Central European University A Program for University Teachers, Advanced Ph.D. Students, Researchers and Professionals in the Social Sciences and Humanities Summer University

  DIGITAL LITERACY FOR OPEN SOCIETIES: NETWORKED INFORMATION AND LIBRARIES

July 24 - August 4

 
Course Director: Peter Burnett (University of Oxford, UK)
Resource Persons: Lyn Robinson (University College, London)
                               David Bawden (City University, London)
 

Peter Burnett is Head of Technical Services in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. He has held former positions in the Universities of Birmingham and Lancaster in the UK, and the University of Washington, Seattle. In 1994 he was invited to establish and chair the International Advisory Board of the Open Society Institute's Regional Library Program (now Network Library Program), and he has been active in this Program since.  He has travelled widely within Central and Eastern Europe, on behalf of the NLP, and also in his capacity of occasional library consultant for the OSI Higher Education Support Program (HESP).

Lyn Robinson works as a freelance information specialist, with a particular interest in the impact of new technologies on scientific communication. She is currently studying for her PhD at the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London. Previous positions have included IT Manager for the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, and Manger of the Medical School Computer Unit at University College London. Lyn is an experienced lecturer, running several IT related courses for ASLIB, the Association for Information Management.  She has travelled widely within Central and Eastern Europe to deliver courses and workshops. She is the author of Installing a Local Area Network, an ASLIB Know How Guide, and a collection of articles and reviews.

David Bawden is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Science at City University London. He is Course Director of the MSc course in Pharmaceutical Information Management, and was previously Course Director of the MSc in Information Science. Prior to joining the University in 1990, he worked in information and IT services in pharmaceutical research. His teaching and research interests include information retrieval, information policies and strategies, scientific and medical information systems, and the history and philosophy of the information sciences. He is the author of five books, and over eighty journal articles and published conference papers, and has conducted training courses for a variety of organisations, including the British Library, the Library Association (London) and ASLIB, the Association for Information Management.
 

Course description
This new course builds upon the popular and successful 'Libraries and the Internet' summer school which ran in 1997, 1998 and 1999.  The new syllabus broadens the scope and coverage of its predecessor, while taking account of new developments in information and communications technologies, and the changing nature and needs of potential students.

The new course focuses on the concept of digital literacy.  That is the ability to understand how information is generated and communicated in all formats.  Typically, this requires some subject specific knowledge, married to the ability to create a critical framework for the retrieval, organisation, evaluation, presentation and use of information for any given purpose.  These skills form the foundation of almost all professional activities world wide.  They are however, essential to those involved in library and information work, whose primary role is to facilitate access to organised collections of knowledge, in whatever format, and to communicate digital literacy, to others.

This course is designed for librarians, information specialists, teachers and trainers of librarianship and information science, and researchers in these areas.

Aims of the course
* to give participants an understanding of the concept of digital information literacy, its significance in promoting open societies, and its relevance to libraries and information services
* to give participants the knowledge and skills to practise, promote and teach digital literacy in their own professional work
* to assist participants to understand the variety and nature of digital information sources (particularly Internet), and to appreciate methods for finding, accessing and producing digital resources
* to show the role of knowledge organisation and critical thinking in the evaluation and use of digital information resources
* to enable participants to develop skills of teaching and communicating the principles and practice of digital literacy (including the use of networked resources)

Main topics to be covered:
1 Digital literacy
2 Information and communication technologies
3 The library in society
4 Information resources
5 Finding and accessing digital information
6 Evaluating and organising information
7 Producing digital information
8 Training the trainer
9 Libraries and librarians in the digital age

A more detailed course description will be found later at http://www.ceu.hu/sun/sunindx.html

Teaching methods
The course will comprise a series of lectures, practical exercises and guided reading. In addition, informal seminars and personal tutorials will be arranged to cover in further detail topics of particular
interest to participants, and also to cover core skills (such as use of  computers, programs and networks) for those participants who would find this helpful.

 

Central European University does not discriminate on the basis of--including, but not limited to--race, colour, national and ethnic origin, religion, gender or sexual orientation in administering its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.