Fostering Friendships - Enhancing Social Bonds in the Classroom
Information skills for the masses
1. Information skills for the masses:
Leeds Met’s online little book of
information skills
Alison Park and Karen Fisher
Academic Librarians
2. Background to the Little Book
Focus on the first Improving
year experience retention
Level 4 undergraduates
Support for first Development of
assignments information skills
3. Little Book launched
• Uses a practical example
• Each step aligned with
the SCONUL 7 Pillars
model
• Hints and tips
• Examples to try out
• Promoted across
university
4. What next?
• Requests for an online
version
• Generic but can be
reused and tailored to
individual needs
• Accessible via Library
Online or the
University’s Repository
Used Captivate software to record web demonstrations. So we don’t just tell them, we show them – good for different learning styles.Articulate – packages together multiple software, e.g. Captivate, Word, YouTube, etc. – to present in a navigable way. Based on PowerPoint but you can bring in other media and easily make it very interactive. Creates menus & navigation for you.Stand-alone sections or can work way through whole tutorial. Academics can take one section to embed at point of need.Written informally in plain English. Whole thing uses a generic easy to comprehend topic – so doesn’t distract from content.1 – In Journal articles show introduction – clear aims using the kinds of questions we get asked in the Library2 – Show How to find a full text article – moves on from context / background to a practical demo. We show the full journey from reading list to article3 – Define your topic – show interactive content4 – Building your search strategy
Librarians can sit down with academic staff and map where they think their students are now and where they’d like them to be by the end of the module/year/course. Identify the areas where most improvement is needed in order to plan the librarian’s teaching/support.