unesco training-the-trainers “information literacy workshop, montego bay, jamaica, june 1–6,...
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The International Information & Library Review (2009) 41, 280e285
ava i lab le a t www.sc iencedi rec t .com
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UNESCO Training-the-Trainers ‘‘InformationLiteracy Workshop, Montego Bay, Jamaica,June 1e6, 2008’’
Fay Durrant
Department of Library and Information Studies, University of the West Indies Library, Mona, Jamaica
KEYWORDSInformation Literacy;workshop;training;education
1057-2317/$ - see front matter ª 200doi:10.1016/j.iilr.2009.09.022
Abstract This is a brief report highlighting the key elements of an information literacytraining workshop jointly organized by UNESCO and the University of the West Indies in Monte-go Bay, June 1e6, 2008, providing information giving the background of why the workshop wasmounted and what the expected results and outcomes were, how it was organized and struc-tured, including the programme/agenda, who the expert-presenters were, a list of partici-pants, and some conclusions, and some recommendations.ª 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Introduction
This workshop was a satellite activity of the Annual ACURILconference which took place in Montego Bay from June 1e6, 2008.
The University of the West Indies Department of Libraryand Information Studies and the University Library, Mona, incollaboration with Unesco’s Information for All Programme(IFAP) hosted a workshop aimed at introducing variousprofessional groups to techniques for developing informa-tion literacy skills and programmes.
The University of the West Indies has over the pastdecade advanced the development and delivery of infor-mation literacy programmes on its campuses. This hasbeen done through the regular programmes as well asspecial education and training opportunities such as theCommonwealth Library Association (COMLA)/UnescoWorkshop which was hosted by the UWI Mona Library inJanuary 2006.
9 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Objectives of the global project
This workshop is a regional component of the Unesco Infor-mation Literacy Training the Trainers (TTT) Workshop Series,which incorporates twelve geographic regions. The Work-shop Series has as its overall goal ‘‘the training of a cadre ofpromising qualified Information Literacy trainers in each ofthe major geographic regions so that they, in turn caneducate other trainers in their respective regions and alsobegin educating directly the various ultimate beneficiarygroups. See http://www.albertkb.nl/pageID_5366125.html
The objectives of the workshop were to:
� develop strategies for incorporating informationliteracy into the teaching, and learning processes.� develop strategies for a working relationship between
librarians and facilitators of these processes� create common understanding of designing information
literacy programmes and to promote the use of stan-dards and models of information literacy including:
a
Figure 1 (a) Workshop programme and (b) list of participants.
UNESCO Training-the-Trainers Information Literacy Workshop 281
b
Figure 1 (continued)
282 F. Durrant
Figure 1 (continued)
UNESCO Training-the-Trainers Information Literacy Workshop 283
284 F. Durrant
Standard
IFLA Guidelines on Information Literacy for LifelongLearning.
Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)Standards for Information Literacy;
American Association of School Libraries (AASL) Stan-dards for Information Literacy;
Big 6 Model (Eisenberg and Berkowitz); andMaryland’s Information Skills (Nine Steps) Model,
Information literacy and the Caribbean
This workshop was timely for the Caribbean as theincreasing range of information now available in print andelectronic formats now makes the need for informationliterate citizens even more imperative. As informationliteracy plays an important role in daily life, the programmeof the workshop will contribute to the development of skillsfor defining information needs, evaluating informationsources, and synthesizing relevant information for presen-tation and use.
Participants at the workshop
The workshop was targeted to the various professionalgroups that have responsibilities for education and training,and who in turn deal with groups that will benefit frominformation literacy programmes. Approximately 35participants (see below) were introduced to issues involvedin developing information literacy training programmes. Inan effort to bring together a representative group from theCaribbean, people from the following groups were invitedto participate:
EducatorsUniversity/Community college studentsLibrarians, archivists, curators and other information
professionals
Figure 2 Participants at the wor
Policy makers e at national and local levels.Public Interest Groups and the mediaEmergency services providersRepresentatives of groups of senior citizens and people
with disabilities
Broad workshop programme outline e maintopics, duration & methodology
� Concepts and Information Literacy Demand� Information Literacy standards� Design of an Information Literacy training programme� Identification of the information literacy content for
the programme.
The duration of the workshop was 3 days, 21 h plus home-
work assignments.The methodology was very practical, with presentationsintroducing each topic followed by examples, discussions,and group or individual exercises. During the workshop, theparticipants built their own portfolios for an institutionalinformation literacy programme.
This workshop built on the experience of the otherregional workshops held as part of the Unesco InformationLiteracy Training the Trainers (TTT) Workshop Series andthe Commonwealth Library Association (COMLA) / Unescoworkshop hosted by the University of the West Indies inJanuary 2006.
Certificates of participation were awarded to participantswho successfully completed the workshop and prizes wereawarded for the three portfolios assessed as ‘‘top of theclass.’’
See Fig. 1 for the workshop programme details.
Key website addresses
� Email address for Workshop Applications: [email protected]
kshop session on Action Plans.
UNESCO Training-the-Trainers Information Literacy Workshop 285
� UWI Dept of Library and Information Studies: http://www.mona.uwi.edu/dlis/� UWI Mona Main Library: http://www.mona.uwi.edu/
library/index.html� ACURIL conference website: www.nlj.org.jm/acuril/
ACURIL08.htm
Workshop coordinating committee,expert-presenters and facilitators (Fig. 2)
Prof Fay Durrant,Dept of Library and Information Studies,University of the West Indies,Mona, Kingston 7, [email protected] Cherrell Shelley Robinson,
Head, Dept of Library and Information Studies,University of the West Indies,Mona, Kingston 7, [email protected]. Norma Amenu-Kpodo,Campus Librarian, University of the West Indies, Mona,and Executive Secretary of COMLA,Mona, Kingston 7, [email protected]. Verna George, Head Information Literacy Unit, Mona.Mrs. Karlene Robinson, Information Literacy Unit, Mona.Dr. Forest ‘‘Woody’’ Horton, Project Coordinator,Washington, D.C.Ms Vanessa Middleton Instruction and Reference Coordi-nator, American University of Sharjah, United ArabEmirates.Ms Barbie Keiser, Information Consultant, Washington, D.C.