The document summarizes the origins and use of "23 Things" programs in libraries and information literacy classes. It traces the concept back to a 2006 personal goals blog post that listed 43 things the author wanted to do. This inspired library initiatives where staff learn new technologies by committing to complete 23 tasks over 11-13 weeks. Key aspects include team blogs, weekly tasks, a focus on discovery over skills, and a celebratory completion event. Evaluation finds increased technology comfort and use, though not all staff complete the program due to time constraints. The document concludes by outlining the author's use of 23 Things in an information literacy class, including organization, tasks set, and reflections.
Reflecting on 23 Things: using 23 Things in an Information literacy class
1. Reflecting on 23 Things: using 23 Things
in an Information literacy class
Sheila Yoshikawa /
Sheila Webber
University of Sheffield,
Information School
December 2011
2. Origins of 23 Things
43 Things website
“Join over 3 Million people
who list their goals, share
their progress and cheer
Abram‟s (2006) “43 Things I
each other on”
might want to do this year”
http://www.43things.com/
e.g. “Register at
Blogger and start a
blog.”
“brainstorm-in-the-shower
idea” (Blowers, 2008)
Helene Blowers at the Public Library of
Charlotte & Mecklenburg County
http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/
Hundreds of 23
Things initiatives
around the world
Sheila Webber, 2011
3. Common characteristics
• Team of facilitators; often based in one institution
• Main blog or wiki + individual participant blogs
• 23 Things timetable announced in advance
• Programme usually lasts 11-13 weeks (plus extensions!)
• Focus on discovering Web 2.0 tools
• Includes reflection & interaction
• Each starter posting has information on the “Thing” +
instructions for one or more tasks
• May be face to face support sessions
• Celebration at the end including voting for favourite bloggers,
posts etc.; parties
• Certificate for those completing all 23 Things in given period
Sheila Webber, 2011
4. The originator‟s tips
1. “Encourage networking and the learning will follow
2. “Allow participants to blog anonymously
3. “Use 1.0 methods to communicate
4. “Encourage group discovery
5. “Design the program for late bloomers
6. “Focus on discovery, not skill building
7. “Reward staff for learning
8. “Online means hands-on, not hands-off
9. “Enable transparency and practice radical trust
10. “Continually encourage staff to play”
Blowers, 2008.
Sheila Webber, 2011
5. Recent examples
• 23 Things @ Sims Library, USA (April-August 2011):
http://simslibrary.blogspot.com/
• 23 Things City University, UK (June-September
2011): http://23thingscity.blogspot.com/
• University of Saskatchewan‟s (Canada) University
Library 23 Things (January-May 2011):
http://uofslibrary23things.blogspot.com/
• 23 Things for Professional Development (CPD23)
(UK) (June - October 2011): http://cpd23.blogspot.com/
• List of 23-things-type blogs on Delicious:
http://www.delicious.com/hblowers/learning2.0libraries
Sheila Webber, 2011
6. “Over the next 11 weeks we will be looking at a
range of Web 2.0 technologies, testing them
out and seeing how they have been used in
libraries and exploring how we could use them
here at City. Each week we'll also have a Cool
Extra Thing, which you can look at if you're
already familiar with that weeks Things, if
you're feeling adventurous or if you want to
look at concepts in more depth”
http://23thingscity.blogspot.com/
Sheila Webber, 2011
7. 23 Things Warwick (UK university)
• Publishing on the Web (Things 1-3) Create a blog; Write a post;
Register your blog with the programme)
• Keeping up to date (Things 4-6) Create iGoogle start page; Learn
about RSS; Subscribe to an RSS feed
• Time Management (Things 7-9) Using Doodle; Firefox
• Networking (Things 10-12) Using Twitter & Facebook
• Reflection (Things 13 & 23)
• Getting organised (Things 14-16) Diego; Zotero; EndNote
• Multimedia sharing (Things 17-19) Flickr; Creative Commons;
Youtube.
