A multipartisan group of members of Parliament and peers has called for a good library in every school in the UK in a new report, The Beating Heart of the School, that says libraries make “a huge contribution to young people’s educational attainment.” The call follows a long-running campaign from authors, who believe primary and secondary schools should be required by law to have a library and a trained librarian, and comes in the wake of new figures from the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport showing a “significant decrease” in the number of adults using a library.

Today, ABCMouse launched a nationwide initiative to connect early education technology to kids around the country who do not have access to a computer at home. ABCMouse.com officially launched their Free to Libraries initiative which will bring their award winning curriculum free to the 16,000 public libraries in the United States.

After beta testing in 140 libraries across the country, including Brooklyn and Los Angeles Public Libraries,  ABCMouse.com and libraries have developed a special version of the ABCMouse.com site that will allow parents and their children to get quality early education that also tracks their progress, all in the comfort of their local library.

Copyright negotiations commence once more in Geneva, Switzerland next week at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), where a proposed international framework supporting copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives is likely to be the subject of intense discussion among Member States.

The 28th meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (SCCR), from Monday 30 June – Friday 4 July, resumes discussions of copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives, as well as education and other disabilities, and protections for broadcasters, following the collapse of the last round of negotiations in April 2014<http://www.ifla.org/node/8600>. In the dying hours of the last meeting, the European Union attempted to block any further progress of discussions concerning libraries and archives at WIPO, much to the frustration and dismay of libraries and archives, as well as other Member States present<http://www.ifla.org/node/8600>.

The EU’s attempts to undermine the SCCR’s mandate saw them isolated from other Member State positions, and ultimately resulted in a failure to reach any conclusions for the meeting. Since then, over 100 library and archive organisations from across the European Union and internationally have signed a letter asking the EU to engage constructively in discussions at WIPO<http://www.ifla.org/node/8621>.

The International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions (IFLA) will be joined at the 28th session of the SCCR by library and archive organisations from around the world, including Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), the Society of American Archivists (SAA), European Bureau of Library Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), Associazione Italiana Biblioteche (AIB), Federação Brasileira de Associações de Bibliotecários Cientistas da Informação e Instituições (FEBAB), Scottish Council on Archives (SCA), Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), International Council  on Archives (ICA), Karisma Foundation (Colombia) and the Canadian Libraries Association (CLA).

In addition to its interventions during plenary, IFLA will be hosting a lunch time side event on Monday 30 June at 1pm in Room B of the WIPO building, titled, “Keeping copyright relevant in the digital environment: libraries, archives and licences”. You can follow the discussions on twitter using the hashtag #sccr28, and tune in to the live stream at: http://www.wipo.int/webcasting/en/ .

To find out more about the history of SCCR negotiations and why IFLA is advocating for an international standard for copyright exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives, see: http://www.ifla.org/node/8229 .

Members of ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force<http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/taskforces/acr-tfilcshe> have been working diligently to revise the draft Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education<http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/>. They’ve been reviewing all the community feedback to the February 20 and April 4 drafts and are working to improve and expand the revised draft, which will be released next week.

The full task force met in person in Chicago in late April for an energizing and productive meeting. Members engaged in very important discussions as they come into the home stretch of their work and reached conclusions that they shared with the ACRL Board on June 4 in their latest interim report<http://connect.ala.org/node/223580>. Some important decisions are related to primary audience and stakeholder outreach, recasting the introduction, calling each threshold concept with its supporting elements (i.e., knowledge practices/abilities and dispositions) a “frame,” and moving assignments and scenarios to an ancillary document that will, later on, form the basis of an online “sandbox.”

In addition to sharing these decisions, the task force also shared their thinking about prospective recommendations to the Board. These would be recommendations they expect to make in August when they submit a final Framework to the ACRL Board for approval. They will be seeking community input on the recommendations along with the revised draft later this month. Read the full June 4 interim report<http://connect.ala.org/node/223580> to understand their latest thinking.

Stay tuned for the revised, complete draft Framework next week with an in person hearing<http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/wp-admin/%28http:/ala14.ala.org/node/15025> on Saturday, June 28, 10:30 am – 11:30 am, at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV. Online hearings are scheduled for Monday, July 7, at 1pm Central and Friday, July 11, at 1pm Central. Sign up details will be included when the forthcoming draft is released next week.

Learn more about the revision process and listen to recordings from past online open forums on the task force website<http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/>.

FADBEN MANIFESTO 2012   (en français après)

Teaching information-documentation and information culture

Our connections to knowledge, to others and to the world have been disrupted by digital information technologies in a way that cannot be reversed or predicted. This new informational paradigm stretches over numerous fields – economic, scientific, political or educational – of our societies. Thus, it deeply affects our cultural landmarks and practices. UNESCO considers the informational skill as essential for the 21st century human being. Since France subscribes to these international issues, the French government would definitely benefit from including this skill in the educational system in an explicit and formal way.

