Il Policy Ct

Developing IL Policy

Serap KurbanoğluHacettepe University, Turkey

Albert K. BoekhorstUniversiteit van Amsterdam

University of PretoriaTallinn University

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making

for, no wind is the right wind

Seneca

©akb UNESCO TTT Cape Town 2008 3

Getting started

Don’t reinvent the wheel: Identify the IL model that works best for your institution Adapt information literacy standards and practices

Design a program based on the standards and experiences Work on a strategic plan Identify and focus on library responsibilities toward IL and

develop library instruction programs accordingly Ensure to teach the research process and its concepts, and

do more than introducing electronic tools and technology Be prepared for challenges & be aware of planning pitfalls


Information policy Describe present situation

Staff Equipment Facilities Instruction

Describe required situation Describe transformation process


Key planning issues

Plan your Information literacy program in concert with overall strategic library planning

Make sure that your plan is tied to library and institutional development plans

Review past performance and try to understand reasons for past failures

Identify opportunities Determine learners’ needs and preferences Understand the impact of IL training on existing operations

and staff function


Potential challenges & planning pitfalls Obstacles such as limited facilities, financial and

human resources Inability to get management and/or faculty involved Lack of clear objectives Assumptions The status problems Resistance towards change Obstacles in communication (different vocabularies) Student motivation (students don’t want to do

anything extra) Perfectionism


Planning Statement of purpose Action Environmental scan

Opportunities and challenges Resources Budget Administrative and instutional support


Planning Integration with the curriculum Collaboration and partnership Pedagogy Outreach and promotion Evaluation Characteristics of the learner Mode of instruction


Mission statement Mission statement describes the overall purpose of the

program and may reflect the values and priorities

Write a mission statement for your IL program

Make sure that the mission statement includes a definition of information literacy; is consistent with the “Information Literacy Standards”; corresponds with the mission statements of the institution; clearly reflects the contributions of and expected benefits to

institutional community; appears in appropriate institutional documents; is reviewed periodically and, if necessary, revised


Goals & Actions Goals are the qualitative and quantitative statements of what

the organization wishes to achieve over a measurable future

State the goal or goals to achieve and make them specific Make sure that goals for your information literacy program:

are consistent with the mission and goals of the institution; are consistent with the mission statement of the IL program; apply to all learners, regardless of delivery system or location; reflect the desired outcomes of preparing students for lifelong

learning; are evaluated and reviewed periodically

List all actions required to achieve each goal Write actions in the order they need to be completed


Enviromental scan Scan both internal and external environment

SWOT/TOWS analysis can be used

Environmental scan Detecs social, economic, and political trends that may affect

organization’s future Detects trends and events important to your plan Detecs institutional factors that can help or limit the

program Provides early warning of changing external conditions Defines potential threats and opportunities implied by

external factors Promotes a future orientation in the thinking of

management and staff Enables to understand current and potential changes to

determine organizational strategies


Internal & external factors

Internal = Strengths and Weaknesses Evaluate the weaknesses and strenghts in terms of

human, economic and physical resources available in the library for the IL program

External = Opportunities and Threats Anticipate and address current and future

opportunities and challenges


SWOT AnalysisStrengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats


TOWS AnalysisExternal Opportunities

External Threats

Internal Strengths

Strategies that use strengths to maximize opportunities

Strategies that use strengths to minimize threats

Internal Weaknesses

Strategies that minimize weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities

Strategies that minimize weaknesses and avoid threats


Resources Identify what is required to implement the

program; Describe the human resources required for

each action; Describe the physical requirements for

each action (e.g. classroom, office space, furniture, equipment, etc.);

Address, with clear priorities, human, technological and financial resources, current and projected


Human Resources Build up your team Employ, develop, or have access to sufficient

personnel with appropriate education, experience, and expertise

Identify and assign leadership and responsibilities within the team


Human Resources Make sure that the staff develop experience in teaching, assessment of student learning,

and curriculum development; develop expertise to develop, coordinate, implement, maintain, and

evaluate IL programs; use instructional design processes; promote, market, manage, and coordinate diverse instruction

activities; collect and interpret data to evaluate and update instruction

programs; integrate and apply instructional technologies into learning

activities; produce instructional materials; employ a collaborative approach to working with others; actively engaged in continual professional development and

training; respond to changing technologies, environments, and communities;


