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A Summary of the International Intercollegiate Invitational Information Literacy Contest, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, July 2010

by Professor (Julia) Xiaojuan Zhang

OVERVIEW

Aiming to facilitate strengthened communication and cooperation between university students, and between students and various academic and administrative units within the broader university context, and with a view to enhance student awareness of the power of information, and the critical importance of strengthening student information literacy competency so as to enable them to better cope with intensive global competition in the Information Age, the School of Information Management (SIM), Wuhan University, Wuhan, China (http://www.sim.whu.edu.cn), successfully hosted the first International Intercollegiate Invitational Information Literacy Contest on July 13, 2010. The theme of the Contest was “Information Communicates the World: Cultivating the Future Leaders of the Information Profession.” This very special event, the first of its kind internationally, was a part of a broader umbrella event - - the First Wuhan University International Exchange Camp of Student Organization (Association), held from July 11 to 18, 2010, which involved many diverse activities, including some of which were culturally-oriented, some sports-centered, some historically-based, some arts and crafts-oriented, and some of which were based on Wuhans unique geographic location in China as the principal central lake region of the country.

BACKGROUND

The First Wuhan University International Exchange Camp of Student Organization (Association), was initially proposed by the Student Organization (Association) of Wuhan University. The Information Literacy Contest was an integral constituent of the broader Camp activities. The Camp idea and the contest event were both strongly supported by the University.

In addition to the Information Literacy contest event, the other events of the Camp included: the Academic Report on Polar Scientific Expedition; the Contest of Business Case Analysis for International Students; the Happy Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Seminar and Invitational; the Chinese Paper-cutting Art Workshop; the Traditional Chinese Silk Workshop; the Traditional Chinese Martial Arts Workshops; the Traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony and Workshop; and the Camp was concluded by a Cultural Tour of The Three Gorges.

In addition to being an integral part of the aforementioned Camp, the Information Literacy Contest was also incorporated into the iProfessional Leadership Development Summer Program, hosted by SIM, through July 12 to 14.

PREPARATIONS

As the sponsor and organizer of the entire Camp and its component activities, Wuhan University covered the local expenses of all accepted participants during their stay with the Camp, including their tour of the Three Gorges. Specifically, the University defrayed student: (1) accommodation costs; (2) local transportation costs; (3) the incidental expenses of business and administration transacted during the camp; (4) tickets for various tourist activities; and (5) basic accident insurance coverage for short-term travel. As the official host of the Contest and the Summer Program, SIM also provided another RMB1,000 yuan for each international contestant.

At the 2010 annual conference of iSchools (Feb, 2010, University of Illinois at Champaign), to which Dean Chen of SIM was invited to attend as an international iDean and to which the author was also invited in order to introduce the Wuhan IL contest to the meeting, a very positive reaction and response to Wuhan Universitys proposal and sponsorship of the Information literacy contest was received from the dean-participants attending that conference. An iCaucus agreement was therefore reached, committing the iCaucus to release some funding which would correspond approximately to 1/2 of the transportation costs incurred for travel from the participating students home institution to Wuhan, to help support their participation in the contest, and that this amount would be matched by funding provided by the students school.

Besides the introduction of the Wuhan University event at the above iSchool meeting in the USA, and in addition to extensive posting of announcement details in various LIS journals and websites, Wuhan University faculty members actively contacted many universities in Europe, Asia, and America in order to promote wide global interest and solicit candidate contestant applications.

Taking the fortuitous opportunity of the Summer Program, the University invited internationally acknowledged experts and well-known scholars in the information literacy education field, including Dr. Forest Woody Horton (USA), Professor Alease Wright (USA), Professor Albert Boekhorst (The Netherlands), Professor Mei-ling Wang (Taiwan, China), and Professor (Julia) Xiaojuan Zhang (mainland China), to design written examination tests, to serve as contest reviewers, and to offer seminar type courses. Their presentations (PPTs) have been posted at SIMs website at: http://sim.whu.edu.cn/board/show_board_news.php?board_news_id=1825

SIM also recruited undergraduate and graduate students with English language proficiency to work as volunteers with the experts and contestants during their stay at the Camp. These students established and maintained excellent relationships with the invited international experts and the contestants in daily activities.

VENUE

There were 30 accepted international contestants - - both graduate and undergraduate students from universities around the world. Among them, three from the USA, two from Europe, four from the Philippines, two from Singapore, two from Macao, China, one from Hongkong, China, and 16 from mainland China. While the number is comparatively small, the participants were of very high caliber and all were enthusiastic in accepting this opportunity to come to this first-of-a-kind event in China.

Agenda

The Opening Ceremony

The Information Literacy Contest

The Winners

First Prize Winner:

Jason Phelpsfrom University of Washington, USA

Second Prize Winners:

Steven Van Tuylfrom University of Pittsburgh, USA

Jorge Martinsfrom University of Sheffield, UK

Gladys Joy Enticofrom University of the Philippines – Deliman, Philippines

Huilin Xiongfrom Wuhan University, China

Third Prize Winners:

Martin Julius V. Perezform University of the Philippines – Deliman, Philippines

Si Shenform Singapore Management University, Singapore

Catherine Jensenfrom University of Pittsburgh, USA

Joseph Yapfrom University of the Philippines – Deliman, Philippines

Yuanyuan Chenfrom University of Macao, China

Bowen Dufrom Tongji University, mainland China

The Award Certificates for the above winners were awarded at the Closing Ceremony of the Camp on July 15, 2010. Dr. Forest Woody Horton Jr. First Prize Award, and Da Vinci Huis Second and Third Prize Awards were awarded to Jason Phelps, Steven Van Tuyl, and Jorge Martins, respectively, by Prof. Albert Boekhorst on July 14. A Certificate of Successful Completion of the Program was awarded to each of the participants who completed the entire program at Wuhan. The University wishes to extend its sincere appreciation to all of the participants for a “job well done!”

FEEDBACK

Here is some selected feedback from some of the participants:

l I liked the friendly climates of the Contest that was created; everybody is a winner, and they get along with each other.

l I really enjoyed my stay in Wuhan University, learning about your culture, and making friends with the locals. I would always love to come back there. I learned a lot from all the activities of the program, especially the iProfessional. It is very informative and taught me a lot about Information Literacy, which is the current trend in our profession today.

l I really appreciated your program and would advice to continue it. It is really a great experience.

l It (Information Literacy Contest held in Wuhan University) was really a successful event.

SOME CLOSING WORDS

Wuhan University, which successfully mounted the UNESCO Training-the-Trainer Information Literacy (Wuhan) Workshop in 2008, has once again played an pro-active leading role in developing information literacy practical learning programs through the initialization and organization of its International Intercollegiate Invitational Information Literacy Contest. It is our wish that the information literacy best practices, perhaps coupled with diverse cultural and other activities such we did at Wuhan, will be carried out internationally in more and more countries and regions. This will require creative work and pioneering efforts, and, ideally, with the active support, participation and advocacy of our colleagues in education and academia beyond the LIS faculties, as well as other sectors, both public and private. Wuhan University stands ready to advise, encourage and assist in the conduct of such endeavors to the extent its resources permit.