Wales IL Framework

The Scottish Information Literacy Project: working with partners to create an information literate Scotland Dr John Crawford A National Information Literacy Framework for Scotland – How did we get here? An Information Literacy Framework for Wales? Gregynog Conference Centre 30/11- 1/12/ 2009

Who are we?

Where it all began Drumchapel Project 2003
An exploratory project – initially ICT skills orientated
Community ICT facilities little used - Library and Cybercafés – implications only now being addressed
School and School Library are main focus for IT use in deprived areas
Little integration of information literacy into the curriculum
Levels of ICT ‘deprivation’ did not seem to be high
Basic IT skills exist- WP, email, Internet
Pupil evaluation of websites poor
An asylum seeking issue
An information literacy skills/transitional agenda emerged

Project objectives
to develop an information literacy framework, linking primary, secondary and tertiary education to lifelong learning including workplace and adult literacies agendas
Advocacy on behalf of information literacy for education and the wider community
Working with information literacy champions both UK and worldwide
Researching and promoting information literacy in the workplace
Identifying and working with partners, both in education and the wider community
Researching the role of information literacy in continuing professional development
Researching the health and media literacies agenda

Agenda issues
a need to explain and promote the concept of information literacy to educational and other bodies - advocacy focus. Included a petition to the Scottish Parliament 2005
Recruited leading information literacy advocates in Scotland as Project partners. (Initially secondary HE/FE) partnership focus
the workplace (studies of GCU students/alumni) - a workplace focus
Adult literacies contacts – an employability focus
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) a CPD focus
An independent learning skill - lifelong learning focus
A major skills agenda but see below

Agenda of issues 2004 -2007-8
2003 – The Drumchapel Project – where it all began
2004 – The ‘one year’ Information Literacy, the Link between Secondary and Tertiary Education Project launched
2005-8 - the first draft of the National Information Literacy Framework Scotland completed, piloted and evaluated
Contact and work with Learning and Teaching Scotland and learndirectscotland (now part of Skills Development Scotland)
Extensive network of partners and contacts from school, FE/HE, workplace, lifelong learning, Adult literacies + overseas
Website developed and more recently blog + PR activities
Initial health and media literacy contacts

2008 -2009 Focus (Esmee Fairbairn Foundation funding)
Restructure the Framework to make it easier to use / more interactive
+ extend the early years, workplace, wider access and lifelong learning components to make it a genuine lifelong learning policy document
Research and progress the information literacy in the workplace agenda

The Framework Skills Levels
Background information and provenance
Acknowledgements
Information literacy – what it is
Information literacy and lifelong learning
Information literacy education
Use of the Information Literacy framework
The framework levels
Information literacy and assessment
Appendices

The Restructured Framework
Draft pdf further developed as a Weblog
static pages (background information, different sectors, levels etc.)
interactive through postings (current activities, developments etc.)
http://caledonianblogs.net/nilfs/
Requires case studies to added:
workplace, SME’s, large organisations (public and private), different professions, FE & HE, public libraries, community learning

The Restructured Framework

Working with the Curriculum for Excellence Literacy team
Curriculum for Excellence Literacy across learning
– experiences and outcomes
Information literacy can be found in:
finding and using information in the listening and talking, and reading sections
understanding, analysing and evaluating in listening and talking, and reading sections "to encourage progression in understanding of texts, developing not only literal understanding but also the higher order skills"
organising and using information in the writing section

“ It is expected that the literacy experiences and outcomes and this accompanying
paper [principles and practice], will be read by a range of practitioners, including those
who work in school library resource centres, who make an enormous contribution to
the literacy skills of children and young people. “

Working with the Curriculum for Excellence Literacy team
Real and Relevant – Information and Critical Literacy Skills for the 21st Century Learner’ (Early and First Level)
The Project’s aims are to work with the Curriculum for Excellence Literacy Team to create a quality CPD Information Literacy resource pack whose target audience will be Early Years (Primary 1, 2 and 3) teachers. This will contain:-
Background Information re Information Literacy
Learning and teaching approaches
Supporting resources –e.g. identification of information literacy / information related activities within the Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes
For more details see http://www.caledonian.ac.uk/ils/il21stcenturyskills.html and http://curriculumforexcellence.pbworks.com/ (shared collaborative space)

Survey of Scottish school librarians and their knowledge and use of Curriculum for Excellence
reading CfE learning Experiences and Outcomes plus Principle Practice papers
identification of information literacy related activities in experiences and outcomes
piloting / creating new activities / updating existing IL activities
what activities they have been involved in and with whom
how school librarians can optimise their efforts to support information literacy and the Curriculum for Excellence experience and Outcomes locally and nationally?

