SSKS blog

Information overload is a term that we are all too familiar with in the digital and technological age. The use of digital media, including e-mails, texts, tweets, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, e-books and virtual libraries are all sources of information that we try and manage on a daily basis. A recent article in the Press and Journal speaks about this explosion of information and highlights the importance of information literacy skills in the digital age.

Information literacy is an essential skill for lifelong learning. Remember that you can download the Information Literacy Pack for Social Services from the homepage of the SSKS website. It offers a seven-step guide to becoming information literate, covering everything from how to formulate a search question, to finding, evaluating, sharing and using your information.

Another useful resource for those interested in understanding and promoting information literacy is the Creating an Information Literate Scotland community of practice for local government. It supports people who are working on information literacy initiatives at both strategic and practitioner levels, and across a diverse range of sectors.

An article in the Scotsman today reports on the phenomenon of social networking – using websites such as Facebook and Twitter – as a way of providing virtual communities where people with common interests can communicate with each other and share information. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has recently produced a guide to using Twitter for government officials, acknowledging a change in the way people communicate. Social networking could be an invaluable tool for many social services communities.

Google, the information giant, has just launched a new development dubbed real-time search, which will make information from social networking sites available in its search results. This is to provide users with up-to-date information and details of events as they happen. As well as returning its traditional search results, links to social networks, news sites and blogs will also be available. Try it out and see for yourself.

SSKS is having some technical problems which means that you may not be able gain access to the full text of journal articles. Our colleagues at NHS Education Scotland, who maintain the technical side of SSKS, are currently working to fix the problem.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience and are doing everything we can to resume the service.