Information
Literacy: an
international
concept
Sheila Webber
University of Sheffield
Department of Information Studies
October 2008

Outline
• Information Literacy as a term
• Information Literacy as a subject
• Practical developments
– Health
– Citizenship/ society
– Business
– Education
• Issues – now and the future

The term
“Information
Literacy”

• Informationskompetenz
• la maîtrise de l’information
• Informaatiolukutaito Different
• Informationskompetens
languages
and
different
• Las competencias en información translations
leading to
• La alfabetización informacional different
meanings
• (etc.)
Sheila Webber, May 2008

Understanding of its
meaning in different
contexts
• Subject discipline • Being information literate
• Workplace within a team
• Citizenship • Oral cultures
• Virtual worlds

Growth of Information Literacy as
a subject:
Increased collaboration,
organisation and conversation

A subject field in itself
• Becher and Trowler (2001) identify indicators of a
discipline
– The existence of professional associations and journals
– The degree to which an international community has
emerged
– The existence of academic departments (not yet!)
– Graduate students
– Identification with the discipline
– Distinctive language
– Knowledge and research base

Associations: examples
• Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy
• Chinese Information Literacy Association (Taiwan)
• CILIP Information Literacy Group (UK)
• European Forum for Information Literacy; & EnIL
• ENSIL: European Network for School Libraries and
Information Literacy
• National Forum on Information Literacy (USA)
• NORDINFOlit (Nordic)
• Working group Information Education and Information
Literacy (Czech Republic)

Other collaborations: examples
• Project information literacy “investigates how
early adults on different college campuses conduct
research for course work and how they conduct
\"everyday research\" for use in their daily lives
“http://www.infolitproject.org/
• Sok & Skriv – several universities developed a
training resource together -
http://www.ub.uib.no/prosj/DK/english.htm

Publications and resources: examples
• Journals
– Communications in Information Literacy (USA)
– Journal of information literacy (UK)
– Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education
• Portals • Weblogs
– LOOWI (Netherlands)
– ALFIN (Spain)
– ALFIN Red (Spain)
– Information Literacy
– Information Literacy Website (UK) Weblog (UK)
– FORMIST website (France)
– Informationskompetenz (Germany)

Events: European examples in 2008
• Creating Knowledge (Nordic) 5th in 2008
http://congress.utu.fi/creatingknowledge2008/
• EnIL summer school (Italy)
http://www.ceris.cnr.it/Basili/EnIL/index.html
• Rencontres FORMIST (France) 8th in 2008
• Las VI Jornadas CRAI (Spain)
http://www.craipamplona2008.org/index.php?section=27
• LILAC conference (UK) 4th in 2008
http://www.lilacconference.com/dw/2008/Conference_progra
mme.html
• Annual IVIG conference (Czech Republic)

Educating library and information
profession
• Modules within LIS undergrad or Masters
programmes (e.g. on IL and pedagogy in Hacettepe
University, Turkey; in programmes in University
College Dublin, Ireland; USA programmes)
• Programmes (MA Information Literacy, Sheffield
University UK)
• Resources e.g.
– Bibteach (Denmark);
– Handbook and online modules (UK)

Example resources
to help practitioners with teaching, learning
and assessment
• Information Literacy (resource developed for by
Learning & Teaching Scotland, sections targeted for
pupils aged 9-11, 12-14, 15-18 )
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/informationliteracy/inde
x.asp
• Intute tutorials suite: http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/
• PILOT (Australia)

Research examples
• Centre for Information Literacy at the University of Cape
Town
• Centre for Information Literacy Research (Sheffield
University, UK)
• Robert Gordon University: Information literacies (Scotland)
• Information Literacy Research Centre (Linkoping, Sweden)
• Web Searching, Information Literacy and Learning (Finland)
• Konstanz University IL project (Germany)
• Research methods textbook published in Australia

Health

• Need for evidence based health and medical work
makes this a rich area for information literacy
• Developments will depend on medical education
and health systems in individual countries
• International initiatives such as Cochrane
Collaboration imply information literate information
use

• Development in UK’s National Health Service
– NHS Education for Scotland Knowledge Services Group’s
draft Information Literacy Framework
– Infoskills and Facilitating Information Literacy Education
(FILE) modules
– National Service Framework of Quality Improvement for
NHS funded library services in England
• Other initiatives e.g. in Czech Republic Projects
eHealth and goals accepted by Ministry of Health

Business/
economic

• There are IL activities, but more difficult to track:
– Diversity
– Different terminology
– Confidentiality e.g. in pharmaceutical industry
– Conferences & literature give fragmented evidence of
training, programmes, initiatives
• A couple of examples:
– Workshops targeted at business community in Slovenia
– Cooperation between students and business information
providers in Bulgaria, to learn Business information
literacy
– IL programme at Unilever in UK

