It was great to meet Patricia Senn Breivik in Sheffield too; she led a discussion about IL and emphasised that we need to be more political about it. It was interesting to hear that some accrediting bodies in the US are now looking at student IL outcomes rather than counting how many books the library has! Pat also advised us to look at what industry wants for jobs which are hard to fill, citing her own experience with the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce.
Talking about the “information have-nots”, Pat reminded us about the UNESCO statement that IL is a basic right for life long learning and invited us to think about how IL works in an orally based society.
We also discussed library staff skills and time for IL advocacy – what are our expectations of library staff when they sit on committees, do we all have advocacy skills or is it better to play to individual strengths?

Inside the information commons, Sheffield (photo from Flickr)