Background Information
Acronym: SCONUL ACIL
Address:  102 Euston Street
City:  London
Zip:  NW1 2HA
Country:  UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:  info@sconul.ac.uk
Web Address:  http://www.sconul.ac.uk/activities/inf_lit/

General Inquiries About Organization
Name and Title:  Hilary Johnson, Advisory Committee Convenor, (Chief Librarian, University College Northampton, UK)
Telephone:  +44 (0) 1604 892045/6
Fax:  +44 (0) 1604 718819
E-mail:  hilary.johnson@northampton.ac.uk

Forum Contact Person
Name and Title:  Hilary Johnson, Advisory Committee Convenor, (Chief Librarian, University College Northampton, UK)
Telephone:  +44 (0) 1604 892045/6
Fax:  +44 (0) 1604 718819
E-mail:  hilary.johnson@northampton.ac.uk

Mission Statement
The focus of the Advisory Committee work has been on the development of information skills among students and staff within UK higher education. We feel strongly that, within higher education, information literacy should include the notion of an individual who is able to contribute to the synthesis of existing information, to further develop ideas building on that synthesis, and, ultimately, create new knowledge in a particular subject discipline.

Organizational Background/Description
The SCONUL Advisory Committee on Information Skills was first convened as a Task Force in early 1999, as a result of increased awareness of information skills training as an important strategic issue for UK university and college libraries and information services. A Briefing paper was produced in 1999. A Conference was held in July 2000 at the University of Warwick (UK), and the Task Force members contributed strongly to the IT&InfoLit Conference in Glasgow in March 2002. Since November 2002 it has been a formally constituted full advisory committee. Members have contributed to the 2nd Glasgow conference eLit2003. The conference is to be published in a new online journal, International Journal of e-literacy. Current Advisory Committee initiatives:

• Piloting of a transferable module for first year level undergraduates, in partnership with the Open University with accreditation, analogous to the International/European Computer Driving Licence.
• A series of workshops developing aspects of performance indicators and evaluation of IS work in HE. This work has been incorporated into a SCONUL manual.
• A sub-group of the Task Force has worked on aspects of identifying subject norms and their effects on information skills in relation to course learning outcomes.
• Liaison with the JISC-funded 'The Big Blue' project led by Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Leeds, which mapped current information skills teaching activity in both higher education and further education sectors http://www.leeds.ac.uk.
• The establishment of links with other relevant stakeholders in this area of work in both higher education, other education spheres, and more broadly in the LIS scene in the UK.
• Work has been done on establishing how much involvement and input Libraries and Library staff had to University institutional strategies on teaching and learning. A summary of the responses has been produced and the Advisory Committee is looking at how best to take this forward to promote examples of best practice.
• A joint event "Supporting learners: the evolving role of academic support staff in HE" is being organised by ACIL together with UCISA TLIG (Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association - Teaching and Learning Information Group) is being organised for late January 2004.

Chapters in: Martin, Allan and Rader, Hannelore (eds). Information and IT literacy: enabling learning in the 21st century. London: Facet, 2003.

Information skills in higher education: a SCONUL position paper, http://www.sconul.ac.uk

Corrall, Sheila and Hathaway, Helen (eds). Seven pillars of wisdom? Good practice in information skills development. Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Warwick 6-7 July 2000. London: SCONUL, 2000.

• Deborah Bragan-Turner, Arts & Humanities Librarian, University of Nottingham
• Peter Godwin, Academic Services Librarian, South Bank University
• Liz Hart, Director of Information Services, Staffordshire University
• Helen Hathaway, Information Skills Co-ordinator and Team Manager, Faculty of Science, University of Reading Library
• Hilary Johnson, Chief Librarian, University College Northampton (Convenor)
• Jo Parker, Information Literacy Unit Manager, The Open University, Milton Keynes
• Janet Peters, Director of Library and Information Services, University of Wales College, Newport
• Stephen Town, Director of Information Services, Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University
• Wendy White Faculty Liaison Librarian (Law, Arts and Social Sciences)University of Southampton