Useful resources for student training and orientation
1. Useful Resources for Training and Student Inductions.
Recommended Information/literacy skills tutorials
NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Library Edition http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-
nmc-horizon-report-library-EN.pdf
a collaboration between the New Media Consortium
(NMC), University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Chur, Technische
Informationsbibliothek (TIB) Hannover, and ETH-Bibliothek
Zurich. They have done this for HE for quite a while but this is a specific
academic library orientated venture. They identify key and emerging trends
over new few years. These are useful background information on the types of
learning materials that may be required in the future. Examples taken from
USA and some from UK and Europe.gives lots of examples and suggestions
for further reading.
East Midlands Research Support Group
http://cuba.coventry.ac.uk/emrsg/units/
Online tutorial designed for early career researchers. Include disseminating
research The units include journals and journal articles; journal bibliometrics,
author bibliometrics; networking.) The partners in developing the module were
the universities of Loughborough, Nottingham, De Montfort, and Coventry.
University of Sydney, Australia
http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/skills/
This has an excellent iResearch tool page
http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/elearning/index.html
Which contains fun interactive modules with quizzes and activities that can be
played by students online. Alternatively print off the modules. These give
the learning objectives plus the information. There is some emphasis
upon locating g specifically Australian information. However, there are
some good general topics which include: scholarly versus non-scholarly
resources, avoiding plagiarism and an entertaining find that cheese
game which teaches students to find items on their reading list!
http://sydney.edu.au/library/elearning/learn/readinglist/gamefindtha
tcheese/index.php
University of Newcastle, Australia
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/Resources/Divisions/Academic/Library/informati
on-skills/infoskills/index.html
The InfoSkills information literacy and academic integrity tutorial has 5
modules.
1 Planning for research (List strategies for getting started )
2 Finding Information (Use Library catalogues to find resources, select
Library databases to find journal articles, Identify effective search
techniques, describe the characteristics of Internet search engines)
2. 3 Evaluating Information
4 Writing and Plagiarism (Identify strategies for good academic practice
in writing, e.g. note taking, acknowledging sources, techniques for
managing and compiling reference lists and bibliographies.)
5 Using information ethically (Use information appropriately without
breaching copyright, censorship and freedom of speech issues, use of
inclusive language
University of Leeds, United Kingdom
http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/.
The general skills section has some useful links relating to academic reading
and note taking skills. http://library.leeds.ac.uk/skills-readingThere is also a
maths section http://library.leeds.ac.uk/skills-improve-your-maths
The researchers section http://library.leeds.ac.uk/researcher has sections on
planning your research, finding asnd managing information, publication and
impact.
The Final Chapter: the undergraduate research project guide
http://library.leeds.ac.uk/tutorials/thefinalchapter/ is designed to
help with final-year research projects. Topics covered include "planning
and preparing your project", "doing a literature review" and "critical
thinking and evaluation". The resource contains videos of Leeds staff
and students talking about final-year projects, including their top tips for
success.
Open University
The Open University Information Literacy Unit has developed a Digital and
Information Literacy Framework. It identifies five skill areas: Understand and
engage in digital practices; Find information; Critically evaluate information,
online interactions and online tools; Manage and communicate information;
and Collaborate and share digital content. It also looks at these skills across 5
levels of study (0, 1, 2, 3 and Masters). There is a companion website with
short activities to address the various skills: Being Digital at
http://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/beingdigital/. This includes a self-assessment
checklist
Safari
http://www.open.ac.uk/safari/
Safari is intended for beginners. It is divided into seven sections, each
covering a particular aspect of information skills: Understanding information
(helps the user identify different types and what they might need for study);
Unpacking information (understanding where information comes from, who
disseminates it and different types); Planning a search ; Searching ( searching
on the web, techniques such as phrase searching) Evaluating research
results; Organising information (social bookmarking, compiling bibliographies);
Where do I go from here (publishing and disseminating , keeping up to date
3. They also produce the Information Skills for Researchers
http://www.open.ac.uk/infoskills-researchers/information-introduction.htmTo
support OU postgraduate students. Includes sections with advice on literature
searching, writing and referencing.
SMILE 3.0
http://dspace.jorum.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/10949/17574
SMILE is an information literacy and employability skills training package.