Today, the ability to access and use information is essential to play a role in this knowledge-based society. However, this ability cannot be reduced to a mere procedure. It must be inserted into genuine knowledge about the situation and function of documents, information and communication, which would lead to an informative acculturation favouring the social, cultural and professional integration of individuals. The present adaptive approach to the development of living information ability must be continued by a more rational and better-organized approach which would focus on reflexive and operational knowledge based on in-depth study and review. The objectives of students information culture are numerous : building knowledge to enable students to understand information occurrences ; developing an enlightened understanding of the stakes and mechanisms of the information and communication industries ; and enabling students to develop a critical approach to the endless technological innovations and the “documentarisation” [1] of human beings when personal data are being used. Eventually, ethical and responsible attitudes regarding the use of information should be developed.

Henceforth, how can we be satisfied with what our educational system is offering ? Concerning institutional documents, prescriptions about knowledge and abilities in library and information science can be found in the secondary school and its basic program, and in a lesser way, in the syllabuses of various subjects. Is it indeed possible to talk here about transmitting information culture ? In practice, it is rather fragmented training, led in a sporadic and random way. Thus, cultural disparities are increasing, instead of being reduced. The working conditions of the French Librarian school teachers are getting less and less favourable to the training of the students, although the CAPES [2] has legitimized their teaching and educational mission since 1989. FADBEN, the National Federation of French Librarian school teachers, thus exposes the lack of a genuine institutional frame to structure this field of teaching, and the lack of recognition of the didactic framework necessary to address real school knowledge concerning the subject of information and documentation.

FADBEN also complains that Librarian school teachers do not get the recognition they fully deserve regarding their educational expertise.

FADBEN consequently calls for the recognition and the formalization of the educational contents specific to Librarian school teachers that is to say the information and documentation subject ; contents they have to teach using the Information and Documentation Centres (CDI) which are didactic resource places they have to manage, as well as the online information resources that can be used to enable students to build an information culture. FADBEN also calls for the complete recognition of Librarian school teachers by the institution and the inscription in official texts of didactic and educational liability, in accordance with their status as qualified teachers. FADBEN wants Librarian school teachers to remain qualified teachers in the future as they are now, along with the continuation of the recruitment process by CAPES, claiming the establishment of a regional and general board of inspectors specialized in the information and documentation field. FADBEN asks for the update of the 1986 circular letter in order to clarify the primacy of the integration of informational culture for the students.

FADBEN consequently asks for institutional means to guarantee the quality of the teaching of information and documentation and the added-value of the educational resources system.

To this end, FADBEN suggests the setting up of a ministerial working group which would develop an information and documentation curriculum to be registered in the official guidelines. This curriculum would aim at creating a consistent module of information culture teaching for first-to-final-year students and even for higher education. Librarian school teachers would be entrusted with the teaching of this module. It would be based on the progress and the assessment of learning. This general education text should plan the necessary epistemological and structural links with the closely related media and digital cultures, and with other school subjects. In order to do so, the ministerial working group should include the question of the initial and further training of Librarian school teachers.

From today onwards, clear and strong measures have to be taken to enable Librarian school teachers to fulfill their mission and for students to claim ownership of their information culture. FADBEN is prepared to meet and explain its suggestions to anyone who thinks that the teaching of the information culture is a part of equal opportunity and citizenship for all.

NOTES [1] “documentarisation” of human being cf Olivier Ertzscheid, Jean-Michel Salaün, Roger T. Pedauque and Manuel Zackland’s works

[2] The CAPES is the certificate necessary to teach in French secondary schools

______________________________________________________________

Enseignement de l’information-documentation

et ouverture à la culture informationnelle

Manifeste 2012 :

Le contexte de l’information numérique bouleverse de manière imprévisible et irréversible notre rapport au savoir, aux autres et au monde. Ce nouveau paradigme informationnel irrigue tous les champs, qu’ils soient économiques, scientifiques, politiques ou éducatifs, qui composent nos sociétés, modifiant en profondeur nos repères et nos pratiques culturelles. La compétence informationnelle est ainsi présentée par l’UNESCO comme indispensable aux hommes et aux femmes du XXIème siècle. La France, qui souscrit à ces enjeux internationaux, gagnerait à les inscrire de manière explicite et formelle dans les finalités de son système éducatif.

