Librarians gathered in mid-November to discuss discovery tools and the impact they have on information skills teaching, at the “Information Literacy and Summon” event hosted at the Queen Mary University of London library. This free conference sponsored by ProQuest, now in its fourth year, included talks from librarians who are developing new approaches to information literacy, working with students and academics, creating games and using discovery services to raise awareness of a wide range of resources.
This year, we sensed a shift that librarians are focusing less on how Summon can be used and more about what librarians can do with the additional time it creates for them. As such there was a reduced focus on teaching information literacy with Summon and more about using the time-savings in different ways to deliver more value to researchers. As highlighted in the University Staffordshire blog post on the event, librarians can move beyond the basics of teaching information literacy and accelerate their strategic approach to helping students research better to find the information they want.
We encourage you to take a look at and review the following presentations to get a flavor for the event:
- Adam Edwards and Vanessa Hill, Middlesex University London, “Our Work Here is Done” (video | SlideShare)
- Mary Funnell, Queen Mary University of London, “Drop-ins In a Medical Library” (Prezi)
- Katherine Rose, Regents University of London, “Simply Does It” (SlideShare)
- Sue Carter, Ute Manecke, Mari Kermode, London South Bank University, “Summon@LSBU” (SlideShare)
- James Soderman, Queen Mary University of London, “Is it Enough with Just a Discovery Tool - Lessons from Nanchang” (Prezi)
We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Queen Mary University of London for hosting this year’s event, and to the event organizer Pat Simons, Deputy Director, Student Services.
If you have thoughts, would like to engage with us further or present a topic on how discovery services are impacting your library or library instruction please connect with us.
This includes enhancements that enable more successful known-item searching, along with integration with Springshare LibChat 2 and EasyBib.…
Summon delivers results and a user experience focused on ease of use, relevancy, easy customization, and research integrity.…
The Information Literacy and Summon Day takes place each year in the UK; the 2013 event now has conference proceedings available. The 2014 event is scheduled for 15 July.…