A Report on Strengthening Information Literacy Interventions; Using Creative Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Sunday 5th December, 2010 saw a gathering of eminent librarians, information specialists, development experts, etc to participate in the above workshop. The day-long workshop which was held in one of the meeting rooms at the Students Centre of the University of Botswana was organized by Information Training Outreach Centre for Africa (ITOCA) and Institute of Development Studies (IDS) of UK. The workshop had four parts; these were:

• Paper presentations
• Panel discussions
• Group discussions
• Plenary

The workshop was ably facilitated/chaired by Dr Mark Hepworth, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Science, Loughborough University in UK. Among the participants were six persons who participated in the Web 2.0 and Social Media in the Agricultural Environment workshop from 1st - 3rd December, 2010; these were Dr Doris Matovelo, Gray Nyali, Alice Sebunjo, Mercy Moyo, Blessings Chataira, and Geoffrey Salanje.

During the paper presentations, participants listened to four papers on:

1. Availability, access and use: re-understanding the e-journal problem by Jonathan Harle, Programme Officer (Research and Libraries) ACU, UK and Kondwani Wella, College Librarian, Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi.
2. Building searching skills using learner-centered approaches in an African context by Siobhan Dugigneau, Information Literacy Manager, British Library for Development, IDS, UK and Gracian Chimwaza, Director, ITOCA, South Africa
3. Building capacity: lessons learnt from an intensive training health information training programme in Vietnam by Peter Burnett, Head of Library Development, INASP, UK.
4. An institutional approach to embedding IL programmes across the curriculum: University of Botswana case study by Babakisi Fidzani, Deputy Director of Library Services, University of Botswana.

These papers stimulated alot of discussions, comments and questions among the participants.

These were followed by a panel discussion whose panelists were Dr Silas Oluka (DeLPHE project/ University of Botswana and Copperbelt), Dr Akakandelwa Akakandelwa (University of Zambia), Elizabeth Mlambo (Univeristy of Zimbabwe), Siobhan Duvigneau (Institute of Development Studies, UK) and Bettie de Kock (Univeristy of Pretoria, South Africa). The panel was chaired by Julie Brittain. Panelists briefly participants what there institutions are during in the promotion of information literacy.

Partcipants were then split into three groups based on their lnterest of the topics under discussion. The topics were: Pedagogical innovation and assessment of training (pre and post assessment); Use of new technologies in information literacy; and Embedding information literacy programmes into institutions.

Finally, the workshop had a lively plenary after group reports. Then, the workshop facilitator summarized the findings from the three groups.

It was clear from the worshop that information literacy was beyond library orientation or library user education; and that all types of libraries should embark on information literacy.