• Office 2.0 (Things 20-22) Wiki; Google Docs; Slideshare.
http://23thingswarwick.blogspot.com/
8. Completions
• For 23 Things based at one institution, stated
completion rates vary between 24% (Evans and
Barrett, 2009) and 80% (Whitehead, 2009)
• For CPD23 “780+ registered; 78 completed the
evaluation survey; 54 registered for completer‟s
certificate” (Birkwood 2011)
Sheila Webber, 2011
9. “The four most frequent reasons given by the group
for not completing the Learning 2.0 program were:
1. lack of time;
2. other priorities;
3. [lack of] relevance; and
4. being a part-time staff
member”
(Gross and Leslie, 2010: 661)
Edith Cowan University, Australia
http://eculibrarylearning.blogspot.com/
Sheila Webber, 2011
10. Community & networking important
“Library and careers staff had a sense of community
and shared learning because they were already
cohesive units and had opportunities to discuss the
programme at coffee or during their working day. This
was not the case with staff across many different
departments”
[Irish programme aimed at faculty and other non-
library staff]
(McCaffrey et al, 2010: 27)
Sheila Webber, 2011
11. Follow-ons in individual workplaces?
• Adding new “Things” to the original exercise
• Incorporating learning new skills into appraisals
(Titangos and Mason, 2008)
• “Lite” version with 5 or 6 Things (Leech, 2010)
• Short face-to-face training sessions on specific Web
2.0 tools
“23 Things provided us with the opportunity to reach a critical mass of
staff and raise awareness of Web 2.0 technologies. However, we have
found that to maintain current awareness of new technologies, we need to
incorporate a wider choice of options when giving staff opportunities for
workplace learning.”
(Gross and Leslie, 2010: 665)
Sheila Webber, 2011
12. Outcomes
Key outcomes:
• more comfort with Web 2.0;
• more use of Web 2.0 tools in workplace;
• more innovation;
• more networking.
(Though evaluation not always rigorous)
“The Learning 2.0 program has had a great impact on
staff, who now know they are capable of learning
new technologies, and that it is OK to learn through
exploring and playing with web applications, rather
than having to wait for more formal structured
training to be scheduled.”
(Lewis, 2008)
Sheila Webber, 2011
13. “With the incentive of the sure prize of an MP3 player and the
possible grand prize of a laptop, and more meaningfully,
inspired by the newly-acquired knowledge of Library 2.0, 43 of
98 learners managed to overcome all obstacles and complete
the program. On February 14, 2008, over 40 people gathered in
the Central Branch‟s meeting room to attend „23 Things
Valentines Day Celebration‟.” [Santa Cruz Public Libraries]
(Titangos and Mason, 2009: 48-49)
“The project is like a forceful storm,
sweeping away mental dust and
cobwebs, along the route.”
(Titangos and Mason, 2009: 54)
Sheila Webber, 2011
14. 23 Things in: Inf6350:
Information Resources and Information
Literacy
Sheila Webber, 2011
15. Basics about the class
• Core class for Masters students (worth quarter of all
credits in semester 1)
• 115 students: 29 British, 63 Chinese, rest from 10
other countries
• MA Librarianship (32) and most of rest MSc
Information Management: majority of class have not
worked, and do not intend to work, in libraries
Sheila Webber, 2011
16. Module aims
To enable students to:
• understand from both theoretical and practical
perspectives the notions of information needs,
information literacy and information behaviour;
• understand the nature and function of different types
and forms of information resources;
• develop their own information literacy and
understanding of its application to their future lives; and
• develop specialised skills in searching for, evaluating
and packaging information in response to a user query
using a variety of information resources.
17. Learning environment
• Base room: long lab, with bays of 8 computers either side
• Use of Blackboard for powerpoints, handouts, sign-
up/information on assignments etc.