Information Literacy in practice
Pupils from Craigholme School in Glasgow working on their Information Literacy Project (Junior 6)

Information literacy in the workplace study Dec.2007- Jan.2008 – key findings
The traditional ‘library’ view of information as deriving from electronic and printed sources only is invalid in the workplace and must include people as sources of information
The public enterprise with its emphasis on skills and qualifications is a fertile area for further investigation and developmental work
Advanced Internet training extends employees’ information horizons
A skill and qualifications based agenda is an important pre-condition
Most interviewees viewed public libraries as irrelevant for anything other than recreational purposes
Information literacy training programmes must be highly focused on the target audience
An understanding of what constitutes information literacy is widespread in the workplace but is often implicit rather than explicit and is based on qualifications, experience, and networking activities
Organizations which access a wide range of information, of high quality, including sources outwith their organization, will make the best informed decisions

Putting definitions into practice
"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." CILIP (2004) Information Literacy Definition
“ Information Literacy was defined as the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address an issue or problem.” Prague Declaration

What we have found
Different groups of people constantly reinterpret IL in the light of their own qualifications, training, experience and needs
IL is a key career choice, progression, CPD, employability and workplace skill
IL is still not recognised in government policy skills documents produced since 2005. It is rolled up with IT although digital literacy appearing – But see Scottish Government website – Education and Training (Information Literacies)
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/skills-strategy/progress/sg/supportingindividuals/InformationLiteracies/Q/forceupdate/on

The big lessons: (1) general
Develop a community of practice
Partnerships/networking crucial
Use both personal and professional contacts
Work cross sectorally and not just with librarians
Need to balance the utilitarian educational agenda against personal social development
Need to generate learning material content – e.g. workplace community learning
Develop strategies and advocacy from existing policies – but problems
Identify organisations to work with – Skills, Curriculum, CLD, Ofcom
Research/exemplars of good practice – focus on market research
Advocacy strategies – who to talk to – pitfalls – e.g. question to Fiona Hyslop
Funding
Practitioners value support offered – especially school librarians
Have meetings/involve people
Encourage writing and reporting
Evaluate what you do
We need a common language

The big lessons (2) Schools
IL skills training must link to the curriculum
Literacies curriculum outcomes are the most relevant
Librarian should be part of an information literacy skills audit/ literacy team/Cfe team
Whole school initiatives rather than specific departments/subject areas
Most work is done with S1/2; less 3-4; some 5-6
Role of head teacher
Curriculum can inform the structuring of research skills workshops
Curriculum can inform an Institution’s Information Literacy framework
Curriculum can inform planning
Topics perhaps missed – IPR and Internet safety
Is an innovative learning and teaching agenda a key factor? - Govan High e.g.
IL training for trainee teachers?
Partnership working – other schools, other agencies e.g. Young Scot IL material
S 3/4

The big lessons (3) Workplace
Information policies – people, intranet; small range of websites, a few paper sources
Contacts should be established with chambers of commerce, skills agencies and other organisations involved in workplace training
Organizations’ information polices which are largely implicit should be made explicit and should include accessing a wide range of information, of high quality, including sources outwith their organisation
Preliminary skills audits should be carried out within organizations to determine staff information literacy skills and the organization’s information literacy policy
Public sector looks more promising
Information literacy training programmes should initially target sympathetic organizations e.g. public sector
Advanced Internet training programmes should be offered to all workplace employees
The private sector should be researched further – SMEs are difficult
Link to organisational aims and objectives
Do employers know what they want?

