Using a Definition of Information Literacy to Engage Academics and Students: A UK Perspective

Following the publication of an updated definition of information literacy in 2018 by CILIP, the United Kingdom's library and information association, librarians at Royal Holloway, University of London, began to use the definition with both students and staff. Their aim was to foster a better understanding of information literacy and how it can benefit learners throughout their studies and beyond. The students were first-year English undergraduates, and the staff were working toward a postgraduate teaching certificate. Discussions during and after the sessions indicated that the updated definition was effective in introducing the concept of information literacy to both students and staff, highlighting its importance in academia and the wider world

Using Mentimeter to gauge and engage science students in information skills sessions

The perennial problem of gathering student feedback and assessing student learning lurk in every librarian’s information literacy (IL) programme. A number of interactive polling tools such as Socrative and Poll Everywhere have been used to great effect in IL sessions to gauge the students’ engagement with the session and also obtain feedback. Another tool, Mentimeter, currently being used at Royal Holloway, University of London, has not seen as much limelight as its peers in literature on polling and student engagement. Mentimeter allows you to create your own questions and lets students vote or answer questions in a variety of ways encouraging their participation in the IL session. Its functionality and ease with which it can be used and embeds into LibGuides make it a tool worth the consideration of librarians involved in delivering information skills sessions. This digital poster will demonstrate how Mentimeter has easily been inserted into IL sessions at Royal Holloway to poll students’ current search strategies and what resources they currently use, and from this information, tailor their teaching to plug gaps in students’ search strategies and knowledge of what resources are available to them. In doing this, we have been able to illustrate to Science faculty students the value of information literacy skills. Mentimeter has been used in almost all Science training sessions for undergraduates this year so far (2016-17) as a way to inform the instructor what should be focused on

Web-scale discovery in the arts: Royal Holloway’s first year undergraduates and academics feed back

This poster will highlight the key findings of my MSc Dissertation, submitted in May 2014 to Robert Gordon University, which was awarded the Dorothy Williams award at graduation. It will introduce the aims of the research; to collect data on previous information-seeking experience and current information-seeking skills using the Primo Central discovery system from first-year arts undergraduates at Royal Holloway University of London. The quantitative results of a survey and test were compared against qualitative statements from academic staff in the applicable departments, and recommendations made about the suitability of Primo Central for these students. It was found, after weighing the merits of Primo Central against a traditional WebOPAC, that Primo Central was preferable, although serious concerns were raised about its usability and information retrieval relevant to the subject disciplines. Arts subjects at Royal Holloway heavily favour monograph literature, and the Primo Central interface defaults to a general Index search which pushes monographs down the list of results. Academics were already concerned at students’ ability to interpret and interrogate a Library catalogue, and this is backed up in the literature; suggesting that the Primo Central default search may not be intuitive enough for students of this level. A list of desired features was developed, and discussed in relation to the Primo Central and WebOPAC services. The poster will demonstrate graphically student and academic responses, results collected on student use of Primo Central and a list of key search features which this user group would benefit from. Recommendations and changes to practices at Royal Holloway as a result of this reseach may be of use to librarians working with new undergraduates in order to adapt instruction and improve training materials

Teachmeet handout: Using Socrative polls in IL teaching

Teaching large numbers of students involves being creative, and as information literacy teaching at Royal Holloway University of London has changed dramatically over the past two academic years, so has the teaching adopted by Library staff. This session will demonstrate use of an online polling tool, Socrative, and allow participants to test out the tool for themselves. It will demonstrate flexible ideas for using the tool as part of a lesson, and include examples of questions and use in class. Participants will only need a smartphone to take part, and the speakers welcome questions and suggestions on using polling tools in the classroom. Socrative has been used to quiz students on their previous knowledge during Library training sessions; allowing teaching to be adapted to the needs of each individual class. It has been used to canvas opinion on Library training which will be used in future to improve teaching; and it’s proved a valuable tool in increasing student participation – from small groups of 15 to large groups of 60 students. In all cases Socrative has increased student participation in students of all levels, and acts as a quick, easy, and effective introductory exercise to the themes of the class. It has also been possible to collect data on student experiences and knowledge to use in class, but also to preserve in order to improve future teaching

