Information Literacy: an international concept

Sheila WebberUniversity of Sheffield Department of Information StudiesOctober 2008

Outline

• Information Literacy as a term• Information Literacy as a subject• Practical developments

– Health – Citizenship/ society – Business– Education

• Issues – now and the future

The term“Information

Literacy”

Sheila Webber, May 2008

• Informationskompetenz• la maîtrise de l’information• Informaatiolukutaito• Informationskompetens• Las competencias en información• La alfabetización informacional• (etc.)

Different languages and different translations leading to different meanings

Understanding of its meaning in different contexts

• Subject discipline• Workplace• Citizenship

• Being information literate within a team

• Oral cultures• Virtual worlds

Growth of Information Literacy as a subject:

Increased collaboration, organisation and conversation

A subject field in itself

• Becher and Trowler (2001) identify indicators of a discipline– The existence of professional associations and journals– The degree to which an international community has

emerged– The existence of academic departments (not yet!)– Graduate students– Identification with the discipline– Distinctive language– Knowledge and research base

Associations: examples• Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy • Chinese Information Literacy Association (Taiwan)• CILIP Information Literacy Group (UK)• European Forum for Information Literacy; & EnIL• ENSIL: European Network for School Libraries and

Information Literacy• National Forum on Information Literacy (USA)• NORDINFOlit (Nordic)• Working group Information Education and Information

Literacy (Czech Republic)

Other collaborations: examples

• Project information literacy “investigates how early adults on different college campuses conduct research for course work and how they conduct "everyday research" for use in their daily lives “http://www.infolitproject.org/

• Sok & Skriv – several universities developed a training resource together -http://www.ub.uib.no/prosj/DK/english.htm

Publications and resources: examples• Journals

– Communications in Information Literacy (USA)– Journal of information literacy (UK)– Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education

• Portals– LOOWI (Netherlands)– ALFIN Red (Spain)– Information Literacy Website (UK)– FORMIST website (France)– Informationskompetenz (Germany)

• Weblogs– ALFIN (Spain)– Information Literacy

Weblog (UK)

Events: European examples in 2008• Creating Knowledge (Nordic) 5th in 2008

http://congress.utu.fi/creatingknowledge2008/• EnIL summer school (Italy)

http://www.ceris.cnr.it/Basili/EnIL/index.html• Rencontres FORMIST (France) 8th in 2008• Las VI Jornadas CRAI (Spain)

http://www.craipamplona2008.org/index.php?section=27• LILAC conference (UK) 4th in 2008

http://www.lilacconference.com/dw/2008/Conference_programme.html

• Annual IVIG conference (Czech Republic)

Educating library and information profession

• Modules within LIS undergrad or Masters programmes (e.g. on IL and pedagogy in HacettepeUniversity, Turkey; in programmes in University College Dublin, Ireland; USA programmes)

• Programmes (MA Information Literacy, Sheffield University UK)

• Resources e.g.– Bibteach (Denmark); – Handbook and online modules (UK)

Example resourcesto help practitioners with teaching, learning

and assessment• Information Literacy (resource developed for by

Learning & Teaching Scotland, sections targeted for pupils aged 9-11, 12-14, 15-18 ) http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/informationliteracy/index.asp

• Intute tutorials suite: http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/• PILOT (Australia)

Research examples• Centre for Information Literacy at the University of Cape

Town • Centre for Information Literacy Research (Sheffield

University, UK) • Robert Gordon University: Information literacies (Scotland) • Information Literacy Research Centre (Linkoping, Sweden)• Web Searching, Information Literacy and Learning (Finland) • Konstanz University IL project (Germany) • Research methods textbook published in Australia

Health

• Need for evidence based health and medical work makes this a rich area for information literacy

• Developments will depend on medical education and health systems in individual countries

• International initiatives such as Cochrane Collaboration imply information literate information use

• Development in UK’s National Health Service– NHS Education for Scotland Knowledge Services Group’s

draft Information Literacy Framework – Infoskills and Facilitating Information Literacy Education

(FILE) modules– National Service Framework of Quality Improvement for

NHS funded library services in England• Other initiatives e.g. in Czech Republic Projects

eHealth and goals accepted by Ministry of Health

Business/ economic

• There are IL activities, but more difficult to track:– Diversity– Different terminology– Confidentiality e.g. in pharmaceutical industry– Conferences & literature give fragmented evidence of

training, programmes, initiatives• A couple of examples:

– Workshops targeted at business community in Slovenia– Cooperation between students and business information

providers in Bulgaria, to learn Business information literacy

– IL programme at Unilever in UK

Governance/ citizenship

Global importance

• UNESCO’s initiatives highlight the value of IL in countries at different stages of development

• Information Literacy to empower citizens and support economic activity at a grass roots level

• Again thinking appropriately about “what is information literacy in this context”

National strategies• A number of countries (& the EU) have policies or

programmes on ICT and/or media literacy (but not explicitly information literacy)

• Example: Finland: – Government Policy Programme for the Information

Society (2007-2011): IT, media literacy and skills for information society.

