Published: October 30, 2017 by Virginia Tucker

The Fifth European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL) was held last month in Saint-Malo, France, with the theme of workplace information literacy. It featured keynote speakers and attracted participants from countries around the world. Two doctoral candidates in the San Jose Gateway PhD program, Katia Karadjova and Karen Kaufmann, gave presentations on their doctoral research projects; Karadjova presented on two additional topics during the conference. Photos: Karadjova in upper right; Kaufmann in lower left. Proceedings are available from:
ecil2017.ilconf.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/09/ECIL-2017-Book-of-abstracts.pdf

My presentation at the conference was on the topic of threshold concepts (Meyer & Land, 2003) and the pedagogical construct of information experience (Bruce et al., 2014), viewed in the context of online learning for students engaged in becoming information literacy (IL) professionals. This covered ideas about how these two constructs are synergistic and ways they can be used in combination, both to enlighten understanding of information literacy learning objectives and to guide curriculum design. During the session, we discussed a range of elements in the roles of IL professionals, particularly as evidenced in how we have both our own information experiences and how we play a facilitative role in the information experiences of others (Tucker, 2014). This was viewed within the larger context of the multiple roles that IL professionals have when engaged in teaching, mentoring, and collaboration; all of which call for deep understanding of information structures, learning design, and tactics for navigating the information environment. The presentation also explained the leading considerations when using threshold concepts to guide curriculum design (Land et al., 2006), and reported on illustrations of implementation from courses in the iSchool MLIS program. Selected papers, based on presentations at the ECIL conference, will be published next year in Communications in Computer and Information Science.

• Bruce, C.S., Davis, K., Hughes, H., Partridge, H., Stoodley, I. (eds.). (2014). Information experience: Approaches to theory and practice. Bingley UK: Emerald Group.
• Land, R., Cousin, G., Meyer, J.H.F., & Davies, P. (2006). Implications for course design and evaluation. In J.H.F. Meyer, R. Land (eds.), Overcoming barriers to student understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge, pp.195-206. New York: Routledge.
• Meyer, J.H.F. & Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (1): Linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the disciplines. In: C. Rust (ed.) Improving student learning: Ten years on, pp. 1-16. Oxford UK: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development.
• Tucker, V.M. (2014). The expert searcher’s experience of information. In C.S.Bruce, K.Davis, H.Hughes, H.Partridge, I.Stoodley (eds.), Information experience: Approaches to theory and practice, pp. 239-255. Bingley UK: Emerald Group.