A report published yesterday highlights good practice examples designed to enhance the information literacy skills and know-how of postgraduate students and early career researchers in UK higher education. On behalf of the Research Information and Digital Literacies Coalition (RIDLs), the Research Information Network (RIN) and Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) have announced the results of this research, which showcases fifteen resources for information literacy training provision in a variety of UK higher education institutions.
The analysis draws from these cases, which provide a carefully-balanced range of online and in-house training resources, and incorporates various recommendations that may be of value to those planning to develop such resources. The analysis is founded on the provisional criteria developed by RIDLs to describe and assess training provision in information literacy.
Project officer Dr Charlie Inskip said:
“A number of self-selected information literacy resources have been evaluated, leading to a shortlisting of a selection of 15 good practice examples. This is not to say that every aspect of each of the shortlisted examples is perfect – this project is not about finding ‘the best’ information literacy resource – but the benefit of this selection is that those charged with developing resources to serve a similar need may efficiently access some examples – and ultimately, perhaps, that ‘good practice’ may become ‘common practice’.”
RIN’s Stéphane Goldstein went on to say:
“The value of the RIDLS criteria in this research has been to provide an analytical framework for such evaluations (for the researcher) and act as a reflective tool (for the developers/deliverers). Hopefully some of the recommendations and comments within the report, combined with a reflective look at the examples – and contact with their helpful representatives – may assist those attempting to deliver good practice information literacy in UK HE in 2013 and beyond.”
The full report and short list are now available on the project website, http://rilads.wordpress.com/
Thank you to all participants for supplying such detailed information on the resources in this study. Without this help this work would not have been possible.
Twitter: @RILADS