Dear All,
Apologies for not getting back about this last week but user ed sessions got in my way (oh how ironic ;o)
We have just shy of 750 members on this list and I only had a few reservations stated to the proposed name change to lis-infoliteracy. Thus I am going to go with the majority rename the list this afternoon. Jiscmail warn that there may be a slight delay in the change taking place, but I hope that from tomorrow (wednesday 11th) it should be working on the new name. I'll send a test email out tomorrow to make sure. So please update your address books with the new name if need be.
The points raised were:
1) Possibility of increased traffic (with that not being completely relevant subject matter). This list is not over-busy usually and I don't envisage that it will become suddenly much busier. If people are unhappy with anything that gets posted - let me know and I'll do something about it.
2) This might add to the lack of distinction between information skills and teaching and the promotion of information literacy - although by increasing someone's information skills it should lead to that person becoming more information literate (I think I have that round the right way!), we should be wary of simply renaming skills-based training in this way. It was mooted that this could be the first topic up for discussion on the newly named list, so please feel free to debate at your leisure!
3) Information skills are more/wider than being information literate. The skills element includes evaluation of sources and using information for other purposes.
On a personal note: my opinion is that 'information skills' are the building blocks of 'information literacy' - mastering each 'skill' (be it understanding information need; knowing where to locate material; knowing how to interrogate a database; evaluating information for relevance to task etc) gives you an added layer of blocks on the way to becoming information literate, accepting that individuals will gain differing levels of ability for each skill and that you don't need to be 100% proficient in all of them to be considered information literate (to varying degrees). At least I think that's what I think!
I have changed the 'title' of the list to: "Information literacy and information skills teaching in FE and HE", so that's what people will see on the list page if they look at it. I have also changed the list 'description' to: "Lis-infoliteracy will provide a discussion forum for librarians and information professionals involved in information literacy and information skills teaching in Further and Higher Education in Britain. It will cover all delivery methods and issues concerning user education and explore the sharing of resources at a national level." However, I have failed to find where this actually sits within the public side of Jiscmail. I've even subscribed and unsubscribed myself to see if I could see it anywhere - and I can't! If anyone comes across it I'd love to know where it was. I'm hoping that these changes take account of the points raised above and help to point out that there is a difference between literacy and skills.
Best wishes and happy mailing,
Sue
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Sue Egleton
Learning Support Co-ordinator / Liaison Librarian (Meteorology & Psychology)
Reading University Library, Whiteknights, PO Box 223, Reading RG6 6AE
www.library.rdg.ac.uk 0118 378 8779
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