Learners engage with relevant information in their
disciplines, develop workflows and strategically handle many information formats,
demonstrating identification, collection and collation. When creating and using
information, learners will understand value and ethics. Learners should appropriately
attribute, citing their sources and develop practical skills to manage their
range and variety.
Personal
I collect Beatrix Potter figures; it's a tradition started by my Granny who gave me a figurine as a present when I was young knowing I loved the books. After she died, my family has continued to give them to me as presents. I have more than 70 now and when it became difficult for my family to keep track of the ones I have, I started to create a list. When I learned my cousin had an accident where some of hers fell off her shelf and got damaged, I thought for insurance purposes I should document them. So I took two photos of each figure: one of the figure itself and one of the bottom where the maker's mark is stamped. Then I input the information into an Excel spreadsheet. When I was given a published collector's guide, I used it to identify the stamps, the variations in age and style and how much each figure is worth. It was also useful to work out which figures I didn't have already and which I would like. I looked at the pictures to see which I prefer and made a wish list. However that guide book quickly became out of date and a new one wasn't published. So I discovered a more recent list which has updated prices for the figures on the internet. So the Excel spreadsheet holds all the information on the figures I have, plus the ones I still need, their age, make, stamp and of course value. I have put it on the cloud as well for insurance purposes in case I lose the hard copy on my computer. It has been very successful for myself, my family has appreciated it as well because they know how much they should pay and it has meant I have been receiving far more figures!
Professional
Like many librarians, I use bibliographic software such as Mendeley or Zotero. I prefer Zotero as it was what I used during my library degree and I taught it during my time at Cambridge Judge Business School in 1-2-1s with students, during live demos in lecture theatres and small group teaching at Homerton College. We always made sure to emphasise that students should get familiar with the software and set it up as early as possible because it would be too late when it came to writing the first essay or assignment. The best work flow is to save everything you look at as you're doing your readings, your research and your searches. Creating folders for subjects, courses or assignments helps organise the sources better and it's easier to find what you need. I also used a Word document alongside it, typing or copying and pasting useful quotes, making sure to add the page numbers with them. This meant I had readymade citations and bibliographies when it came to writing my essays and projects. At Cambridge Judge Business School, we also had a team account and we saved interesting articles, books and electronic resources into it, such as for our Harry Potter themed teaching sessions.
It was as successful as it could be depending on the limitations of the software; it's good practice to check Zotero once you save the item that it had saved properly and make any edits to the information to make sure it was correct, had all the information that was needed and there weren't any weird errors or capitalisation. It also doesn't always recognise the item type, so you save it as a webpage and make the changes yourself manually. Then, when it came to adding the citations and bibliographies from Zotero into Word, they would be accurate. It has been very useful both personally and professionally for me, the teams I worked with and for the students.
In reading this all for thing four and writing this piece, it has made me realise I am equally at home managing information professionally and personally, in all aspects of my life. My examples demonstrate how I have worked with everyone in my life in a professional context and at home. Managing information in an ethical way comes naturally to me as I am a perfectionist, wanting to have all the information possible to hand, giving credit where it's due and needing to know where the information has come from. I feel this part of information literacy is where I'm strongest.
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