Governance/
citizenship

Global importance
• UNESCO’s initiatives highlight the value of IL in
countries at different stages of development
• Information Literacy to empower citizens and
support economic activity at a grass roots level
• Again thinking appropriately about “what is
information literacy in this context”

National strategies
• A number of countries (& the EU) have policies or
programmes on ICT and/or media literacy (but not
explicitly information literacy)
• Example: Finland:
– Government Policy Programme for the Information
Society (2007-2011): IT, media literacy and skills for
information society.
– Libraries are acknowledged as assets and actors for
lifelong learning, civic skills, & info society services

National frameworks & statements
• National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland)
• Toledo declaration on Information Literacy
• Information Literacy for all Australians

Education

• Large amount of work in many countries, in school
and in Higher Education
• Development may be linked to
– external forces for change (e.g. Bologna Process)
– educational policy (e.g. as regards teaching quality,
massification) & predominant pedagogic approach of
teachers/ lecturers
– nature/ existence of national curriculum
– nature of teacher education
– status/funding of libraries & of education generally

Developments include
• Information Literacy more often appearing in
institutional strategies and/or graduate attributes
(see Corrall, 2007 re: the UK)
• More genuine collaboration in curriculum
development
• More interest in developing pedagogy
• More teachers/ lecturers co-authoring or presenting
individual papers on IL
• See literature and conference proceedings

National laws/ strategies
• Revised education law making information
management education compulsory for particular
age ranges (Spain)
• Paragraph in the Swedish Higher Education act that
legislates that all students have to graduate with
information skills
• The Finnish Ministry of Education Development
Plan for Education and Research 2003–2008
stresses need of university and polytechnic
graduates for good information literacy

University quality assurance, and
accreditation
• Getting information literacy into standards and policies
• Information Literacy then becomes something that must be
addressed
• In the USA, information literacy is mentioned in some
university accreditation documents
• In the UK, universities have used External Examiners and
outcomes of enhancement reviews
• Abertay University (Scotland) volunteered to have a
“subject review” of information literacy education

The many frameworks, models,
standards …
• IFLA; UNESCO
• ACRL (USA); ANZIIL (Australia/ New Zealand)
• SCONUL 7 Pillars of Information Literacy (UK)
• Standards of the Information Literate Student & Information
Education Strategy at Universities (ALCU, Czech Republic)
• Recommendation for universities for including IL
competency in the new degree structures (Finland)
• Maîtrise de l’information des étudiants avancés (master et
doctorat)Eléments pour une formation

Why so many?
• Language
• Cultural and educational differences
• The process of developing a framework also
develops the understanding and confidence of
those involved
• The concept of information literacy is evolving

Issues

• Have already mentioned:
– IL for … citizens or workers? (i.e. perhaps IL
education for citizenship and personal
development neglected)
– Focus on developing better pedagogic skills and
knowledge
– Others’ confusion with IT, media & digital literacy

Lost in inclusion (in other subjects)
• Need to lobby at the European level; & national strategies
also usually lacking, hindering a holistic approach
• Victim of political-play with concepts like “millennials”,
“information society”, “e” … or other topic or literacy of the
moment
• Many reports from Governments, other sectors in which
you can play “spot the information literacy”
• To me reinforces idea that need robust national, regional
and international discourse: debating issues, ready to
present views

Metanarratives / counternarratives
• When Information Literacy starts to succeed …
some people want to be radical opponents!
• Problem where the “radicals” have more power
• Problem when librarians too willing
• “Understanding your role as expert and advocate”
can be more appropriate than “Pleasing your
market”

For IL as international concept
• Pragmatism
• Openness
• Curiosity
• Debate
• Inquiry
• Confidence
• Passion
• Hope

Sheila Webber
s.webber@shef.ac.uk
http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
http://www.pageflakes.com/informationliteracy/

References
• Becher, T., & Trowler, P. R. (2001). Academic tribes and
territories: Intellectual enquiry and the culture of disciplines,
2nd ed. Milton Keynes: Society for Research into Higher
Education and Open University Press.
• Corrall, S.M. (2007). \"Benchmarking strategic engagement
with information literacy in higher education: towards a
working model\" Information Research, 12 (4) paper 328.
http://InformationR.net/ir/12-4/paper328.html
• Pejova, Z. et al (2006) Achieving an information society and
knowledge-based economy through information literacy.
International Center for Promotion of Enterprises.
http://www.aso.zsi.at/sl/publikation/2185.html