Presented at LILAC 2010

1. ‘Creating an information
literate Scotland’ Community
of Practice
Lesley Thomson
Knowledge Management Officer
Scottish Government
LILAC 2010

2. What is a community of practice?
• what it is about – joint enterprise as
understood and continually renegotiated by its
members
• how it functions – mutual engagement that
bind members together into a social entity
• what capability it has produced – shared
repertoire of communal resources that
members have developed over time
Wenger, E. (1998) 'Communities of Practice. Learning as a social system', Systems Thinker,
http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtml. Accessed September 10 2009.

3. Communities of practice (CoP)
• like-minded colleagues and
peers
• share your experiences and
learn from others
• collaborate and achieve
common outcomes
• accelerates learning
• validates and builds on existing
knowledge and good practice
• innovate and create new ideas
Communities of
practice are
groups of people
who share a
concern or a
passion for
something they
do and learn how
to do it better as
they interact
regularly

4. Types of CoP
• helping communities - forum for community members
to help each other with everyday work needs
• best practice communities - develop and disseminate
best practices, guidelines, and procedures for their
members use
• knowledge stewarding communities - organise,
manage, and steward a body of knowledge from which
community members can draw
• innovation communities - create breakthrough ideas,
new knowledge, and new practices

9. Purpose
connect up practitioners in
a range of sectors who
are all working towards the
common goal of creating an
information literate
Scotland.

13. General CoP success factors
clear purpose – what will it be used to do?
creating a safe and trusted environment
committed core group of active
participants
being motivated
knowing the needs of participants
blending face-to-face and online activities

14. What’s worked for us?
• nudges
• not too formal
• polls
• asking questions

15. I'll confess to being a serial lurker on this forum (more
reactive than proactive) and tend not to contribute (new
year's resolution is to contribute more!) but I wouldn't be
without my regular CoP e-mails.
It has been excellent in enabling me to discover
who else (both organisations and individuals) that
are thinking about Information Literacy and
discovering what they are doing practically to
address the many issues faced.
I am an avid reader of the CoP, but feel a tad guilty about my lack of
contribution. So, I am resolved to frequently update my blog and to
contribute more to the range of interesting conversations happening in
the CoP.

16. I was totally unfamiliar with the concept but have
found it easy to use - and very useful. I've also
recently had the opportunity to compare it to
alternative methods of communication, and I think it
stands up well.
On the down side - the fact that it is a closed
space means that you often need to post outside
the space as well. Double the work.
On the plus side - it's a great space for sharing information and ideas with a
wide range of people from different organisations. It's also great that it is
provided and supported by the Scottish Government.

17. What next?
• encourage greater participation
• marketing
• measuring success
• community charter
• hotseat/online conference
• face to face event