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Reflections on LILAC

Published 29th April 2024 by Gillian

Reflections on LILAC

Attending a conference: reflection planning

Attending a multiday conference can be an overwhelming experience – both in terms of choices (what to attend) and listening and taking in everything that you hear. As I mentioned in my previous post “Preparing to attend a conference”, with experience, I have learnt that taking verbatim notes can add to the challenges of attending a conference. So I can take full advantage of the opportunities available, I use my notebook to write down useful phrases, citations and ideas that they highlight in the talks. What I focused on this year were key theorists and ideas that I want to follow up.

Depending on your organisation, you may be asked to share ideas or things you learnt from the conference, so trying to distil those into key elements is really helpful. Think about your audience (even if it is only you), what do you want to take from it and what did you find the most helpful?

After returning from the conference, I take the time to type up my notes and look up references to any theorists or papers the speakers may have mentioned. A real benefit of attending a conference like LILAC is the way it can introduce you to completely new concepts and offer suggestions for further areas to explore. This was particularly beneficial to me this year as I attended with my research in mind.

LILAC: Generative AI

Photo by The Climate Reality Project on Unsplash

This year there was a strong focus on generative AI – as you might expect. Discussions varied from keynote speakers to presenters sharing examples from their area of practice. Rather than focus on any one talk, I’ve just noted some of the key elements that were discussed and what I found interesting.

There was a clear drive to understand both the positive and negative impact of generative AI. Speakers looked at it from multiple angles, highlighting that it is built into products that people aren’t even aware of (such as databases). It’s also energy heavy (endless server farms that have to be maintained) and perpetuates social inequalities (including how workers have been used to train AI). They also highlighted that there are implicit biases built into the AI training data (a dominance of Western, English language texts), therefore we need to be aware of and challenges those in the outputs. A clear message from LILAC was that we all need to move from the hype cycle around generative AI (where everything is new and exciting) to a reality where it is just a tool that is used for specific occasions. It can be a useful conversation partner to work through ideas, but it is not a reliable source of information.

Whilst you have to have digital skills and capabilities to use generative AI, the potential of it to help increase access to and awareness of research data that is hidden in repositories and internal silos is a positive one. Therefore, we need to help people to access and use it effectively – if they need it.

A handy nugget from one talk is that challenging ChatGPT makes it lie!

We also need to encourage transparency, explaining how and when we use it and sharing good practice. If we are truly digital citizens then we should be critical and responsible when we use these tools.

LILAC: specific highlights

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

Outside of generative AI, presentations highlighted interesting ideas with things that I want to explore in more detail.

Authenticity in teaching

A workshop which facilitated discussion around authenticity and organisational hypocrisy. This also highlighted the concept of vocational awe (Ettarh, 2018). They asked the question – how honest are we when we teach? I would say I am and I enjoyed reading Ettarh (2018) after the conference to increase my understanding of their perspective.

Knowledge sharing

Knowledge sharing at conferences can’t be ignored. Ohio State University presented a really interesting project around student orientation. I learned from their project and the tips they happily shared, for example the simplicity of good reflective questions, courtesy of Ohio State University.

  • What worked well?
  • What would you do differently?
Photo by Sergey Zolkin on Unsplash

It was also interesting to see the posters presented at LILAC, seeing innovative teaching methods and research projects. I’ve made a note of a couple of ones I want to follow up with when I have more time.

The key message I took from the conference was about listening to, working with and valuing students. It aligns with my own approach and interests, so I’m going to follow up on the articles that discussed building relationships with students and creating safe environments for them to flourish.

A number of different articles and books were highlighted during the conference. Some were fairly easy to track down. However, with others I’m going to have to look at the LILAC archive to follow them up or get in touch with the speakers. Keeping an open mind and exploring new and interesting ideas can make a conference a very interesting and engaging place. I’m looking forward to continuing to explore the ideas shared at LILAC!

Lessons learnt:

  • You can put subtitles on the screen if you don’t have a microphone! Use Microsoft 365 subtitles. On PowerPoint, go to Settings – choose above or below and choose your spoken language (same in MS Teams).
  • Planning pays dividends – having a simple A4 sheet of paper with all my identified talks, breaks and keynotes on meant I always knew where I had to go (rather than constantly checking my phone and using data!)