Budget Tie your plan to library and institutional

budgeting cycles Estimate your budget Be flexible in estimating costs Determine how much funding the program

needs (staff = money)


Administrative and institutional support No information literacy program can be developed and

sustained unless it has a strong base of support Support for a successful instruction program has many

interdependent facets The level of support necessary will depend on

the scope of the program the size of the program its connection with other institutional units


Administrative and institutional supportConvince the administration within your institution:

that IL is a learning issue not a library issue and that faculty must also be responsible for students acquiring IL abilities;

to assign information literacy leadership and responsibilities; to plant IL in the institution’s mission, strategic plan, and

policies; to provide funding to establish and ensure ongoing support for

teaching facilities and resources, staffing, professional development opportunities for librarians, faculty, staff, and administrators;

to recognize and encourage collaboration among instutional community (faculty, librarians, and other staff) and among institutional units;

to communicate support for the program; to reward achievement and participation in the information

literacy program within the institution’s system.


Integration into the curriculum Ensure that IL is incorporated into the curriculum; Use institutional decision making mechanisms to ensure

institution-wide integration into academic programs; Identify the scope (i.e., depth and complexity) of

competencies to be acquired on a disciplinary level as well as at the course level;

Sequence and integrate competencies throughout a student’s academic career, progressing in sophistication;

Specify programs and courses charged with implementation;

Merge the IL concepts with the course contents


Collaboration & partnership Collaborate with faculty, librarians, other program staff and

administrators; Establish formal and informal mechanisms for communication

and ongoing dialogue across the institutional community; Collaborate at all stages (planning, implementation,

assessment of student learning, and evaluation and refinement of the program);

Center your collaboration efforts around enhanced student learning and the development of lifelong learning skills;

Work with faculty to develop curriculum, syllabi, and assignments that focus on the research;

Collaborate with faculty to incorporate information literacy concepts and disciplinary content;

Collaborate with faculty to identify opportunities for achieving information literacy outcomes through course content and other learning experiences;


Developing partnership Focusing faculty attention on information

literacy and creating a partnership can present challenges Faculty have many competing interests Most faculty feel that they have established a

partnership with librarians It is not at the top of the faculty’s agenda

Strategies in Developing Partnership Identifying the partners Creating awareness of the issue of information

literacy Avoiding partnership pitfalls


Identifying the partnersDetermine the partners on the target

School Board / Academic senate Faculty engaged with center on teaching

and learning Part-time faculty members Academic administrators Department chairs Individual teachers/professors who may be

doing work that would benefit from an IL program


Creating awareness Support can only come when faculty are aware of what IL

is, why it is important, and what problem it is solving Creating awareness in the minds of faculty is not a one-

time event Faculty awareness of IL can be raised in the following

ways Make a powerful link between critical thinking and IL Talk about IL as a lifelong learning skill Talk about how IL helps students with their current

academic endeavors Talk about IL as one of the essential skills of student

academic life Provide data about the current level of student IL skills


Avoiding partnership pitfalls It is imperative that librarians respect faculty authority

over the curriculum IL literacy program should be introduced as an

enterprise-wide solution to an enterprise-wide problem IL program should have goals that are agreed on by the

faculty and the librarians Avoid giving the message of exclusiveness to faculty Librarians should be mindful of the compactness of the

curriculum Do not exhaust the faculty by inundating them with a

full array of IL standards When introducing an IL literacy program choose the

time wisely Be prepared to define IL


PedagogyMake effective use of instructional pedagogies support diverse approaches to teaching; make effective use of instructional technologies and

media resources; foster critical thinking and reflection; support multiple learning styles; support student-centered learning; determine learning outcomes; assess progress against learning outcomes; build the program on students’ existing knowledge; link information literacy to ongoing coursework and

real-life experiences appropriate to program and course level


Outreach & promotion Outreach / promotional activities for an IL program are the

responsibility of all members of the institution, not simply the librarians

Emphasize the importance of IL and communicate a clear message defining and describing the program and its value to targeted audiences;

