FOLIO: Facilitatated Online Learning as an Interactive Opportunity

Information for Social Care (I4SC)

Please note...

• The I4SC course ended on May 11th 2004. However, this website retains highly useful information and resources that may be of interest to you.

• I4SC was the first of a series of 12 courses commissioned by the National electronic Library for Health (NeLH) as part of the FOLIO Programme.  
• The evaluation report for this course.

About the I4SC course... 

Welcome to the Information for Social Care (I4SC) web pages.  Information for Social Care (I4SC) is an online interactive course on Social Care information provision that is being delivered by email and Web pages as part of the National electronic Library for Health (NeLH) Librarian Development Programme.  The course began on 22nd March 2004 and will end on 11th May 2004.

To keep track of the course so far, see the I4SC archive. To see an outline of upcoming course materials and exercises, see the I4SC course timetable.

Social Care Information 

For more details about social care information, see the following I4SC briefings:

• Who are the main providers of information for social care (Briefing 2)
• Electronic sources of social care information (Table)
• Evidence-based social care (Briefing 3)
• Developing information products for social care (Briefing 4)

Extra Information 

Portfolio forms for the course are available to download.

Course aim... 

This course aims to expand your understanding of issues and opportunities associated with the provision of information to practitioners working in social care; to give you a better awareness of similarities and differences between the fields of health and social care information provision and to develop your skills in planning and providing an information service suited to the needs of social care practitioners, yet delivered from a health information base.

Course Objectives...

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• Identify the principal information and information-related training needs of practitioners working in social care
• Promote and illustrate the role of social care research and how it can be used to encourage best practice.
• Raise awareness of the key electronic information resources available
• Work with social care practitioners to explore the provision and availability of information in social care.  
• Highlight and compare the differences between health and social care knowledge, and investigate the increasing use of evidence-based practice in both.
• Engage with fellow course participants in discussing issues of common professional concern.