Presented at LILAC 2015

1. Greenhousing for IL: letting good ideas grow
Julie Moody, Plymouth University, julie.moody@plymouth.ac.uk
In our increasingly busy professional lives, it is often the case that we do not find the time to
develop any bright ideas we have. The creative process can be stifled before ideas have time
to grow. Using ideas from the book Sticky wisdom: how to start a creative revolution at
work, (Kingdon, 2002) the team of Information Specialists at Plymouth University take time
out of their busy schedules once a year to attend team greenhousing sessions. By focussing on
a theme, the aim is to share and develop creative ideas as a team to ensure that they are
followed through and implemented.
The Information Specialists at Plymouth are all required to teach information literacy skills
but ensuring that everyone focusses on learning rather than just disseminating information
has been a challenge. Our IL Greenhousing event aimed to raise awareness of effective and
non-effective practice by showing four different ways of teaching the same topic. The team
members were put in the position of learners and had to evaluate what they had learnt (or not)
and how motivated and engaged they felt in each activity.
As a result, we now have a bank of activities (captured on a “private” Libguide) that the team
can draw upon to enliven their sessions and adapt for their particular groups.
Delegates will learn about the ideas behind “greenhousing” and see how it can foster
creativity and collaboration to allow ideas to be realised.
References:
Kingdon, M. (ed.) (2002) Sticky wisdom: how to start a creative revolution at work. Oxford:
Capstone Publishing Limited