Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal June 2006 Volume 4(3)

Employability skills

The School Libraries Group (Scotland) ran a Training Day on Information Literacy recently Susan Appleby reports on how it updated librarians about current issues.

School librarians are at the forefront of teaching and reinforcing information skills across the curriculum, and in helping pupils to evaluate and use information effectively. However, we all know that knowledge is sometimes assumed, and that pupils’ skills sometimes stretch no further than cutting and pasting from Google into Word.

With this in mind, the aim for the Training Day was both to inform school librarians about current Information Literacy issues, and to provide some practical ideas for reinforcing information skills – a role which we think school librarians do well, but for which we are not always given credit.

As one delegate said, the day provided us with a lot of information to digest in a very short space of time. John Crawford (Library Research Officer, Glasgow Caledonian University) introduced research carried out to determine the link between secondary and tertiary information skills – or lack of them. Young people should be leaving school with the basic skills to find employment or further their studies. There seems, however, to be a huge discrepancy, especially at university level, between what is assumed and what students can actually do, particularly in terms of evaluative and critical thinking skills.

The emphasis at the end of the day is on employability – the latest buzzword. John has called for a strategy to link schools and colleges, and is at present in the process of lobbying the Scottish Parliament for Information Literacy to become a core element in Secondary School education.

Next came a session led by two North Lanarkshire school librarians, Katie McGivern and Catriona Wright, on co-operative learning. Some schools already operate this approach, but to others it was completely new. This session was very practical; everyone threw away any lurking inhibitions, had a bit of fun, and was determined to give it a go back at school. This comment summed up the feedback: “Fantastically well done – I must find out more, and I’m already planning ways I could use this type of learning activity.” Some delegates requested more information on the theory behind cooperative learning, as well as wanting details about further training.

A treat was in store from Amanda Minns, Literacy Development Officer, LTS, and former school librarian. She talked about the new Curriculum for Excellence. This presentation hit the spot. The general feeling was that it was “good to hear about Curriculum for Excellence from someone in the know” – especially when that person has a background in school librarianship. “Librarians need to get in on the ground floor”, but we can only do that if we know what is being planned, and if we are included in the planning from the beginning. Amanda promised to feed back our comments directly to the ACE team, and to advocate that the key role of the school librarian be clearly acknowledged, and written into the final document.

The fourth session generated much positive feedback. We had invited Sarah Pavey from Epsom College, and she spoke to us about some of the issues surrounding teachers trying to operate in the unfamiliar environment of the library, and of not always recognising the role that the librarian can play as an educator. Much of their emphasis tends to be on searching for information rather than how to use that information effectively. Sarah provided us with a range of “simple, practical and achievable ideas” for enquiry-based research projects, as well as a library computer game. These are designed to allow us as professional colleagues to work collaboratively with teaching staff, as well as pupils

We included time for evaluation at the end of the day. Rather than requesting a dry assessment of the day’s events, we instead gave our delegates some time out to reflect on what had been most relevant to them personally, bearing in mind that we often come away from conferences buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm but then have little time back at the ranch to assimilate properly what has been learnt. This in itself is an example of Information Literacy – taking notes, assessing what information is most relevant, and synthesizing how you are going to use it. We also invited feedback for the day, and were inundated with fluorescent post-it notes on posters specific to each part of the day.

As a Committee, we were pleased with how the day unfolded. Feedback indicates that, in general, the day was well organised, well-balanced and well received. Comments included: “Good mix of items – all very relevant” and “a very enjoyable and useful day”.

Susan Appleby is School Librarian at Nairn Academy. She is a member of the SLG committee.

Information Scotland Vol. 4(3) June 2006

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.