1. Sharing practice … collecting case studies /
exemplars of good practice
Christine Irving
Former SILP Project Officer
& Researcher
Freelance Information
Professional
Workshop on Promoting
Employability through Specific
Literacies
University of Greenwich, London
Tuesday 11th March 2014

2. Sharing practice … collecting case studies /
exemplars of good practice
Exercise: 15 mins
Think about the following
questions then discuss with the
person/s next to you.
Questions?
Sharing practice:
a. Do you share practice?
b. Why do you share or not share?
Exemplars of good practice:
a. Do you use exemplars of good
practice?
b. Why do you use or not use them?
Collect case studies or exemplars of good
practice:
a. Do you collect case studies or
exemplars of good practice?
b. If so what do you collect or what
do you use them for?

3. Sharing practice … collecting case studies /
exemplars of good practice
My answers
Sharing practice:
a. Do I share practice? - Yes
Exemplars of good practice:
a. Do I use exemplars of good
practice? - Yes
Collect case studies or exemplars of
good practice:
a. Do I collect case studies or
exemplars of good practice?
- Yes
What do I share, use and collect and
why
Development of a National
Information Literacy Framework
(Scotland)
A national overarching framework
that all sectors of education can
recognize and develop or which can
be applied to the world of work.

4. Development of a National Information
Literacy Framework (Scotland) – Aims:
• defining information literacy learning in terms of statements of skills, knowledge
and understanding
• enabling the notional levelling process and outcomes to become transparent and
clearly understood by other learning providers, receiving organizations and or
employers to meet the needs of the lifelong learner more effectively;
• supporting a continuing learning process through identifying a learning pathway
within the context of SCQF (Scottish Credit Qualification Framework) (SCQF, 2005)
as part of an educational guidance or personal development planning process;
• mapping the existing learning that is taking place allocating a notional level to
learning outcomes utilizing relevant reference points such as the SCQF generic
level descriptors with the intention of providing a general shared understanding of
each level which can then be linked to academic, vocational or professional
practice;
• incorporating and highlight CILIP's information literacy skills and competences
definition (CILIP, 2004) and SQA's Information Handling Skills Intermediate 2
qualification

5. Development of a National Information
Literacy Framework (Scotland)
A national overarching
framework
Enriching the framework with exemplars of good practice to
demonstrate how specific competencies can:
• be applied in practice for
different subjects, levels of pupils
/ students and how this could be
linked to the framework, the
steps involved and showing the
connection;
• demonstrate links to higher level
complex thinking skills and
innovation.

6. Collecting case studies /
exemplars of good practice 2009
Known exemplars
Identified through:
• Project partnerships
• Personal and Professional
networks
• Professional publications /
articles/ websites / blogs –
social media
• Draft framework piloting
exercise
But more needed …
Identifying new exemplars
• Initial email approach asking
for exemplars of good practice
– met with silence
• A new more proactive strategy
had to be adopted …

7. More proactive strategy …
• people did not see their activities as ‘exemplars of good practice’
• need to explore, identify, discuss, visit and see information literacy
activities being carried out by project partners and interested
parties
• then ask if the activity could be used as an exemplar / case study.

8. Lessons learned ….
• There is a tendency for people to think they are not doing anything special
and therefore do not respond to emails for exemplars of good practice.
• They are however happy to share their practice once contacted.
• It is therefore essential to use networks of contacts, leave plenty of time
to talk, visit and work with people on submitting their work as a case
study / exemplar.
• Sharing practice also contributes to professional development both for the
individual and their community and to the field of research.
Sharing practice … collecting case
studies / exemplars of good practice

9. Snapshot from National Information
Literacy Framework (Scotland) 2009
Framework case studies / exemplars of good practice http://www.therightinformation.org/temp-exemplars/
Workplace
• NHS Scotland information literacy competency framework – for NHS
staff, patients, general public
• Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy – set out change required: a focus on
individual development, a response to needs of the economy, demand of employers
• Scottish Government Information Services IL activities – workplace training
• iKnow (Information and Knowledge at work) – workplace training materials (blog
posting)
Public Libraries
• Inverclyde Libraries – employability course
• Caerphilly Public Libraries –
School case studies / exemplars of good practice
• Govan High School Future Skills Symposium – core transferable skills that pupils can use
in school and beyond – employability (blog posting)

10. Information skills for a 21st
Century Scotland
www.therightinformation.org/
Community of practice members:
• Share
practice, expertise, thoughts
and ask questions
• Contribute to the
communities’ knowledge of
information literacy
activities, case
studies, news, conferences
and events, new
research, discussions etc.
Collecting case studies /
exemplars of good practice 2012

11. Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland
www.therightinformation.org/
Community of Practice First face to face meeting - main areas of interest expressed:
• Developing core IL skills in FE;
• Assessing the impact of IL training;
• Advocacy for IL;
• Instructing teachers in IL,
• IL as an employability skill;
• IL toolkits for young people;
• Teaching IL skills in public libraries;
• Links between schools and public libraries,
• Use of electronic IL resources in public libraries;
• Online training packages in HE (short demo of SMILE);
• Workplace IL skills social media; training materials for teachers.
• NLS the Toolkit being developed - looking for partners to work with in the
different sectors on the toolkit.
• Identify training and CPD needs .

12. Collecting case studies /
exemplars of good practice 2012
Work, Employability theme ….
Crawford, John C and Irving, Christine. (2013) Information Literacy and Lifelong
Learning: Policy issues, the workplace, health and public libraries. Chandos
www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=2618&ChandosTitle=1
• Chapter 5 The challenge of the work environment
• Chapter 6 The Scottish Government Library: a case study
• Chapter 8 Employability, informal learning and the role of the public library.
Case studies collected through … knowledge, CoP, Jisc email lists …

13. Sharing practice … collecting case
studies / exemplars of good practice
Lessons learned:
Calls for exemplars of good practice or best practice do not work on their
own. Whether it is the actual term or words used people are reluctant to step
forward for whatever reasons.
Whether this is a nationality or professional trait or a combination of both it
leaves the collector with the task of seeking out activities, investigating them
and then making a decision on whether it fits the qualities they think makes a
good exemplar of good / best practice or case study.
Necessary to use a variety of means but using networks of contacts, getting
out and about talking to and seeing first hand what people are doing is an
amazing experience which despite being time consuming is definitely
worthwhile and has proved successful.

14. Collecting case studies /
exemplars of good practice 2012
So is it worth all the effort of collecting case studies / exemplars
of good practice?
Definitely …
it provides ideas and benchmarking possibilities and hopefully
will encourage sharing practice and collaborative working. It also
gives the research community insights into what activities
practitioners and researchers are involved in.
Personally
– it helped/helps my employability prospects