kos, d.; Špiranec, s. understanding the field of critical information literacy: a descriptive...

Understanding the Field of Critical Information Literacy: A Descriptive Analysis of Scientific

Articles

Denis Kos and Sonja Špiranec

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social SciencesDepartment of Information and Communication Sciences

Ivana Lučića 3, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia{dkos, sspiran}@ffzg.hr

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The

Wha

t?

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• Research problem– assessment of critical IL perspectives unavailable and the true influence and nature of CIL not thoroughly researched

• Research goals– reveal the established author, publication and research patterns in the CIL subfield by employing a descriptive statistical literature analysis

Understanding Critical Information Literacy - by Denis Kos and Sonja Špiranec

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The

Why

? ?

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• Rationale for a bibliometric approach– sample creation for inductive literature analyses– (ultimately) defining the thematic scope to facilitate curriculum integration

– the size of the subfield– state of the field and further areas of development


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The

How

?

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bibliometrics– a descriptive analysis of authorship , research and publication patterns

Methodology

• a comprehensive analysis (three databases)• combination of quantitative and qualitative methods

• project began in March, 2015

deductive content analysis – a descriptive analysis of established literature qualities and categories


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“critical information literacy” OR

“critical library instruction”


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The project

- focus on critical perspectives in IL related issues (including

insights from CP, CT, psychology, etc.)


This preliminary report

- focus on the literature returned by the formulated

query

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Google Scholar

SCOPUS

WoS

4.6%

95.4%


805 search results

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805 search results

66.34 %duplicatesnon-article entriesnot mentioning CILmention only in ref.mention in citing art.critical as important

11.55%non-Englishnot accessible

178 articles22.11%


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frequency<3

102 core CIL articles12.67%

(including 22 book chapters)

178 articles22.11%


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frequency<3

frequency=>3

mention CIL only in references

The research sets


102 articles

312 articles

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The

resu

ltsTemporal evolution -> 312 articles

Authorship patterns

Institutions and countries

Journal productivity and contribution sources

Contribution types

Article classification

Deductive content analyses

102 core CIL articles

15Understanding Critical Information Literacy - by Denis Kos and Sonja Špiranec

Temporal evolution in the sets

N=312 articles


Authorship patterns in core articlesN = 102

• 109 unique authors• most articles published by:– Heidi Jacobs (6)– Alison Hicks (4)– Troy Swanson (4)

• 17.43% published 2 articles• 79.82% published 1 article


Institutions and countries• 69 institutions, 7 countries

USA 73,53%Canada 12,75% UK 5,88%Australia 4,9%New ZealandCroatia <1%BIH

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Contribution type N %Journal article 59 57,84%Book chapter 31 30,39%Conference paper 12 11,76%Total 102 100,00%


Contribution type

• Accardi, Drabinski and Kumbier: Critical library instruction : Theories and methods

• Gregory, Higgins – Information literacy and social justice : Radical professional praxis

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Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian

8%The Journal of Aca-demic Librarianship

8%Communications in Information Literacy

5%Library Philosophy

and Practice 5%

portal: Libraries and the Academy

5%

Urban Library Journal 5%

Community College Journal of Research

and Practice 3%In the Library with

the Lead Pipe 3%

Library Trends 3%

Others (N = 1) 53%

N Journal productivity - 1

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N %

Original scientific paper 12 11,76%

Scientific review 34 33,33%

Preliminary report 0 0,00%

Professional paper 51 50,00%

Professional review 5 4,90%

Total 102 100,00%


Article classification


Deductive content analyses

Subject area• 84,31% LIS• 15.69% non-LIS (Education, Politics)

Social level• 88.24% organizational• 7.84% societal• 3.92% individual

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Disc

ussio

n• fluctuating publishing patterns• field activity due to high referal to the concept– actual engagement?

• small number of constant contributors– need for a CIL journal?– more CIL focused events?

• the issues of diversity• more research in transformative IL pedagogy

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Conc

lusio

n• not a mature subfield• more research needs to focus on IL’s inherent criticality

• inductive thematic analyses• taking publishing patterns seriously

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Refe

renc

es1. Andrés, A., Measuring Academic Research. Chandos, Oxford (2009)2. Burdenuk, G.: Living and Learning in the Global Village. In: Lighthall, L.,

Haycock, K. (eds.) Information Rich, but Knowledge Poor? Emerging Issues for Schools and Libraries Worldwide. 109--117. IASL, Seattle (1997)

3. Elmborg, J.: Critical Information Literacy: Implications for Instructional Practice. Journal of Academic Librarianship. 32, 2, 192--199 (2006)

4. Harzing, A. W., Wal, R. van der: Google Scholar: A New Data Source for Citation Analysis. Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics. 8, 1, 62--71 (2008)

5. Jacobs, H.: Information Literacy and Reflective Pedagogical Practice. Journal of Academic Librarianship. 34, 3, 256--262 (2008)

6. Reference Services Review Article Classification, http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=rsr

7. Simmons Holschuh, M.: Librarians as Disciplinary Discourse Mediators: Using Genre Theory to Move Toward Critical Information Literacy. portal: Libraries and the Academy. 5, 3, 297--311 (2005)

8. Tuomaala, O., Järvelin, K., Vakkari, P.: Evolution of Library and Information Science, 1965-2005: Content Analysis of Journal Articles. Journal of ASIS&T. 65, 7, 1446--1462 (2014)

9. Whitworth, A.: The Reflective Information Literacy Educator. Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education. 4, 1, 38--55 (2012)

10.Whitworth, A.: Radical Information Literacy: Reclaiming the Political Heart of the IL Movement. Chandos, Oxford (2014)

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Than

k yo

u!