Skills utilisation ? A workplace issue
'Skills utilisation is about ensuring the most effective application of skills in the workplace to maximise performance through the interplay of a number of key agents (e.g. employers, employees, learning providers and the state) and the use of a range of HR, management and working practices. Effective skills utilisation seeks to match the use of skills to business demands/needs.' (p.2)
Skills utilisation literature review , a report by CFE for the Education Analytical Services, Lifelong Learning Research, Scottish Government (Executive summary and full text available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/12/15114643/0 )

The big lessons (4) Community development
Support from government policy – e.g. Digital Britain www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/digital_britain_interimreportjan09.pdf
Public libraries have a key role
Recruitment strategy essential – link with Job Centres Plus
Community Learning and Development and librarians should work together to develop appropriate content
Build training round local industry needs
Health information and health management an employability issue
Course scheduling issues especially for men

Open Space Event (SDS) 2009 and June 15 th meeting
About 35 people attended including representatives from secondary and FE/HE education, adult learning, local government, the STUC, Learning and Teaching Scotland, BBC Scotland, a number of commercial agencies and Skills Development Scotland staff. There were also a number of librarians
Consistency and info. Literacy skills to be embedded in all curriculum subjects. (10)
An element in teacher training (young people) inputs (8) 　
Shift focus to individual learners and their successes in developing their own information lit. skills and publicise their rewards in doing so. (7)
June 15 th meeting
Lesley Thomson and Jenny Foreman from the Scottish Government agreed to set up an online community of practice to facilitate further discussion and action – role of civil servants

Other issues
Health literacy agenda can be pursued cross sectorally e.g. public and health librarians
Good practice in HE .e.g. Dundee – Abertay and Dundee University
Scottish Government Information Service – have set up advanced Internet searching skills courses for staff; developed an information strategy for the Scottish Government. Now on Scottish Government website – Education and Training (Information Literacies) – a first? http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/skills-strategy/progress/sg/supportingindividuals/InformationLiteracies/Q/forceupdate/on
Media Literacy – work through Ofcom

Sources of advocacy
Australian Library and Information Association – Information Literacy Forum Advocacy Toolkit http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy/literacy.kit.pdf
Understanding information literacy: a primer. Forest Woody Horton, Unesco, 2008 http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001570/157020E.pdf
Better informed for better health and better care. NHS Scotland 2008 http://209.85.229.132/custom?q=cache:VJZLz91SmKEJ:www.infoliteracy.scot.nhs.uk/media/1012229/theframework.pdf+information+literacy+framework&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=google-coop-np

Some further information (1)
Crawford, John and Irving (2008) Going beyond the ‘library’: the current work of the Scottish Information Literacy Project. Library and information research, (32) 102, pp . 29-37 http://www.lirg.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/article/view/89
Crawford, John and Irving (2009) Information literacy in the workplace: a qualitative exploratory study, JOLIS , (41 )pp. 29-38 http://lis.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/1/29?etoc
McDonald, Natalie and Keenan, Peter (2009) The ‘stuff beyond Google: information literacy in a corporate setting . http://www.information-online.com.au/sb_clients/iog/bin/iog_programme_you_may_be_right_C1.cfm?vm_key=8EDF7462-D5A6-FFAA-AB89D511D74817DA
Crawford, John et al, (2008) Use of information in the Scottish Government, Library & information update, Dec., pp. 48-49
Interview with Philip Pothen, formerly of JISC, 28.11.08 about the work of the Project http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2009/02/podcast71johncrawfordchristineirving.aspx

Some further information (2)
Irving, Christine. (2010), Collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice to enrich The National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland). Library & information research . Forthcoming.
Crawford, John and Irving, Christine (2010) The Scottish Information Literacy Project and school libraries. Aslib proceedings . Forthcoming.
Crawford, John and Irving, Christine (2010?) Information literacy in employability training: the experience of Inverclyde Libraries. Writing up almost complete.
Review article on the work of the Project to be written

Contact details
Dr. John Crawford, Christine Irving
Library Research Officer, Researcher / Project Officer
Milton Street Building Milton Street Building
MS004, (ground floor) MS005, (ground floor)
Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University
Cowcaddens Road Cowcaddens Road
Glasgow, G4 0BA Glasgow, G4 0BA
Tel: 0141-273 -1248 Tel: 0141-273 -1249
Email [email_address] Email [email_address]
Or [email_address]
Project website www.caledonian.ac.uk/ils/
Project blog http://caledonianblogs.net/information-literacy/

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Wales IL Framework

by cirving on Dec 03, 2009

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Wales IL Framework — Presentation Transcript