Picture (CILIP, 2018) shows John, Guy Daines and Sandra Ward
CILIPS (CILIP Scotland) were saddened to learn of the passing of Dr John Crawford in February of this year. John was a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and a former CILIP Trustee. He worked in several library sectors including secondary and tertiary education and specialised in evaluation of library and information services, information literacy and library and information history. He authored over 100 academic articles and wrote several books, including one with Christine Irving on information literacy and lifelong learning.
John was also instrumental in being a Director of the Scottish Information Literacy Project,between 2004 and 2010 and this was the first project of its kind in the British Isles. It wasoriginally begun to research information literacy as a pedagogic skill, especially in relation to
the links between secondary and tertiary education but it soon expanded to include information literacy in the workplace, in individual health management and in the wider community. This led to the setup of Scotland’s Information Literacy Community of Practice,
still active today.
In retirement John continued to work on information literacy activities and resumed his interest in library and information history. He was also chairman of Leadhills Heritage Trust, working to reserve, conserve and promote the lead mining, local history and cultural heritage of the Leadhills area through collections in the Leadhills Miners’ Library, one of the oldest library buildings in Scotland.
The Information Literacy Group were also saddened to learn of the death of Dr John Crawford, who was a long-time friend of the committee, advising us in the early days of setting up the group, and serving on the committee, representing the Scottish Information Literacy Community of Practice.
In 2008 he gave a joint keynote with Dr Christine Irving at LILAC in Liverpool, discussing their work to create the National Information Literacy Framework in Scotland. His work on the importance of information literacy in the lifelong learning sector culminated in a book on this topic, published by Chandos in 2013. He understood the importance of information literacy as a public policy and political issue, and was influential in bringing it to the attention of policymakers and public agencies in Scotland. A frequent delegate at both LILAC and the European Conference on Information Literacy, committee members have fond memories of his gentleness, wit and wisdom.
