1. Project Update with a Presidential Curveball
Eleanor Johnston, Subject Librarian

2. Original fellowship action plan
Promote and train staff to use and utilise online reading lists
Research on student self-efficacy
Organising Teachmeets
Sharing skills in Staffordshire Graduate attributes (such as digital and information literacy)*
* SPOILER: important

3. Update 1: reading lists
Updated platform which has been a bit of a horror show
Only just getting it stable and reliable enough for promo and rollout Staffs.rebuslist.com
Moving swiftly on……

4. Update 2: Self-efficacy research
Just in case you are unsure:
Not ‘confidence’, ‘intelligence’, ‘self-esteem’
“Self-efficacy differs from self-esteem. Self-efficacy is built on fact: I know that I can be successful in this subject, class, or endeavor because I have been successful before.” (Feinstein, 2014, p.409)

5. Update 2: Self-efficacy research (continued)
Research conducted on Step Up to HE students before 1st library session and after 3rd session
Now have a dataset of 11 cohorts
Working with MMU to produce further findings
Already produced some conclusions

6. Step up and self-efficacy

7. Update 3: teachmeets
“Teachmeets are informal, collaborative experiences organised by educators, for educators, in order to share ideas and experiences. The focus is on sharing ideas through short presentations with attendees as participant or presenter.” (Futures Learning, 2016)

8. Update 3: teachmeets (continued)
Held 7 Teachmeets, attended by information professionals and specialists in various areas of education
The next one is scheduled for Thursday 27th April 2017, entitled:
'Information Literacy & Making Judgements: from Brexit to The White House'
Which brings us nicely onto…….

9. UPDATE 4: SHARING SKILLS IN STAFFORDSHIRE graduate attributes
I focussed on the most important and relevant attribute to my profession…… “Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.” (CILIP, 2015)

10. The presidential curveball
I visited the USA from 30th October to 16th November 2016
During this time something quite important was happening
I worked with International Relations and Politics to produce a blog
This contained interviews with ordinary voters in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee

11. How did people make voting judgements for The US election?
You can find all the interviews, videos and photos on blogs.staffs.ac.uk/uselection
Sample interviews:

13. “Ultimately, one Big Lie leads to the next, and then ultimately and inevitably, results in a ‘Post-Truth Presidency’” (Hart, 2004)*
* yes, 2004

14. Fake news
The interest in this issue has massively increased since my visit in October. You will find articles and posts (& Government interest) daily e.g.
Source: IFLA International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the global voice of the library and information profession.

15. Leads to a discussion on Finding information
Via:
Peer Review
Scholarly Articles
Academic Rigour
And a massive great think about Information Professionals and their role in Higher Education and Society

16. In summary
You will see Online Reading Lists rolled out and publicised further in 2017
More research on self-efficacy will be published this year
Come along to one of our Teachmeets if you can
The information literacy question is very much “To be continued…..”
I’ll be talking about Fake News and the like at the TEF Conference. See you there!

17. References
Brinkhurst-Cuff, C. (2017) MPs to investigate threat to democracy from ‘fake news’’. Available at: (Accessed: 1 February 2017). Feinstein, S. (2014) From the Brain to the Classroom: the encyclopedia of learning. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Futures Learning (2016) What is a Teachmeet? [Online] Available at: Accessed 30th January HART, G. 2004, The Post-Truth Presidency: Many voters seem not to care whether their leaders deceive them, [Online] New York Times Book Review. 10th October Available at: (Accessed 31st January 2017). IFLA (2017) Alternative Facts and Fake News – Verifiability in the Information Society [Online] Available at: (Accessed 28th January 2017). JOHNSTON, E. (2016) The US Presidential Election: Live from the USA! [Online] Available at: (Accessed 30th January 2017).

18. FURTHER RESEARCH
Brooker, C. (2016) ‘Clip from Charlie Brooker’s 2016 Wipe', Charlie Brooker’s 2016 Wipe, 22:00 02/01/2017, BBC2 England, 60 mins. 00:49:42-00:50:40. [Online] Available at: (Accessed 01 Feb 2017). Moe,R. (2017) All I Know Is What’s on the Internet. [Online] Available at: (Accessed 01 Feb 2017). Noble, S.U. (2017) Google and the Misinformed Public. [Online] Available at: (Accessed 01 Feb 2017). Watkin, W.D. (2016) Referendum petition hack shows even democracy can be trolled. [Online] Available at: (Accessed: 3 February 2017). Watkin, W. (2017) The truth about post-truth [Online] Available at: (Accessed 03 Feb 2017) Watanabe-Crockett, L. (2016) The Critical Thinking Skills Cheatsheet. [Online] Available at: (Accessed 01 Feb 2017).