What is your role on Committee?
I am the sector rep for Further Education.
When did you join and why?
I joined the committee in summer 2013. I have been interested in information literacy for many years, firstly as subject librarian and then as a service manager. I was already a member of the CoLRic committee when I became FE rep on ILG. I joined the ILG committee for three reasons. I am passionate about information literacy and it is a key part of my work. I think it is important that there are good links between interested groups (e.g. ILG CoLRic and ARLG) and I want to promote the value of the IL work going on in Further Education. However, as well as promoting the librarian’s role, I believe we need to support, train, and work collaboratively with teachers as they increasingly teach these skills. That will influence classroom practice and reach far more students than we can do alone.
What do you do in your committee role?
It still feels like early days! I primarily keep committee informed about the FE sector and contribute an FE perspective to discussions. This year, I facilitated the networking of FE librarians at LILAC and wrote a sector profile for the IL website. I try and publicise relevant opportunities created by ILG, like the funded place at LILAC, the practice Awards, or research bursaries. I would like to see FE librarians organize more local sector teachmeets, so I am thinking about how this might be encouraged or supported.
What is your day job?
“Curriculum manager for Resource Based Learning” aka CM for RBL. I manage a team of facilitators who run weekly timetabled sessions for a wide range of classes. These include IL teaching and support for other study skills. I lead on the library service strategy for information literacy. Training teachers in the use of Turnitin, proved to be a good way of initiating discussion about how academic standards are applied across all levels. I am a visiting speaker on our teacher training course where I run a session on embedding IL in teaching practice. I also teach learners directly; academic writing to L4 (Foundation degrees or HNC) and Functional Skills English to a class of L2 engineers.
What are your other interests?
I try to do creative things to relax. For some time I was focused on bringing up a family so applied my creativity to baking and gardening. This year the youngest went off to Uni. Now I have time to do watercolour painting, and to go and see international films.