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Editor's Notes

1. Talking about the What, why and how of IL – what it is, why it’s important and how we can help people become more information literate. Quick intro about me and my background – perhaps include my journey to IL? Mention the group? Special Interest Group of CILIP Current membership approx. 1,500 Meet 4 times a year at CILIP HQ in London Journal of Information Literacy LILAC (Librarians’ Annual Information Literacy Conference) Workshops Sponsor research / training May focus a bit more on definitions than intended originally as we’re *just* about to launch a new definition of IL
2. What is IL? Called different things by different groupings. All the same thing, just looked at through a different lens. I’m a librarian, so I tend to think of the “Information” bit as most important… but doesn’t matter what its called really.
3. 3 definitions (mix of IL and DL). 7 pillars was massive in HE within the UK, less so within FE, but still influential. These things reflect the focus of the definers, but same thing underlying each of them. Brings us on to CILIP definition
4. CILIP (explain) defined it in a quite functional way at the time that the group I’m part of was just starting out (developed 2003 / 2004) – so the sort of things that focus on an academic setting when people go off an find info and in a way that made sense for HE & FE librarians to teach the skills implied by it… We’ve *just* updated it, set for launch next week at LILAC (explain) So still the same thing, but trying to expose that it isn’t just a “library thing”, its something that lots of people need to input into. Its about more than just working out how to find a book in the library and (if you’re lucky), cite it in a reference list. This is not a short definition! High level definition – which can easily be quoted. Secondary statement – to give supporting information to the definition explaining further what Information Literacy is. Contexts – I’ll come on to in a minute The role of Information professionals – this is an important element, especially then there has been an erosion in school, public and college libraries of the professional Librarian. They are needed to advocate, support an and enable information literacy. Librarians don’t just do this in isolation and works best in collaboration with other professionals to embed Information Literacy.
5. Making informed choices in elections and referendums Fake News and Alternative Facts From Citizenship section: IL allows individuals to acquire and develop their understanding of the world around them; to reach informed views; where appropriate, to challenge, credibly and in an informed way assumptions/orthodoxies (including one’s own), and even authority; to recognise bias and misinformation; and thereby to be engaged citizens, able to play a full part in democratic life and society. Information literacy helps to address social exclusion, by providing disadvantaged or marginalised groups with the means of making sense of the world around them and participating in society. In a global environment where ‘fake news’ has become a recognised term, an ability to display critical judgement about multiple information sources, particularly online, is crucial. Whether in relation to conventional news outlets, social media, internet searches or simply information communicated orally, information literacy helps to reach views about the reliability and authority of information sources. In these ways too, information literacy reinforces democracy and civic engagement. Information literacy, along with media literacy, underpins ethical journalism.
6. Most relevant to us today are IL and the workplace, and IL and education (next slide)
7. When people leave college, we hope they take subject knowledge from their courses with them… but we also hope they take more general skills (like these). The skills to think critically about information and not just take things at face value. To be able to deal with transition to the next level of learning, whether that is to Higher Levels of education (degree, masters, etc.), or into workplace learning… as we hope it gives learners the intellectual strategies to help their lifelong learning journey. From education definition: In formal educational environments, information literacy can be seen as the critical capacity to read between the lines. It enables learners to engage in deep learning - perceiving relationships between important ideas, asking novel questions, and pursuing innovative lines of thought. This active and critical way of learning encourages pupils and students to quickly master factual and descriptive elements of content (‘What’ and ‘How’) and then move on to investigate higher-level aspects such as source, degree of authority, possibility of bias, and what it means in the wider context. It is in line, for instance, with the English National Curriculum aim to equip students “to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement” [5] Importantly, information literacy equips learners at every level with the intellectual strategies and tools such as adopting a questioning approach, not only to solve problems, but also to frame problems and situations in new and ground-breaking ways. This capability is crucial, beyond education, to meeting the expectations of the workplace [6].
8. Flicking away from the CILIP definition now, Secker and Coonan carried out a study as part of a Cambridge Uni project and developed ANCIL – their IL pizza shows some of the key areas of skills that make up an information literate student. In lots of places IL is either seen as a “library” thing, or just generally ignored in the curriculum as something that somehow magically emerges in students. The ANCIL work flagged up that this doesn’t really work. What works brilliantly however, is using this sort of framework to look at the areas you want to develop in students and having a range of people help to address them. So it isn’t something that librarians teach. Or lecturers teach. Or Learning support tutors teach. Or anyone in isolation. It’s something that is taught best by a range of people, with different groups experts in different areas, set within the context of a subject area.. So “managing information”, or “resource discovery” is bread and butter to librarians – we can teach students these skills all day, every day…. but “knowledge creation” within a subject area? Or what it means to be an “independent learner” in a particular context? Probably not. So a range of professionals all have different strengths to improve students IL in different areas. The key is working together to identify what an information literate student looks like and who does what and when so we can develop students most effectively and efficiently.
9. So “Information literacy” isn’t something you can send students to a librarian to learn. It’s not a “lonely” type teaching activity delivered by librarians. It’s something that happens best when students see the different aspects of it in the context of their learning, with certain aspects delivered by information professionals, certain by lecturers, much in reflection with colleagues and classmates. The best information literacy learning takes place when it is embedded within the curriculum and facilitated by a range of experts. (Building on precious slide… Audit and support from different peeps… whole college…)
10. The way that IL is taught is also important, not just who it is taught by. IL is socially constructed – it develops based on the context you find yourself studying, working, or living within. So the *best* teaching happens in a way that is highly interactive and allows discussion. It allows learners to build on prior knowledge and experience and apply the skills to those. (Mention project stuff as matching this?) It’s another reason that IL teaching is best delivered by a range of people embedded within the curriculum. As a standalone, its hard for students to see how the skills match the course context – and their prior experience. But within the course itself, these things start to make a lot more sense and they build a lot more value and relevance into the knowledge Especially when we use constructivist approaches like active learning, enquiry based learning, or for me, increasingly play and games based learning. (pic is BA Ed students from local colleges!)
11. So in summary, IL is a key lifelong learning skill, that can be transformational for our learners’ lives and is one best addressed in partnership with a range of people, set in the context of their life and studies. Thank you for listening… for more on Information Literacy, our group website has lots of great information.