Presented at LILAC 2009

1. Supporting ourselves to support research
Imperial College London’s
Medicine Information Literacy Group
(MILG)
Jacqueline Cousins
j.cousins@imperial.ac.uk
Kate Perris
k.perris@imperial.ac.uk

2. • Maintaining current awareness
• Liaison
• Delivering good quality and relevant
information literacy sessions
• Ongoing professional development
All librarians face similar challenges:
Supporting Research

3. Presentation Objectives:
• Provide an overview of how Imperial Medical
Libraries have met these challenges.
• Explain the work of the Medicine Information
Literacy Group (MILG) and the SKiLD Group
(South Kensington Learning Development).
• Share practice with colleagues outside
Imperial College London.

4. Medicine Information Literacy Group
(MILG)
Created in 2004 to:
• Address the research support needs of
Imperial’s medicine faculty.
• Co-ordinate information literacy training
across five Imperial Medical campuses.
• Ensure consistent and ongoing liaison.

5. Medicine Information Literacy Group
(MILG)
Created in 2004 to:
• Create a peer support network.
• Maintain and develop skills.

6. MILG Members
• Six Principal Library Assistants.
• One Campus Library Manager.
• One Senior Library Assistant representative.
• Various representatives from other library
groups.

7. Learning and
Development
MILG SKiLD
NHS Group
Public
Services
Marketing
Imperial Library’s
wider group structure

8. Frequency of MILG meetings
• Organised around the academic year.
• Monthly meetings (November – June)
• Weekly meetings (July – October)
 MILG divides in to sub-groups

9. Work carried out by MILG
• Delivering information literacy training
sessions
• Preparing and improving training
• Co-ordinating liaison with the faculty
• Current awareness
• Ongoing professional development

10. Delivering training sessions
• Small and large group hands-on training
• Lectures
• Personal Response System (PRS)
• Online quizzes
• Informs tutorials

11. Preparing and improving training:
• MILG sub-groups create teaching materials
 PowerPoint templates
 Workbooks
• Feedback
 Student evaluation forms
 Diagnostic questionnaires
 Reflective narratives

12. Liaison
• Embedding library training in to the medicine
curriculum
 Linking in to Problem Based Learning
 Evidence Based Medicine
 Critical appraisal
• Future developments – the medicine blog
• Developing working relationships with
academics at each campus

13. Ongoing Liaison
• Reviewing and reacting to changes within the
medicine curriculum
• Identifying where library training could be
integrated
• ‘Selling’ library training to academics and
students
• Attending faculty meetings

14. Resource Champions
Each MILG member will be assigned a resource
to ‘Champion’ which involves:
 Producing and updating user resource guides
 Obtaining publicity and documentation from
resource providers
 Subscribing to relevant mailing lists and news
feeds
 Giving the group refresher training and creating
one-to-one training checklists for the resource

15. MILG Wiki
• Allows MILG members to access the work of
MILG sub-groups
• Keeps the group in contact
• Hosts example searches for specific
resources
• Stores useful articles and links

17. Professional Development
• Peer support network.
• MILG meetings are a forum to discuss new
ideas.
• Train the Trainer
 Teaching practice
 Training on resources
• External training
 e.g. voice projection

18. Adapting the MILG model:
(The SKiLD Group)
• Cross-faculty Imperial Library group.
• Meets on a monthly basis to share knowledge
and ideas e.g. teaching methods.
• Delivers cross-faculty training.

19. Adapting the MILG model:
(The SKiLD Group)
• Uses SharePoint to maintain communication.
• Provides peer support e.g. Train the Trainer
and peer observation.
• Resource champions are especially useful for
cross faculty resources.

20. Conclusion
• MILG ensures that a consistent service is
offered across medical campuses.
• MILG members have a body of knowledge,
contacts and experience to draw on.
• Current awareness is maintained
• Good quality information literacy is offered
which adapts to the needs of the faculty.

21. Conclusion
• A successful peer support network has been
created.
• MILG works in a way that allows the group to
take on new challenges and continue to
develop new services.

22. Credits
• MILG Wiki images: © wetpaint.com, inc. 2009
(www.wetpaint.com)