Useful links and references:

Goblin tools – magic to do list (AI tools) (for neurodivergent individuals): https://goblin.tools/

Ettarh, F. (2018). Vocational Awe And Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

Leon Furze: Teaching AI ethics: https://leonfurze.com/ai-ethics/

Pickard, A. Jane. (2013). Research methods in information (2nd ed.). Facet.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2023). Research design : qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (Sixth edition / John W. Creswell, J. David Creswell.). SAGE.

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What do you mean – information literacy?

Published 26th February 2024 by Gillian

What do you mean – information literacy?Lightbulbs leading the way down a corridor of bookshelves

Many professions use specialist language to describe key areas of their work. This specialist language or vocabulary helps with professional shorthand, it is useful in transferring information in succinct ways. Different professions use a variety of language, sometimes it may make sense to outsiders, but often has to be ‘translated’ as taken out of context it can be very confusing. Information literacy – is just such a term, coined and used within library and information science. As with many areas, my views are developing and changing with time, experience and reading. I’ve included some references at the end of this post to articles I’ve read and that are making me think differently about information literacy practice.

Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash

Information literacy is widely used in the library and information sector. Based on the principles of information seeking behaviour, discussed in the 1980s (Wilson, 1981; Kuhlthau, 1986). Information literacy loosely encapsulates the process individuals go through to find information; from identifying an information need, searching, and identifying the relevant information and then using it within their work or context. The terminology itself is not without debate – the use of ‘literacy’ can be viewed as classing those with little or limited skills as illiterate. There’s also the debate about how we ‘class’ it, as we explore and understand the process that moves information literacy from a static set of skills to an evolving and transitioning practice that is context specific.

Within UK Higher Education – information literacy is the focus of research and debate amongst academic librarians or subject librarians as they seek to develop the most effective ways of supporting their users to develop their information literacy practice and transfer their skills into their future work. Models and definitions of information literacy have been created by a number of different organisations (here are a few, but this is not an exhaustive list):

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

Various researchers have explored the use of these models and definitions. Today, however, there is a growing appreciation that these English-language models and tools are focused on a Western experience and doesn’t reflect the wealth and breadth of information literacy practice across the world. Organisations have sought to update and adapt these models and frameworks based on growing technological changes (looking at media, digital and visual literacy), as well as growing interest in holistic and community knowledge creation (Hicks and Lloyd, 2016; Roberts, 2021). I might argue that key to information literacy practice are the critical skills to question the information, data or knowledge presented, compare with other sources, and synthesise into relevant knowledge for the context it’s needed in.

From my point of view as an academic librarian, information literacy theory and models are useful to understand the fundamental principles of information seeking behaviour. However, I recognise that the students I work with have a range of knowledge, skills and expertise from their lives that I need to support them to translate into our specific academic context. Someone can have excellent skills and abilities to find bargains, learn about their football team or study elsewhere, but coming into the sometimes-traditional landscape of academia and trying to find information for assessment can be a very different experience. I believe it is important to work with the student, to build from their experience and help them transition to using the databases we rely on for academic information. In an age of Google, misinformation, and information overload, it is perhaps even more important that we discuss these skills and principles of information literacy practice to help our community find truth and build their knowledge of the world around them. I agree with the idea that information is constructed within a social setting, we’re influenced by the people around us. Sometimes it’s even more difficult to challenge those we respect, with differing views. However, if we can navigate, find and understand the information it is easier to enter into discussions and work with people to explore the ideas and information around us.

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash

Lessons learnt:

• It’s library specific language, that isn’t widely understood outside the sector.
• Information literacy is context specific and a reflection of the whole person and the environment and community they exist within.

Useful links:

Information Literacy Group: definitions and models

References:

Hicks, A., & Lloyd, A. (2016). It takes a community to build a framework: Information literacy within intercultural settings. Journal of Information Science, 42(3), 334–343. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551516630219

Kuhlthau, C. C. (1986). Inside the Search Process: Information Seeking from the User’s Perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42, 361–371.

Reyes, B. M., Hicks, A., & Maxson, B. K. (2018). Information Literacy Practices of Spanish-Speaking Graduate Students at the University of Kansas, Portal, 18(3), 595–615.

Roberts, L. (2021). “This Is Just What We Do”: PhD Students on Becoming Scholars in a Community of Practice. Communications in Information Literacy, 15(1), 75–94. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2021.15.1.4

Wilson, T. D. (1981). On user studies and information needs. Journal of Documentation, 37(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026702

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