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LIS Education and Research Seminar

III International Seminar on LIS Education and Research (LIS-ER)

http://bd.ub.edu/liser/    Barcelona, 4-5 June 2015

 The Faculty of Library and Information Science at the University of Barcelona celebrates its centenary (1915-2015) with a seminar on the future of Library and Information Science Education and Research

Introduction

The School of Library and Information Science in Barcelona was founded in 1915 and is the second oldest LIS School in Europe and currently the oldest integrated into a University. The aim of the School, initially only for women, was to educate the librarians responsible for the public library network planned by the Catalan government and built from 1918 onwards, inspired by the British and North American library systems.

 Since its foundation, the School has uninterruptedly provided professional education for Catalan information professionals. All through its history the School has maintained an active international presence, being strongly involved in associations such as IFLA and EUCLID.

Next year we will celebrate our 100th anniversary. We feel that it provides a wonderful opportunity to look back over the achievements and failings of the European LIS curriculum project developed in 2005 and to discuss the future of LIS education and research. We have organised a seminar that aims to bring together representatives from leading European LIS schools to discuss together the challenges faced by our field and to take a major step forward in our shared analysis and in our strategic planning.

Programme

The topics/themes of the seminar include: 1) current European undergraduate and graduate LIS education; 2) new career opportunities and their impact on degrees; 3) translation of LIS research outcomes into practice; 4) maximising the scientific, societal and economic impact of LIS research; 5) opportunities for international cooperation in LIS education and research.

Contributions

The seminar will include panels of leaders in LIS education and research who will be asked to address key issues related to the future of our field. Participation by attendees for commenting on the issues raised by keynote speakers/contributors will be highly encouraged. A call for poster presentations will be announced at a later date.

Organization

Faculty of Library and Information Science, University of Barcelona

http://www.ub.edu/biblio

For more information regarding the conference, please visit the Seminar website (http://bd.ub.edu/liser/) or contact  Ernest Abadal, Dean, Facultat de Biblioteconomia i Documentació ([email protected]).

Dissertation on school libraries

In March 2014 the degree of Doctor philosophiae (Dr. Phil.) was awarded to Belgian colleague Natalie Mertes by the Humboldt University, School of Library and Information Science in Berlin.  The subject of Natalie’s dissertation is:

  • Teachers’ Conceptions of Student Information Literacy Learning and Teachers’ Practices of Information Literacy Teaching and Collaboration with the School Library : A Grounded Case Study. 
The thesis has been published on the Humboldt Univerity Edoc server at http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/dissertationen/mertes-nathalie-2014-03-04/METADATA/abstract.php?id=40539 with a link to the complete .pdf file.  This study will provide some vital information for educators, teachers and librarians throughout the world, and especially in Europe.

UK report: Support school libraries

 
A multipartisan group of members of Parliament and peers has called for a good library in every school in the UK in a new report, The Beating Heart of the School, that says libraries make “a huge contribution to young people’s educational attainment.” The call follows a long-running campaign from authors, who believe primary and secondary schools should be required by law to have a library and a trained librarian, and comes in the wake of new figures from the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport showing a “significant decrease” in the number of adults using a library.

MIL education gathering

Unesco has once again called for attention to the increasing relevance of MIL education and the need for a multistakeholder approach. Participants from all over the world convened in Paris on May 27-28 to discuss MIL-related issues (e.g., policies, the relationship with computer or digital education etc.). As a result of the meeting, the draft version of a manifesto on MIL was released on May 28 (available at URL: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/news/paris_mil_declaration.pdf ; the final version will be available soon).

 

UPDATE:

Here you find more info about the last MIL meeting in Paris: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/news-and-in-focus-articles/in-focus-articles/2014/paris-declaration-on-media-and-information-literacy-adopted/ .
A report (by S. Livingstone and J. McDougall) on the meeting is available here: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mediapolicyproject/2014/05/30/changing-the-world-with-media-literacy-the-unesco-forum-and-declaration/
Here’s how a MIL education plan addressed to 600 primary and secondary students has been recently implemented in the dynamic Qatar: http://www.dc4mf.org/en/node/4976

ALA conference

More than 13,000 attendees learned the many ways that libraries transform communities, while more than 5,600 exhibitors demonstrated their wares during the 2014 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference & Exhibition, held June 26 – July 1 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

This year’s event drew library leaders and staff, educators, writers, publishers, Friends of libraries, trustees, special guests and exhibitors from the library and information industry. Attendees participated in more than 2,500 meetings, programs, discussion groups, events, in-depth conversations and exhibits, united by the theme “Transforming Our Libraries, Ourselves.” IFLA section member Lesley Farmer presented a session on teaching digital citizenship to youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Approximately 800 exhibiting companies featured the latest in books, digital products including online services and software, furniture and other materials and services vital to today’s libraries, librarians, and users.

For more information regarding the 2014 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition  visit http://ala14.ala.org/. For conference coverage highlights please visit the ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition daily newspaper Cognotes or American Libraries coverage.

The  2015 ALA Annual Conference  & Exhibition will take place in San Francisco from June 25 – 30.

The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with approximately 56,000 members in academic, public, school, government and special libraries. The mission of the ALA  is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.

UK children’s literature awards

Grim, honest stories prevailed to win the 2014 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals on June 23. Caldecott-winning Jon Klassen’s This Is Not My Hat (Candlewick, 2013; Walker Books in the UK) and Kevin Brooks’s The Bunker Diary (Puffin UK, 2013) took top honors in the UK’s longest running and most prestigious awards for children’s literature. Both creators are first-time winners, having been shortlisted previously, and beat out illustrious past recipients.

Read more at http://www.slj.com/2014/06/awards/klassen-and-brooks-take-uks-greenaway-and-carnegie-medals/