Information literacy and society: a systematic literature review - Bruce Ryan

Information literacy and society: a systematic literature review - Bruce Ryan

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  BruceRyan 2/22/2024 1.Howdoyoudefine‘impact’inyourworkorpractice? Feedback surveys Studentfeedback Impact… This is notoriously difficult to define and even harder to measure. In an academic library—number of information literacy sessions taught and number of students User feedback Enable people to change their behavior Altmetrics Making a difference... ...to behaviour or learner outcomes. But massively hard to measure. Student engagement with and enjoyment of our service Impact means An observable change in behaviour, changing someone else's practice Students successfully completing a research assignment What impact is not… Just counting stuff. Individuals reached and citations I'm a government librarian and so the measures would be different from a lot here. For us it would be seeing an impact on policy or an effect on research. Changes in learners’ experiences Seeing/hearing how students will incorporate the IL skills they learned in their current projects
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  Seeing positive outcomesin things like improvements in digital skills Student feedback on improved grades Student success and achievement Number of users (students) reached via teaching or 1-1s. Quantitative and qualitative survey feedback. NSS score. SCONUL data benchmarked against other institutions. Student attainment - working on how we measured our impact on student attainment. People using it in everyday work Death by survey Re defining impact as value...looking at impact case studies where IL has given value Student feedback. Returning students. An improvement in students‘ marks, ultimately service usage, and when people provide feedback on how our service has changed their behaviour or outcomes Impact Hard to get acceptance that IL is even worth considering in schools so even harder to show or measure impact. Differences in terminology don’t help Better informed library users Increased engagement with the library service Measuring impact when you teach This is really hard. What does it mean - results improve? Students give you positive feedback? How do you know if they have actually developed their IL abilities? It's going to be very messy Wider contribution Changing existing approaches, policies, improving skills in measurable ways, getting interest from outside your
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  own silos ofwork and contributing on a wider level - getting work known externally and in other disciplines I prefer to focus on understanding- impact seems to be a very positivist, neoliberal term Students/users being able to do something new or do something at a higher level as a result of their library use Successful graduates UX research - identifying student pain points and targeting those. Do we teach students things they need to learn, at a moment when they're useful for them?
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  BruceRyan 2/22/2024 2.WhatistheimpactofILonsociety? Less healthinequalities Enabling people to have an understanding of the amount of information, how to find it effectively and use ethically A more literate and fair society . A rational and informed citizenry in a robust democratic society (Hopefully!) it can help create citizens that think critically about information and systems, and how people contribute to and interact with them The growth of QAnon, according to Matthew Hannah (Hannah, M. N. (2023). Information Literacy in the Age of Internet Conspiracism. Journal of Information Literacy, 17(1), 204-220.) Ability to have critical, informed discussions the perpetuation of middle class and white values People are able to at least suspect that information they come across might be wrong. They don't fall for everything they read. Better IL? Then better, more effective, engagement with wider society. I could argue there is a push towards worse IL (propaganda, fake news, deep fakes, disinformation, etc) to deliberately prevent good engagement and enable dodgy political views to gain power. Informed citizens who can participate in democracies. Productive, rational debate among those who disagree. Healthy dissent. More IL must generally be a good thing... we would assume that it will contribute to people being more informed, more empowered, better connected.
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  Less 'hot takes'and more informed opinions. A more healthy and respectful societal discourse with less hostile polarisation and more tolerance. Full citizen participation Helps people think critically, question what is fake news! Informed citizens who are critical thinkers More people have access to authoritative data and information People thinking more critically about information Responsibility and human rights More responsibility on services and businesses via government policies to safeguard people’s right to good information, evidence and truth and less misuse of personal data and information for gain When faced with a complex information environment and large scale communication platforms at hand, an understanding of this can have big effects. Imagine what IL looks like in a dictatorship. I suppose it exists underground and has to be suppressed. People not led so much by the biased media I think we also put too much on information literacy. It can’t fix all the problems IL and society Lack of IL and too much information create dangerous worlds. We must educate and fund this essential skill from earliest possible age & in the interim educate general population. Promote the positive not the negative messages about information handling Aligns with the UN sustainability goal 4..to give people access to education continued funding for librarians
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  We should tryand understand why people believe conspiracy theories though, because I agree that IL is not 'the' solution - it is just part of it Going outside of one’s bubble is very enticing but people of all political stripes don’t always want to listen to other points of view. Not sure precisely how this relates to Information Literate societies. People learning to take responsibility for the information they create. Role models of good practice
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  BruceRyan 2/22/2024 3.HowcanweincreasetheimpactofIL? Increase understandingof what IL is decolonise IL (and our research methods) Encourage people to use IL skills (which is different from just being aware of them) Come the glorious revolution, our illustrious leader Jane will ensure a greater impact. Grassroots and community building Standardize it across institutions and disciplines Introduce it earlier in schools Start early! Nurture the mindset of evaluating information, using evidence to support arguments Use accessible language Collaborate Have some standardised ways of collecting data so we have evidence across the sector. SCONUL stats type thing for IL.... More research and interventions that include librarians Training the trainers, more IL trainings for librarians etc Be advocates for IL at every opportunity Make friends and influence people- ask for cited sources in conversations Get institutional recognition of what it is, to promote the benefits
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  Illustrate its importancein life - not just a skill for education Be better listeners. Make information accessible. Talk about Information Literacy without saying the phrase Information Literacy. Buy the great leader a crown? A crown AND a golden microphone 🎤 Have IL built into the curriculum throughout all levels of education. Get people to learn to take responsibility for the information they create by providing good practice models & move away from scary stories Question the information systems that we use Promote what it does, rather than framing as IL Challenge our narrow understanding of impact Never to early to start- primary school This is a conversation that goes on for a long time People who understand and foster IL should take government and senior management positions to make the right decisions. Nobody else will make them and we will have this conversation for another 50 years
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  Recognize IL asa discipline Librarians take over the world Get it discussed in mainstream media and in popular culture IL on Eastenders was once talked about and there is a serious point about how you raise public understanding of it Stop positioning IL as a discipline Leverage current recognition that IL is needed to address information challenges Spare a thought for Information Literacy! As it’s clearly having an existential crisis… Make it relevant to people's lives This is where misinformation / disinformation and linking to big issues like the election is important. But we've got to make people care and want this as something for themselves and their children Needs to feature in assessment or it won’t be embraced in schools like IT was adopted Merge IL in every level of education Use the appropriate approach to teach IL Depending on individual situation. If there isn't enough capacity to do 1-to-1s, offer one-off sessions in every single year etc., choose another approach. E.g. train the lectures to teach IL, create self-paced courses, etc.