Aujourd’hui, il faut maîtriser l’information pour participer à la « société du savoir ». Mais cette maîtrise ne peut pas être uniquement procédurale, elle doit intégrer des connaissances sur la place et le rôle de la documentation, de l’information et de la communication, pour permettre une acculturation informationnelle favorisant l’intégration sociale, culturelle et professionnelle des individus. Il convient de prolonger l’actuelle approche pragmatique des formations à la maîtrise de l’information, qui s’est appuyée jusque-là sur des référentiels de compétences procédurales, par une approche culturelle plus ration­nelle et plus structurée. Celle-ci doit se centrer sur des savoirs réflexifs et opérationnels construits par l’étude et l’examen approfondi. Les objectifs de la culture informationnelle pour l’élève sont multiples : construire des savoirs permettant la compréhension des phénomènes informationnels, favoriser la critique éclairée des enjeux et des mécanismes des industries de l’information et de la communication, ainsi que la distanciation à observer devant la course sans fin à l’innovation technologique et à la documentarisation de l’homme via l’exploitation de ses traces numériques. Il s’agira enfin de développer des attitudes éthiques et responsables lorsqu’il est fait usage de l’information.

Dès lors, comment se satisfaire de ce que propose l’école aujourd’hui ? Institutionnellement, on retrouve bien des prescriptions de connaissances et de compétences en information-documentation dans le socle commun et, de manière plus diffuse, dans les programmes des différentes disciplines. Mais peut-on parler pour autant d’un enseignement de la culture informationnelle ? Sur le terrain, la for­mation est encore trop souvent morcelée et dispensée de façon sporadique et aléatoire, creusant les inégalités plutôt que les réduisant. Les conditions d’exercice des professeurs documentalistes dans les établissements sont, quant à elles, de moins en moins propices à la délivrance de ces formations. Pourtant, depuis 1989, le mode de recrutement par le CAPES légitime la fonction pédagogique et enseignante du professeur documentaliste. La FADBEN dénonce ainsi l’absence d’un véritable cadre institutionnel pour structurer cet enseignement et la non-reconnaissance d’un cadre didac­tique de référence pour penser les savoirs scolaires de l’information-documentation. Elle déplore encore le refus de reconnais­sance de l’expertise pédagogique des professeurs documentalistes.

La FADBEN revendique par conséquent la reconnaissance et la formalisation des contenus d’enseignement qui relèvent du domaine de spécialité du professeur documentaliste, à savoir l’information-documentation, qu’il doit enseigner en prenant appui, non seulement sur les ressources du Centre de documentation et d’information (CDI) qu’il gère en tant que système didactisé, mais encore sur les gisements d’informations en ligne à partir des­quels peuvent être construits par les élèves les savoirs de l’information-documentation et de la culture informationnelle.

La FADBEN revendique la totale reconnais­sance par l’institution et l’inscription dans les textes officiels de la responsabilité pédagogique et didactique du professeur documentaliste, conformément à son statut de certifié en documentation.

La FADBEN revendique le maintien des personnels dans le corps des professeurs certifiés, la poursuite de leur recrutement par CAPES et la création d’une inspection pédagogique régionale et générale spécifique à l’information-documentation.

La FADBEN demande que la circulaire de mission de 1986 soit actualisée pour préciser la priorité donnée à l’acculturation informationnelle des élèves.

La FADBEN demande que des moyens institutionnels spécifiques soient débloqués en conséquence, afin de garantir la qualité de l’enseignement dispensé en information-documentation et la valeur ajoutée du système de ressources à visée pédagogique.

Dans cette perspective, la FADBEN propose la consti­tution d’un groupe de travail ministériel chargé d’élaborer un curriculum info-documentaire, de façon à l’inscrire dans les directives officielles. Celui-ci aura pour but la création d’un enseignement à la culture informationnelle, sous la forme d’un module cohérent dont la mise en œuvre sera explicitement confiée aux professeurs documentalistes. Ce module s’inscrira dans le cursus de tous les élèves de la 6ème à la Terminale, ainsi que dans les classes post-bac. Le curriculum sera également basé sur une progression et une évaluation des apprentissages. Il devra prévoir les nécessaires articulations épistémologiques et structurelles avec, d’une part, les cultures médiatique et numérique qui lui sont voisines et, d’autre part, avec les disciplines scolaires existantes. Pour ce faire, le groupe de travail ministériel sur le curriculum devra intégrer la question des formations initiale et continue des professeurs documentalistes.

Des décisions fortes et claires doivent être prises dès aujourd’hui pour permettre aux professeurs documentalistes d’exercer convenablement leur mission et aux élèves de s’approprier cette culture. La FADBEN est prête à rencontrer toutes celles et tous ceux qui considèrent que l’enseignement de la culture informationnelle participe à l’égalité des chances et à la formation du citoyen et de la citoyenne, pour leur exposer ses propositions.

Flyer FADBEN-IFLA 2014-english flyer_2014_IFLA_french

this draft report from UNICEF concerns the protection of children online.