LILAC My Reflections

How did I find LILAC 2008? The whole event was expertly organised by the CGD LILAC committee members - thank you to them! There was a number of very inspiring and interesting presentations--yet my own feeling is that the overwhelming focus of the conference was Information Literacy in an academic context. This reflects the wider context of current information literacy theory: a status quo, I hope to challenge.

LILAC 2008 - First Day

This was my first LILAC (Librarians Information Literacy), a conference that I have wanted to attend for a few years now.  This year the conference was held in Liverpool, a city I had not really visited.  For me, the conferences gave me an opportunity to present a summary of my research.   As this was my first conference, I felt very much like the new kid in town, although the first evening presented a excellent opportunity for networking.

My one learning curve, make sure that you book a hotel near to the conference venue.  In an attempt to save money, my hotel, although very nice in a heap 'travel lodge' type of way was some way from all the action of the conference.  Oh well, lets put it down to experience!

Letters, Letters! Part 2

My previous post mentioned that Education Leeds had kindly distributed 223 letters to the head teachers of primary schools in Leeds. These letters were delivered during the past two days. Well, a note of good news, my first head teacher contacted me today, hopefully, this won't be the only one but, yet it still remains a minor result, and an encouraging end to a busy week.

Letters, Letters

The past few days have been busy. I have had various meetings with officials from Education Leeds who are willing to help me approach school head teachers and parents. Anyway, after writing a letter to each of the 223 primary school head teachers, Education Leeds have allowed me to use their internal mail system. Never, had I realised, how long it would take to mail merging, print and stuff into envelopes 223 letter—my sympathies goes out to all admin people everywhere!

Peer Review

Last Wednesday we held the first Innovation North Doctoral Symposium. This was a small, but perfectly formed gathering of students and speakers working in the Information Management field. It always amazes me (and I know it shouldn't) how isolated one becomes, when you put your head down and work away on your project. Meeting and receiving peer reviewed feedback on your work can be a brutal experience (through the outsiders critique and peer review) yet very therapeutic and beneficial experience. Perhaps, reflecting back I can say that as my feedback, certainly was very positive, and the probing questioning as to my topic and method, providing me with plenty of food-for-thought.

Parenting

I have been looking at modern parenting on and off for the past few weeks. This started when my director of studies (DOS) asked me to examine the sociology of parenting in Britain. It has been a fascinating paper, charting the sociological and physical changes to families in the past 30 years. What has proved particularly fruitful for me is realising just how much attention the British government has given to families and parenting through its Every Child Matters initiative and the Children’s Plan. This government’s prioritisation and emphasis has really provided my work with an additional and ‘unintended’ foundation, relevance—even legitimacy.

Here are some useful links:

Byron Review of Technology

Children's Plan

Department of Children Schools and Families

Every Child Matters

A Quick Update

This is my first post of the year. What’s on the agenda – well, this is going to be a busy year. Already I have received three book chapters to review and, thankfully have had my abstract for LILAC 2008 accepted.