Dr. Mark HepworthDepartment of Information Science

Loughborough University

The Information Literacy journey

A journey: defining information literacy

• Where have we come from?• Where are we now?• Where are we going?

Where have we come from?• The desire or need for more people to take advantage of

higher education – often coming from non-traditional backgrounds

• Students entering with low levels of information literacy – misplaced ‘Google’ expectations

• Generalised, high level models – ANZIL, CILIP, ACRL, SCONUL etc.

• Stemming, generally, from higher education and, to some extent, schools

• Individualistic• Focused on a discrete skills set – related to doing a

project• Emphasis on ‘what people do’ and to a limited extent

‘what people think’ – little emphasis on the culture of information literacy and the context specific nature of information literacy.

Where are we now?High level ‘drivers’• Increased emphasis on the value of people’s

capabilities – learning organisations, independent learners, lifelong learning, intellectual assets, people as ‘capital’

• The need to deal with information intensive workplace – increase in partnerships and the need for governance, assurance, transparency

• Information literacy in the community has become associated with better decision making, empowerment, choice, participation, governance, democracy

• The need to cope with a rapidly changing environment – including information overload

Where are we now?

• Still dealing with challenges– Institutional– Capacity– Infrastructure– Resources– Leadership

Where are we now?Changing ideas about information literacy• The fact that our relationship with information is

largely instinctive, unconscious and socially defined• It is not a discrete skills set; it is a culture; it is

embedded in social contexts; it is defined by the physical and intellectual context

• Learning is a ‘messy’, iterative and complex business – neat, linear models don’t resonate with the learner

• People do not relate to the (library) language of information literacy, nor, the abstract models we tend to use

• It is highly embedded in different contexts ... school, university, the workplace, the community

Where are we going?• Realising the complexity of how people learn

and learning about how to teach information literacy – informed learning– Innovative pedagogy e.g. team approach ‘travel

chest’• Taking on board constructivist, cognitive, behavioural, sensory

paradigms

– Using games– Developing diagnostics – Using e-learning and online tutorials e.g. use of

second life

• A shift to participative approaches to developing information literacy

Where are we going?• Understanding the contextual nature of

information literacy and the need to integrate IL into work habits– Creating environments that enable good information and

knowledge management e.g. using Enterprise 2.0 Web2.0) to foster and develop IKM capabilities

– Government IKM skills framework– i-know OU workplace IL package– Royal College of Nurses (RCN) research competencies– Research Information Network (RIN) research

competencies framework + SCONUL

• Beginning to focus on monitoring and evaluation e.g. diagnostic tool kits; levels (outcomes and impact)

Thank you for listening.Any questions?