WISER: TeachingInformation literacyThis session will give an overview of the key concepts and models of information literacy as an important transferable skill for all students. Teaching and library staff may like to come together to this session to review the information skills training provided for students in their subject areas.
Judy Reading
What is information literacy?
http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/ is an excellent place to find out all about it.
Some definitions: In the UK, information literacy is defined by the Chartered Institute
of Library and Information Professionals as follows: "Information literacy is knowing when and why you need
information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner. "
See the CILIP web-site for more detail about each of the eight skills they divide information literacy into:
http://www.cilip.org.uk/professionalguidance/informationliteracy/definition/
What does the ALA say?
In the US the Association of College and Research Libraries of the American Library Association define it thus:
"Information Literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information. "
Again there is lots of information on their site at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/informationliteracy.htm
SCONUL 7 pillars
http://www.sconul.ac.uk/activities/inf_lit/papers/Seven_pillars.html
Information Skills in Higher Education: A SCONUL Position Paper (2003)
This is the approach that the OULS have chosen – very relevant to our context as a university in the UK
The seven headline skills …1. The ability to recognise a need for information
2. The ability to distinguish ways in which the information ‘gap’ may be addressed knowledge of appropriate kinds of resources, both print and non-print selection of resources with ‘best fit’ for task at hand the ability to understand the issues affecting accessibility of sources
3. The ability to construct strategies for locating information to articulate information need to match against resources to develop a systematic method appropriate for the need to understand the principles of construction and generation of databases
4. The ability to locate and access information to develop appropriate searching techniques (e.g. use of Boolean) to use communication and information technologies, including terms international academic networks to use appropriate indexing and abstracting services, citation indexes and databases to use current awareness methods to keep up to date
continued…
5. The ability to compare and evaluate information obtained from different sources awareness of bias and authority issues awareness of the peer review process of scholarly publishing appropriate extraction of information matching the information need
6. The ability to organise, apply and communicate information to others in ways appropriate to the situation to cite bibliographic references in project reports and theses to construct a personal bibliographic system to apply information to the problem at hand to communicate effectively using appropriate medium to understand issues of copyright and plagiarism
7. The ability to synthesise and build upon existing information, contributing to the creation of new knowledge
Information skills model
What are the Oxford University Library Services doing?
If you look at our web-site you will get lots of information http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/information_skills
Our user education policy has two aims:
1. To ensure that all members of the University are offered effective support and guidance in identifying and using appropriate information resources
2. To develop and promote information expertise as a general and transferable skill for students and researchers of the University at levels appropriate to their needs
Why would academics and teaching staff be interested?
• We want to know and intend to try and find out• We can use common misconceptions and difficulties identified
by academics and students in using information resources as key learning outcomes when we design our programmes
• Best to embed information literacy in teaching programmes so we can use real tasks and natural assessment opportunities
• We need to ensure what is offered is appropriate to the needs of specific subjects and specific groups of students at specific points in their academic career
Designing learning opportunities
• We are interested in good pedagogic practice• We want to make sure we can assess the value of what we do
through verifiable learning outcomes• Team teaching would be ideal – partnership between
academics and librarians – each with distinctive role
Key concepts in information literacy
“I only have an hour … what should I cover to develop transferable skills?”
Get students and researchers to • use quality resources as well as Google • Think about what keywords they are using and how they are
combining them (Boolean logic)• Use the subject and other indexes provided• Be prepared to work a little
Students want Google-type ease of searching linking through to immediate full-text …
We want them to understand something of the complexity of the information environment of their subject.
