Geoff Walton, the CILIP Information Literacy Group’s LIS Representative, shares some news from recent events he has attended.
I have been talking about the new definition of information literacy with colleagues in the NHS and NETIKX (Stephane Goldstein also spoke at this event). The latter group is a network of colleagues who are “drawn from professionals in information, human resources, information technology, and business, representing organisations of all sizes in the private, public and voluntary sectors, and independent consultants.”
I was also invited by Global Education Editor of the Financial Times Andrew Jack to join a panel discussion held at the Festival of Higher Education on the ‘The threat of fake news’. I talked extensively about our ILG sponsored research on information discernment and the wider importance of information literacy as part of the solution in tackling this issue.
In other news…
The second CLIP LIS/iSchools Colloquium took place in Manchester at the CILIP annual conference. For me there were two main outcomes of relevance:
First, that we should have employers around the table too to close the loop between CILIP, LIS/iSchools and employers. There was one employer present in the form of CILIP President David Stewart. David talked about one LIS-employer collaboration that is currently coming to fruition. David, as Head of Library & Knowledge Services North has worked very closely with Geoff Walton of Manchester Metropolitan University to create a new module ‘Introduction to Health Librarianship’ which aims to introduce students to working in the health sector, including the issue of health literacy, with a focus on the NHS. There will be an extensive guest speaker programme generously provided by health information professionals working in the NHS. This is a great example of how a LIS/iSchool has responded to a direct needed as expressed by an employer.
Second, Shirley Yearwood-Jackman CILIP Trustee and BAME Steering Group Chair talked about the need for the profession to address the issue of diversity.