Presentation given at Charles University in Prague in September 2014 for the IVIG Seminar (information literacy)

1. Developing information literate
researchers at LSE: the jewels in
our crown
Dr Jane Secker, London School of Economics and
Political Science
IVIG Seminar, Prague, 25th September 2014
Image: ‘Crown’ by Jason Train, CC BY-NC 2.0

2. Today’s talk…….
 What IS information literacy and how does it
improve the experience of PhD students?
 What is the librarian’s role?
 Supporting research students
at LSE

3. What IS information literacy?
How does it improve the research students experience?

4. Information literacy is complex

5. Why does IL matter for PhD students?
Photo by Flickingerbrad licensed under Creative Commons Photo by starmanseries licensed under Creative Commons

7. A New Curriculum for Information Literacy
(ANCIL) – Jane Secker and Emma Coonan
Research to develop a new, revolutionary
curriculum for information literacy in a digital age
 Understand the needs of undergraduates entering HE over
the coming 5 years
 Map the current landscape of information literacy
 Develop a practical curriculum and supporting resources
 Find out more: http://newcurriculum.wordpress.com

9. ANCIL in practice
Careers
Language Centre
Teaching & Learning Centre
Language Centre
LSE100
Departments
Library
Library
Library Library
Departments
LSE100
Library
Centre for Learning
Technology
Teaching & Learning
Centre
Departments
Language Centre
Library
Teaching & Learning Centre
Departments
Language Centre
Language Centre
Teaching & Learning Centre
Careers
Departments
LSE100
Secker & Coonan (2011)

10. newcurriculum.wordpress.com/using-ancil/

11. What is the librarian’s role?
Teacher, guide and collaborator

12. Image credit: Gungahlin Public Library
Image © Gungahlin Public Library
(reproduced by permission of Libraries ACT)
(reproduced by permission of Libraries ACT)

13. Image credit: Gungahlin Public Library
Image © Gungahlin Public Library
(reproduced by permission of Libraries ACT)
(reproduced by permission of Libraries ACT)

14. Challenging perceptions ….
“… if the teachers, whether they’re school
or university teachers, don’t have the same
view of IL that we do, it’s always going to
be [about] the skills. And the skills are fine
but anybody can teach the skills; it’s
teaching the changing attitude and the
different approach that I think has to
come from the teachers.”
(ANCIL Expert Consultation Report, 2011)

15. Joining up support

16. Supporting research students at
LSE
Examples of digital and information literacy in practice

17. Supporting research students at LSE
 Support available from a range
of services and academic
departments at LSE
 Library and Learning
Technology and Innovation
(LTI) run termly workshops
 MY592: Information Literacy
tools for research
 PGCert (teaching course) for all
research students who teach
 Compulsory e-submission of
PhD theses in LSE Thesis Online
Image cc from http://www.flickr.com/photos/notkaiho/5716096442/

18. Digital Literacy workshops
 Use the term ‘digital literacy’ for
staff and research students
 Optional workshops run each term
taught by librarians and LTI
 Cover using new technologies to
support teaching and research
 Literature searching
 Using social media (social networking,
social bookmarking, twitter, blogging)
 Advanced internet searching
 Keeping up to date
 Managing your web presence
 Hands-on practical sessions
 Online support in Moodle

19. Researcher Development programme
 Expanding programme of
workshops run each term
 Focused on PhD students,
research staff, post-docs etc.
 Topics cover:
 Copyright for researchers
 Data Protection and Freedom of
Information issues
 Creating Poster Presentations
 Bibliometrics and citation analysis
 Taught by Library and LTI staff

20. MY592: workshop on information literacy
 Information and digital literacy non-credit bearing
course comprising of six 2 hour workshops
 Aimed primarily at new PhD students
 Builds up skills over course
 Specialist advice and support from academic support
librarians
 Taught by LTI / Library staff
 Supported online in Moodle

21. The curriculum
 Week 1: Introduction and undertaking a
literature search
 Week 2: Using the internet for your
research
 Week 3: Managing information:
Endnote, Zotero, Mendeley
 Week 4: Finding theses, conference
papers & specialist research materials
 Week 5: Dealing with Data, news,
archives and official publications
 Week 6: Next steps, sharing your
research and building a network

22. The approach
 Team teaching, with consistency from week to week to
build up a rapport with students
 Active learning and opportunities for reflection
throughout the course
 Tailored to allow students to find literature relevant to
their research topic
 Pre and post course survey to evaluate effectiveness
 Personalised support from academic support librarians
 Cross-disciplinary - but have also organised shorter
programmes for specific departments

23. Feedback and evaluation
 Regularly collect feedback via course evaluation forms for workshops
 Feedback highly positive but only tells us about the people who attend
 Non-attendance levels relatively high (up to 50% in some cases)
 Introduce new courses and review programmes each term
 LTI now collect data on the impact of training 3 months after workshops
 MY592 collect pre and post evaluation data on students’ confidence
finding and evaluating sources
 Feedback is highly popular
 Compulsory now in some departments and highly recommended by some
supervisors
 More qualitative students attend
 Student confidence increases after course but can makes students more
aware of what they didn’t know!

24. Information literacy and research students
 Don’t make assumptions about IL levels
 Gather evidence / survey incoming students
 One size doesn’t fit all – customise support (1-2-1
Research Consultations)
 New researchers will always need orientation to your
institution, your systems and procedures
 Generic sessions provide an opportunity for PhD
students to network, discuss their research, compare
their approaches with people outside their department
 Researchers may be moving into a different discipline –
so rules of the game have changed

25. The benefits of the informed researcher
 No one wants un-informed research
or ‘bad science’
 Many PhD students go on to become
academics so ensuring they are
information literate is vital !
 Supporting PhD students leads to
teaching opportunities at other
levels – “this course was great - can
you teach my undergraduates?”
 Promotes the positive association
with librarians - PhD students can
become our greatest advocates

26. The Jewels in our Crown
 Universities and society need high quality research,
informed by evidence, therefore we need researchers
who can cope with huge amounts of data and
information, to find the hidden ‘gems’, make new links,
develop new theories and create new knowledge.

27. Thank you for listening / děkuji !
j.secker@lse.ac.uk / @jsecker
http://newcurriculum.wordpress.com

28. Further Reading
Bell, Maria, Moon, Darren and Secker, Jane (2012) Undergraduate
support at LSE: the ANCIL report. The London School of Economics
and Political Science, London, UK. Available at:
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/48058/
Secker, Jane (2012) Digital literacy support for researchers: the
personalised approach. In: Priestner, Andy and Tilley, Elizabeth, (eds.)
Personalising Library Services in Higher Education: the Boutique
Approach. Ashgate, Farnham, UK, pp. 107-125. Available at:
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/45810/
Secker, Jane and Coonan, Emma (2012) Rethinking Information
Literacy: a practical framework for learning. Facet Publishing: London.
Secker, Jane and Coonan, Emma (2011) A new curriculum for
information literacy: curriculum and supporting documents. Arcadia
Programme, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK. Available
at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/37679/
Secker, Jane and Macrae-Gibson, Rowena (2011) Evaluating MI512:
an information literacy course for PhD students. Library Review, 60 (2).
pp. 96-107. Available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/32975/