the topic, we believe there is something for everyone interested in developments on the intersection between information and learning.

See details on our Symposium page.