Earlier this year, Centre for Social Informatics (CSI) members Dr David Brazier and Marina Milosheva presented their work at the European Conference on Information Literacy 2021 (ECIL2021). The theme of the 2021 ECIL conference was ‘Information literacy in a post-truth era’, and delegates met virtually to consider the possibilities, challenges, and new frontiers for information literacy in light of the increasing prevalence of information overload and misinformation. The COVID-19 pandemic was also a focal point at the conference, and discussions revolved around the novel means by which information literacy education can reach learners during the pandemic (and beyond!).
On the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic and information literacy education, Dr David Brazier presented a poster entitled ‘Information literacy workshops: trials and tribulations of public engagement within a pandemic’. This report outlined the work completed by Dr David Brazier, Rachel Salzano, and Dr Bruce Ryan in 2020, which entailed the transformation of face-to-face information literacy workshops into an online format during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Information literacy practitioners looking to adapt the delivery of their information literacy initiatives are likely to find this presentation both useful and relevant, not the least because it comes with a series of video tutorials that can inform the design of future information literacy workshops (see a sample snippet here).
An abstract of this poster is available from the Edinburgh Napier repository.
A recording from ECIL 2021 is also available to watch here.
At ECIL 2021, Marina Milosheva also presented the latest output from her PhD work, which is co-authored with Prof Hazel Hall, Prof Peter Robertson, and Dr Peter Cruickshank. This is a paper entitled “New information literacy horizons: Making the case for career information literacy”. In it, Marina and colleagues provide an overview of workplace employability literacy and employability information literacy, whilst also suggesting that a third type of information literacy – career information literacy – merits special attention. As elaborated in more detail in this blog post, they define ‘career’ as a meaning-making device that interweaves work-related experiences into an on-going personal development project. In addition, they propose that career information literacy can prepare individuals to make better informed career decisions throughout the lifespan, and to build a career identity through career development learning.
A presentation recording from ECIL 2021 is also available to watch here.
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