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Mrs Moira Jane Bent

National Teaching Fellow 2005 Moira has worked in HE libraries for over 20 years, most recently as Faculty Liaison Librarian for Science at Newcastle University. She has been actively involved with the development of learning opportunities across the University, particularly working to integrate information literacy into the curriculum andinto the teaching and learning strategy of the university. Information literacy is about individuals building an awareness of how they use, manage, synthesise and create information, in a wise and ethical manner, to the benefit of society, as part of their learning life. Information literacy is central to learning and essentially involves changing learning attitudes and habits so that people understand how information fits into their learning.
Year
2005
Institution
Newcastle University
Job Title
Faculty Librarian
National Teaching Fellow 2005 Moira has worked in HE libraries for over 20 years, most recently as Faculty Liaison Librarian for Science at Newcastle University. She has been actively involved with the development of learning opportunities across the University, particularly working to integrate information literacy into the curriculum andinto the teaching and learning strategy of the university. Information literacy is about individuals building an awareness of how they use, manage, synthesise and create information, in a wise and ethical manner, to the benefit of society, as part of their learning life. Information literacy is central to learning and essentially involves changing learning attitudes and habits so that people understand how information fits into their learning. Since receiving the NTF award, Moira has undertaken a research project 'to investigate the conflicts and congruencies between staff and student perceptions of information literacy in the transition to higher education'. The core project included an investigation of perceptions of information literacy in schools and universities and library and information aspects of the transition to Higher Education. Her NTF Project Blog at http://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/moira.bent provides a reflective summary of the research and a copy of the final report is available at http://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/. Building on the outcomes of the research, Moira is working within her library service to develop outreach and transition activities with local schools. In 2007 Moira co-authored the book 'Providing effective library services for research' [Facet], based on original research into researcher needs. Subsequent to the publication of the book, the authors developed the 'Seven Ages of Research' model to aid librarians in developing services in this area. Support for international students is also a key interest and in 2008 Moira researched and co-authored a report on 'Library services for international students' on behalf of the SCONUL Access Group. http://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/access/papers/international_students.pdf. Within her profession, Moira is a member of the SCONUL Working Group on Information Literacy. She is also a referee for the Journal of Information Literacy and Northumbria University T&L RECAP Guides and chair of the UK Universities Science and Technology Librarians Group.

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