Creative IL embedding at Royal Holloway, University of London 2013

n 2013, Helen Westwood and Russell Burke presented at LILAC about how information literacy was embedded in Geography courses at Royal Holloway. One of our plans for the future was to embed IL across the college. In May 2014, a paper was accepted at the College’s Learning, Teaching and Quality Committee making IL training and assessment a requirement for all first year undergraduate courses from 2014/15. This poster will show the steps involved in achieving this outcome, the challenges we have faced, and how we have used a variety of ways to engage staff and students with information literacy. Our Academic Liaison team is formed of six Information Consultants. We are keen to be creative in the way we deliver IL training and we have used a range of methods in order to make the most of the time we are given for the content. An “Information Literacy for staff” libguide has been developed, which includes an information literacy menu so academics can see what we we offer and choose what they would like us to deliver for their students “a la carte”. We are also using libguides to support our sessions. For example, one has been developed especially for a Geography 1st year core module. This includes a pre-lecture quiz, as well as tabs for the components of IL. In workshops for a range of subjects, we have asked students to suggest keywords on a given topic using padlet.com. In other lectures, we are using the student response system Socrative for instant question and answer segments. We will use screenshots of these on the poster. We are keen to share and discuss our approach to embedding IL with LILAC delegates and hope this poster will provide inspiration for other institutions

Improvements and Generalisations of Signcryption Schemes

In this work, we study the cryptographic primitive: signcryption, which combines the functionalities of digital signatures and public-key encryption. We first propose two generic transforms from meta-ElGamal signature schemes to signcryption schemes. These constructions can be thought of as generalisations of the signcryption schemes by Zheng and Gamage et al. Our results show that a large class of signcryption schemes are outsider IND-CCA2 secure and insider UF-CMA secure. As a by-product, we also show that the meta-ElGamal signature schemes, for which no previous formal security proofs have been shown, are UF-CMA secure. We then propose a modification of one of the transforms in order to achieve insider IND-CCA2 security in addition to insider UF-CMA security. This modification costs just one extra exponential operation. In particular, we can apply this modification to the Zheng signcryption scheme to make it fully insider secure. Finally, we propose a generic transform from a two-key signcryption scheme to a one-key signcryption scheme while preserving both confidentiality and unforgeability. Our result shows that if we have an insider IND-CCA2 and UFCMA secure two-key signcryption scheme, then it can be turned into an insider IND-CCA2 and UF-CMA secure one-key signcryption scheme. We also show that an insider IND-CCA2 and UF-CMA secure one-key signcryption scheme induces a secure combined public-key scheme; that is, a combination of a signature scheme and a public-key encryption scheme that can securely share the same key pair. Combining previous results suggests that we can obtain a large class of insider secure one-key signcryption schemes from meta-ElGamal signature schemes, and that each of them can induce a secure combined public-key scheme

Delayed HIV testing in HIV-positive sub-Saharan Africans

There is evidence that some sub-Saharan African individuals suspect that they are HIV positive before diagnosis but delay being tested for HIV. This increases the likelihood of being diagnosed late (with a severely compromised immune system), a phenomenon that has been observed in sub-Saharan Africans diagnosed in the UK. Late diagnosis has negative personal and public health consequences. There is a lack of understanding of the psychological processes associated with delayed HIV-testing. This study used a Grounded Theory methodology. It aimed to produce a theoretical model to explain the psychological processes associated with delayed HIV testing in sub-Saharan Africans in the UK but also how these processes changed over time and contributed to the decision to test. Seven HIV-positive sub-Saharan African individuals from a London HIV clinic and one from a HIV charity were interviewed about their experiences. Analysis led to the development of a theoretical model of delayed HIV testing. This model consisted of three theoretical codes: moving in and out of uncertainty about HIV infection; preferring not to know HIV status; and making the decision to test for HIV. Participants' HIV risk perception fluctuated and was characterised by uncertainty. This, in combination with a preference to not know their HIV status due to a number of feared consequences of being HIV-positive, deterred them from testing. Participants' thoughts and feelings about knowing their HIV status changed over time. These changes were that they: wanted certainty, had hope of being HIV-negative and/or a hope for treatment and life and preparing for and accepting a potentially positive result. The findings can inform interventions to reduce delayed testing and suggest: a) intervening with ambivalence on an individual level and b) promoting awareness of HIV c) promoting the benefits of testing/costs of not testing at a population level. The findings are discussed in relation to existing research and theory. Strengths and limitations of the study are discussed, as are clinical implications and suggestions for future research

Research Data Management: Policies and Plans (And Best Practices)

OVERVIEW 1. Definitions a) Research Data (Management) b) Types of RDM activities 2. Drivers, including funder policies 3. Focus on Data Management Planning 4. Best Practices for RDM 5. About the FOSTER projec