Developed by Glasgow Caledonian University; Marion Kelt; Imperial
College; Loughborough University; Worcester University It is made up of
HTML pages and multimedia content. It is offered free as a zip file via the
deposiotory Jorum for downloading and editing to suit local use. It is generic
so can be used to support all subjects. There is also a mobile version
developed this year which is called SMERK
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/SMIRK/Start.html
Writing Resources.
http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/writing/index.cfm
A series of resources from the Royal Literary fund. They include
Essay Writing: a Guide for Undergraduates a comprehensive guide to essay
writing, written for students by Dr David Kennedy. Topics covered include
understanding the question, literature searching and drafting essays.
Mission Possible: the Study Skills Pack is a range of study skills materials
developed for students, tutors and teachers by Mario Petrucci.
Includes basic study skills techniques, presentation skills, writing skills.
Writing Dissertations: a Guide for Graduates gives support and guidance on
the process of writing a dissertation or thesis. It was developed by Andrew
Ward and Peter Wood. Covers literature reviews, revising editing. Also
section on for students where English is a second Language.
Guide to Undergraduate Dissertations in the social Sciences
http://www.socscidiss.bham.ac.uk/
Site oroginally developed by This site was developed in 2005 by the Centre
for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics (C-SAP), the Centre for Social Work
and Policy (SWAP), and the Learning and Teaching Institute (LTI) at Sheffield
Hallam University. And updated subsequently. Offers learners general advice
on questions relating to Exploring what the demands of a dissertation are
including ethics, academic writing styles and methodiologies.
Copyright Toolkit
4. http://copyrighttoolkit.com/
Developed by Eduserve it provides practical, pragmatic advice, within an
understanding of the legal framework, on how to license copyright works, who
to approach, how best to approach them and how to negotiate the best deal.
Includes online exercise which teach the legal background to copyright and
the structure of the Rights clearance process.
Copyright Training for University Lecturers - A short practical online
course
Jisc Legal Jisc Netskills available via Jorum
http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/18967
The module is particularly aimed at staff preparing, compiling and delivering
learning content to learners. Learning Outcome After completion of the
learning module a learner (member of staff) will be expected to be aware of
the legal issues with making copies of and digitising images, video, music and
text materials particularly for uploading to virtual learning environments
Information Literacy Resources
Use these to keep up to date with what other librarians are doing!
Information Literacy Website
http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk
Maintained by information professionals from key UK organisations including
CILIP and SCONUL. Aims to support practitioners by offering free access to
news, book reviews and case studies of best practice. They include lists of
resources. http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/teaching-information-literacy-
3/teaching-materials/examples-of-resources/
Journal of Information Literacy
http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/index
Open access scholarly journal covering the philosophy, technology and
practice of information literacy. Excellent starting point for locating up to date
materials.
Handbook for Information Literacy Teaching
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/educationandtraining/infolit/hilt/
Excellent free resource developed by group of subject librarians at Cardiff
University to support their colleagues in Information Services as they
developed their information literacy teaching. Chapters include planning
lessons, developing teaching aids, evaluating and improving teacher skills. Of
great value for those developing their own courses.
5. Information Literacy resource bank
https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/
Originally developed for staff at the University of Cardiff it includes some
interesting examples of ‘bite sized’ tutorials on research, internet searching
skills. There are also examples of flowcharts and online quizzes.
CoPILOT (Community of Practice for Information Literacy Online
Teaching) Project described by Nancy Graham earlier in this issue - working
to establish an international community of practice of librarians sharing their
information literacy teaching resources openly. See this presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/seckerj/co-pilot-aliss2013
LOEX: Clearing House for Library Instruction
http://www.emich.edu/public/loex/loex.html
International membership organisation which supports training and
information literacy in libraries. Website has an excellent archive of
conference papers, plus a free directory of links to online tutorials, case
studies, and other recommended teaching and learning materials for library
staff.
LIS-Info-Literacy.
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=lis-infoliteracy
Excellent JISC email discussion list useful for keeping up to date with the
latest events, research and publications in the field. You can view recent
postings and archived messages from the website or sign up to join.
Jorum
http://www.jorum.ac.uk/
Managed by JISC as a service for Service for UK Further and Higher
Education, to collect and share Open Educational Resources (OER), allowing
their reuse and repurposing. It includes monthly bulletins. All topics areas
including information literacy are covered.
