Creating Knowledge is an international conference focused on information literacy in higher education institutions. In 2024, the conference was held on 5–7 June at the University of Helsinki. The conference brought together 200 participants from 18 countries, with 80% of the attendees from the Nordics.
Creating Knowledge has been organised every two to three years in different Nordic countries for 20 years. While the conference is organised under the umbrella of the NordInfolit network, the arrangements in each country are independently carried out by a local organisation. In Finland, Helsinki University Library assumed responsibility for organising the conference, with library professionals from seven other higher education institutions included in the organisation team.
The theme of the conference in 2024 was ‘Think Before You Click: Responsibility in the Digital Information Landscape’.
The invited speakers gave presentations on highly topical themes, adding to each other’s viewpoints effectively. Professor Minna Huotilainen from the University of Helsinki investigates learning through brain research methods. She highlighted the basics underlying all learning and information processing, such as the fact that those who sleep soundly are the best able to cope with new difficult tasks.
Professor Matti Tedre and Senior Researcher Henriikka Vartiainen from the University of Eastern Finland talked about the basics of artificial intelligence and insightful AI education with children and adolescents. Siim Kumpas from the European External Action Service of the EU introduced his work, which involves identifying and preventing foreign information manipulation and interference. Situational awareness and flexibility are central elements of these efforts, as is information literacy. In other words, we at Helsinki University Library are contributing to the fight against foreign information manipulation.
The conference was a success, and we received rather positive feedback from the participants. We also received constructive development suggestions that will benefit the organisers of subsequent conferences.
As a team and a library, we learned a lot about conference and event production. We also learned new things about our colleagues, making our team gel further as a group supporting one another.
We made many new acquaintances, both participants and organisers of the conference. The conference and events team as well as Financial Services at the University of Helsinki were an invaluable support for the organisation team. We were reminded of the importance of asking for help, as there are many experts at the University with more in-depth knowledge of specific matters than the generalists at the library.
We didn’t personally learn as much from the conference presentations and workshops as we would have liked, as our concentration was divided between many other things too. Once the conference concluded, we were spent. Looking back, we could have communicated much more about the content of the conference, including highlighting its themes after the event.
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Organising a conference takes a lot of time and is always a big effort for the organising party. The time taken up by the conference reduces the time available for other duties, which is why the goal of organising the event should have been defined more clearly. In this case, the conference took place in Finland and at the University of Helsinki, as it was Finland’s turn and someone had to organise the event. The goals and benefits of these arrangements hovered in the background, without being defined in more detail. This was reflected and felt in the work done.
The goals for organising the conference could include the following:
1. Promoting the visibility and reputation of the organising university, its research and library
2. Highlighting the conference topics in higher education communities and society
3. Developing the skills of the staff of the organising library
4. Promoting coping at work among the staff of the organising library and their recreational activities
5. Networking and establishing partnerships between individuals and organisations. By organising the conference, organisations can demonstrate their reliability and responsibility in collaboration networks.
We at Helsinki University Library are friends of continuous learning, and next time we will be able to more effectively set goals and plan to achieve them. We are now also able to assess when a conference would be an effective way to promote things and when another way would work better.
Päivi Helminen
Information Specialist, team leader