Last Wednesday I attended the first College of Occupational Therapists (COT) library day. This was a chance to meet 11 other librarians who support Occupational Therapy and hear about what the Occupational Therapists do to support our students.
It seemed we were all agreed that OT students are very rewarding to work with. They make use of the libraries and are grateful for the help you give.
It was also good to meet other librarians too, it’s so easy to get caught up in the day in day out part of the job but getting out and meeting people who are experiencing the same things and sharing ideas is invaluable. It also made me feel very fortunate to work for a university which is forward looking and supportive of libraries.
The major thing I hope will come out of the day is an ongoing peer group where we can share helpsheets, learning materials and other advice.
Part of the day was spent discussing Information Literacy and the best way of supporting it. One group discussed definitions of IL and agreed the CILIP definition from 2003 was the best:
Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner. (http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/advocacy/learning/information-literacy/Pages/definition.aspx)
My group discussed how we can help students to develop information literacy skills. We agreed one thing that is needed is for students to be able to get all their infomation in the same place, they don’t need to know the library does one thing while Student Services does another. I am proud to say at Brighton we do this already!
It was also agreed it needed to come in a variety of formats from hands on sessions to workbooks and online tutorials.
It was lovely to meet the team from the COT library. They are so helpful and the resources are great.
Melon The Librarian 