– Libraries are acknowledged as assets and actors for lifelong learning, civic skills, & info society services

National frameworks & statements

• National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland)

• Toledo declaration on Information Literacy• Information Literacy for all Australians

Education

• Large amount of work in many countries, in school and in Higher Education

• Development may be linked to – external forces for change (e.g. Bologna Process)– educational policy (e.g. as regards teaching quality,

massification) & predominant pedagogic approach of teachers/ lecturers

– nature/ existence of national curriculum– nature of teacher education– status/funding of libraries & of education generally

Developments include• Information Literacy more often appearing in

institutional strategies and/or graduate attributes (see Corrall, 2007 re: the UK)

• More genuine collaboration in curriculum development

• More interest in developing pedagogy• More teachers/ lecturers co-authoring or presenting

individual papers on IL• See literature and conference proceedings

National laws/ strategies• Revised education law making information

management education compulsory for particular age ranges (Spain)

• Paragraph in the Swedish Higher Education act that legislates that all students have to graduate with information skills

• The Finnish Ministry of Education Development Plan for Education and Research 2003–2008 stresses need of university and polytechnic graduates for good information literacy

University quality assurance, and accreditation

• Getting information literacy into standards and policies• Information Literacy then becomes something that must be

addressed• In the USA, information literacy is mentioned in some

university accreditation documents • In the UK, universities have used External Examiners and

outcomes of enhancement reviews• Abertay University (Scotland) volunteered to have a

“subject review” of information literacy education

The many frameworks, models, standards …

• IFLA; UNESCO• ACRL (USA); ANZIIL (Australia/ New Zealand)• SCONUL 7 Pillars of Information Literacy (UK) • Standards of the Information Literate Student & Information

Education Strategy at Universities (ALCU, Czech Republic)• Recommendation for universities for including IL

competency in the new degree structures (Finland)• Maîtrise de l’information des étudiants avancés (master et

doctorat)Eléments pour une formation

Why so many?

• Language• Cultural and educational differences• The process of developing a framework also

develops the understanding and confidence of those involved

• The concept of information literacy is evolving

Issues

• Have already mentioned:– IL for … citizens or workers? (i.e. perhaps IL

education for citizenship and personal development neglected)

– Focus on developing better pedagogic skills and knowledge

– Others’ confusion with IT, media & digital literacy

Lost in inclusion (in other subjects)• Need to lobby at the European level; & national strategies

also usually lacking, hindering a holistic approach• Victim of political-play with concepts like “millennials”,

“information society”, “e” … or other topic or literacy of the moment

• Many reports from Governments, other sectors in which you can play “spot the information literacy”

• To me reinforces idea that need robust national, regional and international discourse: debating issues, ready to present views

Metanarratives / counternarratives

• When Information Literacy starts to succeed …some people want to be radical opponents!

• Problem where the “radicals” have more power• Problem when librarians too willing• “Understanding your role as expert and advocate”

can be more appropriate than “Pleasing your market”

For IL as international concept

• Pragmatism• Openness• Curiosity• Debate• Inquiry• Confidence• Passion• Hope

Sheila Webber s.webber@shef.ac.ukhttp://information-literacy.blogspot.com/http://www.pageflakes.com/informationliteracy/

References

• Becher, T., & Trowler, P. R. (2001). Academic tribes and territories: Intellectual enquiry and the culture of disciplines, 2nd ed. Milton Keynes: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.

• Corrall, S.M. (2007). "Benchmarking strategic engagement with information literacy in higher education: towards a working model" Information Research, 12 (4) paper 328. http://InformationR.net/ir/12-4/paper328.html

• Pejova, Z. et al (2006) Achieving an information society and knowledge-based economy through information literacy. International Center for Promotion of Enterprises. http://www.aso.zsi.at/sl/publikation/2185.html