Presentation for 'Evolving identities: Collaboration to enhance student success', National Forum Seminar Series, Dundalk Institute of Technology, 23rd May 2019

1. The Story of the Information
Literacy Prize & Collaboration in
the 3rd Space?
Seminar DkIT May 2019

2. Community of Practice
Around Scholarly
Communication & Academic
Writing

3. DkIT Library & Information Literacy
• Our Work as Teachers
• Information Literacy as one aspect of our teaching
• Late 1990s +
• Threshold Concepts as formulated by ACRL
• All Library Staff Involved
• Data & Evidence of impact
• Pedagogy & Approach

4. Things in the Air that Influenced Idea of
IL Prize
• Focus on compliance rather than understanding
• Fear rather than confidence
• Exploring and expanding our roles, skills and work
• Valuing & Appreciation “What Works” and calling attention
to that
• Building relationships between “non” and “academics”
• ACRL Information Literacy Framework

5. IL Prize Iterations
• 2012/14 IL Prize for ‘Best’ – Library/CELT/External Library
• 2015/6 IL Prize for work evidencing learning from
feedback in First Year – Library/CELT/Academics
• 2017/8 IL Prize for work evidencing learning from
feedback in Third Year – Plus Students Invited
• 2018 IL Prize from evidencing learning from Feedback
Year 1
• Future – Recognition, Publication

6. Creating a Rubric
• Iterations
• Addresses Writing Style, Information Literacy & Quality of
Sources, Scholarly Conversations, Structure
• Depth of
• Not Yet, Nearly There, Awesome

7. Process of the IL Prize
• Committed Grouping – Library & Academics & CELT
• Agree focus & timescale
• Agree Rubric
• Agree Technology used
• Call for work
• Feedback on Work
• Opportunity to re-submit
• Final Assessment
• Feedback
• Prize Giving

8. Why We Do It!
• Focus on Scholarly Communication Skills
• Brings us into Collaborations
• We learn
• From what we know process impacts on participants
• Exploring Roles
• Benefits Students

9. What Students Say
‘The feedback, both positive and negative helped me greatly,
if it was all negative I might not have resubmitted, if it was all
positive I would not have learned anything. I was enthused
by the feedback and this made me determined to resubmit’
‘A rewarding and helpful process. I was able to learn from
the feedback about how to elaborate on points and to
intrigue people, to make them want to continue reading my
essay’

10. More Voices from the Community
Developing the rubric in particular, was a very useful process that
allowed us to clarify and agree our expectations, creating shared
understandings between academics and librarians. We developed
a common language that we could use to relate with each others’
areas of concern. Interestingly it was also the catalyst that initially
focused librarians’ attention on how similar their approach to
information literacy was to the lecturers’ approach to academic
writing. Given that we were coming to the task from different
perspectives, and with different assumptions, it was very helpful to
make explicit all the criteria we were using to judge the work.
(Cleary et al, 2018 p105)

11. What We are Learning
• Learning all the time
• Understanding different dynamics
• Different practices
• Confidences
• All learn new skills
• Seeds other collaborations

12. Reflecting on what we are Learning
• Feeling of it
• Thinking About it
• L2L & Professional Development Framework
• Imposters or Not?
• Hard Work
• Validity of Experience
• On-going evolution – Students as Co-Creators

13. Third Space Work in HEIs
This group is characterized by high academic
qualifications, often with a background in research
and by work involving assignments with
administrative and scientific/academic aspects

14. What We Do?
“professional staff are not only interpreting their given
roles more actively, but that they are also moving
laterally across functional and institutional boundaries
to create new professional spaces, knowledges,
relationships and legitimacies.
It is suggested, therefore, that the roles and identities
of professional staff are more complex and dynamic
than organisation charts or job descriptions might
suggest.”
Whitechurch (2008)

15. IL Prize in the Context of Culture and
Identity
Identity Inquiry
The Third Space ‘feeling’
Veles categorisation of ‘contesting’, ‘reconciliation’ and
‘reconstruction’
Pathfinding
‘Teachers’

16. Bibliography
• Cleary, A, Delahunt, B, Fox, C, Maguire, M, O Connor L, Ward J
(2018) ‘Promoting student engagement with academic literacy
feedback: an institute wide initiative’ Practitioner Research in
Higher Education Special Assessment Issue Vol 11(1)
pages 101-109
• Veles N and Margaret-Anne Carter (2016) Imagining a future:
changing the landscape for third space professionals in
Australian higher education institutions Journal of Higher
Education Policy Vol 38 No 5,pp 519–533
• Celia Whitchurch (2008) Beyond administration and
management: reconstructing the identities of professional staff
in UK higher education, Journal of Higher Education Policy
and Management, 30:4, 375-386,

17. Thank You