• Variety of sessions, for example
– “Information literacy in our future careers” - preparation and
exhibition in a large hall
– Smaller-group seminars, on abstracting & discussing a research
article
– Lecture + workshop on the information interview
– Focus on types of searching (search engines, Dialog, journals
etc.)
18. Videos (trailers and exhibition vid)
Search Inf6350 on youtube.com
Sheila Webber, 2011
19. (My) aims for the 23 Things
• Students learn more about blogging and some other tools
• Provide a small-team focus in this large class (socialisation
aspect)
• Place to share resources (e.g. of items about information
literacy) and perceptions (e.g. of the “IL in our careers”
exhibition)
• Opportunity to practice writing, and presenting information
• As I was aware of the growing pressures of assignments,
there was deliberately less focus/pressure on the blogs in the
later weeks of the semester
Sheila Webber, 2011
20. Organisation
• Put students in teams of 4, each paired with another
team
• Used Blogger as Sheffield uses Goggle for uni email
• Cultural mix in each pair of teams
• Some exercises required teams to interact
• Reasons for not making them individual blogs:
– Socialisation
– Learning from each other
– Logistics: easier to keep track of 30 team blogs than 115
blogs!
Sheila Webber, 2011
21. Followed standard practice in -
• Publicising Things & Timetable
• 12 week schedule
• Main blog, with team blogs linked into home page
• Making first activity setting up the blogs & posting
• (Mostly) Identifying topic and setting tasks - but
– Most tasks at least started in class
– Later on, tasks framed as more optional, or a task which
is not blogged (e.g. critiquing an article in the seminar)
Sheila Webber, 2011
22. The Things
1. Blogs (Present) 14. Auditing information behaviour (IB)
2. Information Literacy: Seven Pillars 15. Favourite IB models
3. Abstracting (Present) 16. Information interviewing (Identify &
4. The new information universe (Scope) Scope)
5. Information Literacy: global picture 17. Favourite Things 2
6. Google secrets (Plan and Gather) 18. Teaching information literacy
7. Monitoring (Gather) 19. Extracting information from databases
8. Communicating using posters (Plan & Gather)
(Present) 20. Critiquing an article
9. Legal & ethical use (Manage) 21 Effective use of Dialog (Plan &
10. Documenting events Gather)
11. Wise use of Wikipedia (Evaluate and 22. Evidence Based Information use
Manage) (Evaluate & Manage)
12. Uses of social media 23. Evaluating 23 Things
13 Favourite Things 1
“Present” etc refers to the SCONUL 7 Pillars of Information Literacy
Sheila Webber, 2011
23. Difficult to decide on Things!
• Not trying to cover all the learning outcomes with
the Things
• Wanted the Things to support the outcomes,
intertwined with the other approaches to learning,
teaching and assessment
Sheila Webber, 2011
24. Example: Thing 5: IL Global Picture
資訊素養
“1. Each of you individually should find an item about information
literacy that is in your own language. It can be a website, a tutorial,
an article or a report, but it must use the phrase that means
"information literacy" in your native language.
2. Each of you should post a link to that item on your team blog. If
more than one person in one team posts the same item - the first
person to post it keeps it - the next person has to find something
different and post that instead.
3. Next week, I will ask you to explain to someone who is not a
native speaker of your language what the item is about. [They had
to explain to their partner teams]
4. Please then add a sentence or two in English to your blog post
explaining what the item is, if you have not already done so.
In this way we will create a collective international bibliography of
material about Information Literacy through your blogs.”
Sheila Webber, 2011
25. Example: Thing 6: Google secrets
“Immediately after the Alastair's session, make an
individual post on your team blog, listing one new
thing you learnt about Google (or about some
other search engine) … if you were already a
search engine wizard when you came to Sheffield,
say what your best Google search tip is.”
