Digital Award for IL

Digital Award for Information Literacy 2020 - Winner announced!

The winner of the Digital Award for Information Literacy 2020 is....

Step up to Masters  - Jiani Liu, Dan Pullinger, Sunny Dhillon, Angela Newton, Paul Cave, Laura Fitch at the University of Leeds. Our 2020 Award Winners will be invited to attend the presentation of Awards at LILAC 2022.

Some words from our winners;

"We’re delighted to accept this award on behalf of the Learning Services and Learning Technologies Teams at the University of Leeds. It's very satisfying to be recognised by our peers for our work in creating a resource to support our large and diverse taught postgraduate community! We’d also like to thank the students and academic colleagues who contributed to the videos and provided us with valuable feedback.

Step Up to Masters was launched as part of our Skills@Library service at the University of Leeds in September 2019. The online resource supports successful transition to Masters level study, with a particular focus on academic skills and information literacy development, and is designed to complement departments’ own induction and transition programmes. Students also have the opportunity to explore key strategies for Masters study in more detail through an accompanying suite of face-to-face workshops. The project was prompted by a growth in Masters student numbers, and a heavy demand from this cohort for Skills@Library support.

And finally, we’d like to thank the wonderful community of information literacy practitioners and researchers who never fail to inspire us with their creativity and their dedication to supporting students and society at large. We look forward to seeing many of you at LILAC 2021 in Manchester!"

Jiani Liu, Dan Pullinger, Paul Cave, Sunny Dhillon, Laura Fitch, Angela Newton (Leeds University Library)

They also created a video about creating Step Up to Masters for their Library Annual Report.

And an excerpt of our judges comments;

"It was particularly inspiring to hear feedback from learners as well as staff about the positive impact the project has had and the scale of the impact within the institution.”

Maren Deepwell & Josie Fraser, Award Judges.

And finally, a few words from our award sponsor, The Open University;

"The Open University Library are delighted to be able to support the Digital Award for Information Literacy 2020. Digital and Information Literacy is core to our mission and we continue to advocate for Information Literacy across theworld. This year’s award ceremony may have been disrupted by the Coronavirus, but that should not detract from these amazing winners, as Information Literacy is as vital now as its ever been. So from one award winning Library to another, congratulations on
your incredible achievements!"

Selena Killick, The Open University

The nominees for the Digital Award for Information Literacy 2020 were;

• FOSIL Group (represented by Darryl Toerien)

• Digital Capabilities for Students (Isabel Virgo, Harry Kalantzis, Debbie Lenihan, Melanie Bashor, Shani Davis, Mary Eld, Kevin Watson, Oxford Brookes University)

• Step up to Masters (Jiani Liu, Dan Pullinger, Sunny Dhillon, Angela Newton, Paul Cave, Laura Fitch, University of Leeds)

This award recognises an individual or group who develop the best new digital educational resource for promoting Information Literacy (IL). The winner will receive £500 for personal use and £500 for their nominated charity.

Criteria

Nominations will be evaluated in relation to the following criteria:

• Raising the profile of IL within an organisation or sector

• Developing a digital resource (e.g. online course, service, product or app) which develops and enhances IL skills

• Innovation, initiative, originality and sustainability

• Impact on the target audience(s)

• Openness – is openly licenced, considers accessibility issues, supports flexible use.

Conditions

• Nominations may be from any sector
• Nominations must comply with basic accessibility standards e.g. W3C Standards
• The award is open to individuals or teams working in the UK only
• The nominated resource must have been launched at some point during the previous calendar year i.e. January-December 2019
• The resource will be openly available for reuse under Creative Commons licence and will be made available to download from online sources such as the Information Literacy website
• Factual webpages or documents e.g. an IL framework, will not be eligible
• The award will be presented at the LILAC networking evening in Manchester on Monday 6^th April 2020 and must be accepted by the winning individual or a representative of the winning group.

Nominations

Individuals and teams may self-nominate or be nominated by colleagues. Nominations should take the form of:

Either

A description and background account of the nominated digital resource. This should not exceed 1000 words.

Or

A short video (5 minutes maximum) presenting the nominated digital resource. If this option is selected, the video should be uploaded to YouTube as unlisted content and the URL provided on the application form.

How to apply

To make a nomination for the Digital Award for Information Literacy you will need to register as a member, or if you have already registered, just login to your account using the link at the top of the page. Once logged in to your account, scroll down to the awards section and select 'apply now'.