Gauge the method most appropriate to the institution; Timing is crucial for successful promotion. Be well informed

and involved with the work of the instution; Provide targeted marketing and publicity to stakeholders; Target a wide variety of groups; Use a variety of outreach channels and media, both formal and

informal; Offer IL workshops and programs for faculty and staff


Promoting strategies Make contact with key members of the staff Take advantage of available opportunities. Make links, where

appropriate, to information literacy when attending meetings Try to integrate an IL session into existing staff training

programme Offer to train lecturers in an aspect of IL, e.g. the use of a

particular database and its new features, and then use this as a selling point

Offer to deliver a session in partnership with an academic, e.g. in a session on plagiarism and referencing

Invite staff to IL events Tie-in discussions on IL with other school priorities such as

combating plagiarism Prepare a formal paper for the management Bring appropriate sections of official reports by educational and

library bodies to the attention of the institutional community


Promoting to students When IL sessions are embedded in curricula, students have a

strong impetus to attend Otherwise, some well targeted publicity will be needed In order to maximise attendance:

Get involved in registration week events and highlight the importance of the IL sessions students will be attending

If held in registration week, ensure that the library orientation session is included in the student’s registration week timetable

Advertise training sessions on Blackboard or the School intranet

Create a promotional flyer to post in student pigeon holes and on school notice boards

Use the orientation session as a promotion opportunity to advertise further events tailored to the particular needs of the student group


Evaluation Systematic ongoing process that should gather data

regarding the progress of instruction program toward meeting its goals and objectives

Influences decisions, guides allocation of resources, helps to decide what to emphasize in the classroom

It is not an end in itself; it is a way to get answers to important questions that have to do with educating students effectively


Evaluation Prepare an evaluation plan which addresses multiple measures

(needs assessment, participant reaction, learning outcomes, teaching effectiveness, and overall effectiveness of instruction program)

Articulate the evaluation criteria in planning documents Use multiple methods for assessment/evaluation Address specific learning outcomes Focuse on student performance, knowledge acquisition, and

attitude appraisal Assess both process and product Develop assessment instruments Coordinate with faculty to explore and implement performance-

based assesment methods Use assessment data in the revision and improvement of the

program Periodicaly review the assessment/evaluation methods


Characteristics of the learners

Keeping the prospective users in mind is essential in the development of instructional programs

Characteristics of next generation learners: They were born during the computer age and grew up in a

technological world They are a much more technically sophisticated generation

than previous generations The visual image is the primary means of communication Multimedia – music, graphics, and video – is the preferred

learning and entertainment experience for many of them They have native ability to multitask They can handle the nonlinear approach (they are interactive

and experiential, and learning occurs through trial and error) They are computer literate, but are not information literate.


Modes of instructionInstruction takes place in many ways, these may include,

but are not limited to, providing: Course-integrated instruction Drop-in workshops Handouts and guides (print & electronic) Web based instruction Stand alone courses

Credit / non-credit Requested / elective

Subject specific instruction Tours Video presentations


Identification of modes of instruction

The modes selected should be consistent with the content and goals of IL instruction

Where appropriate, more than one mode of instruction should be used based on knowledge of the wide variety of learning styles of individuals and groups

When possible, instruction should employ active learning strategies and techniques that require learners to develop critical thinking skills in concert with IL skills


Exercise Make groups Make a SWOT analysis for your library Who are stakeholder in your institution? Construct an IL program planning team


Team Stakeholders

Management institute/school Teachers ‘Librarians’ ICT staff …

Start with small team of ‘sympathetics’


Each team member fills document and calculates score

Discussion on outcomes


Strategy Start with small group Start within one ‘subject’ group Involve ‘management’ Convince ‘teachers’


Strategy II1. Facilitate2. ‘Seduce’3. Oblige


Questions? [email protected]

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