Sheila Webber, 2011
26. My reflections
• Am just getting formal feedback now, so mainly my
views + informal feedback/ observation
• Team aspect was helpful:
– Teams sat in the same place in the lab each week
– Got to know their team members
– We could more easily monitor who was missing & who was
not contributing: blogs good way of starting discussion on this
– Some students not comfortable with the web, helped by
teams (sometimes too shielded by them too?)
– also logistically useful when students divided up & going to
different rooms! (they knew their Team)
Sheila Webber, 2011
27. 23 Things aspect
• Visible learning about blogs (i.e. they improved) & some
more confidence in using features like embedding pictures
and videos
• Blogs were more creative focus (than Blackboard) for
sharing links, pictures, videos, reflections
– Good way for everyone to share in class exercises like the “IL in
my language” one
• Useful (for educators) being able to highlight the “tasks for
you” in the blog
• Creative and thoughtful posts
• Attendance has been better this year (though no research
as to cause/effect!)
Sheila Webber, 2011
28. Negatives/ Things to change
• Too many major Things, especially in mid-point! Could
have split some Things into smaller chunks
• Despite efforts, some teams disengaged in last weeks
• Did not do enough to encourage interaction between blogs
(student suggested today that we have subsets of blogs)
• Needed more of a team doing the online part (mostly me,
although more help from colleagues in class)
• Some Things worked, others so-so
• Some students needed some even more basic help at start
• Could have more of a Web 2.0 slant (though some of the
non-Web 2.0 Things worked well)
Sheila Webber, 2011
29. Will I do it again next year??
I think I will
Sheila Webber, 2011
31. References
• Abram, S. (2006) 43 things I might want to do this year. Information Outlook, 5.
Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FWE/is_2_10/ai_n16133338/
• Alcorn, L. (2011) Beyond 23Things. Presented at: Computers in Libraries 2011.
Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/lalcorn/beyond-23-things-computers-in-
libraries-2011
• Birkwood, K. (2011) 23 things for professional development, training and networking in
hard times. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/maedchenimmond/23-things-for-
professional-development-training-and-networking-in-hard-times-katie-birkwood
• Blowers, H. (2008) Ten Tips About 23 Things. School Library Journal, 54 (10), 53-57.
Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6600689.html
• Evans, J. and Barratt, L. (2009) Getting to know Web 2.0 tools. Library and Information
Update, November, 40-43
• Greenhill, K. (2009) Why learning about emerging technologies is part of every
librarian‟s job. Paper presented at: EDUCAUSE Australasia 2009, Perth, W.A., 3-6 May
2009. Retrieved from http://www.caudit.edu.au/educauseaustralasia09/index.php
• Gross, J. and Leslie, L. (2010) Learning 2.0: a catalyst for library organisational change.
Electronic Library, 28 (5), 657-668
Sheila Webber, 2011
32. References
• Gross, J. and Leslie, L. (2008) Twenty-three steps to learning Web 2.0 technologies in
an academic library. Electronic Library, 26 ( 6), 790-802.
• Leech, H. (2010) 23 Things in Public Libraries. Ariadne, (24). Retrieved from
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue64/leech/
• Lewis, L. (2008) Library 2.0: taking it to the street. Paper presented at: VALA2008 14th
Biennial Conference, Melbourne, Australia from 5 - 7 February 2008. Retrieved from
http://www.valaconf.org.au/vala2008/papers2008/35_Lewis_Final.pdf
• McCaffrey, C. , Reilly, P. and Feighan, H. (2010) 23 Things @ UL: A Web 2.0 Learning
Experience for Faculty and Staff at the University of Limerick. SCONUL Focus, (50), 25-
28. Retrieved from http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/50/8.pdf
• Titangos, H. and Mason, G. (2009) Learning Library 2.0: 23 Things @SCPL. Library
Management, 30 (1/2), 44-56.
• Whitehead, D. (2009) 23 Things: How Librarians learned to love Web 2.0 through a
unique staff development program. Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Retrieved from
http://repository.lib.polyu.edu.hk/jspui/handle/10397/1258
Sheila Webber, 2011