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

Dr Bruce Ryan
Senior Research Fellow
Edinburgh Napier University
Email: b.ryan@napier.ac.uk
Telephone: withheld – email or Tweet me!
Twitter: @bruce_research

Information
literacy and
society
a systematic literature review
Bruce Ryan, Peter Cruickshank, Marina Milosheva: LILAC 2024

Introduction
https://bit.ly/ILSoc
 Introduction
o Discussion questions
o Project team
o Project aims
o What is ‘impact’?, RQs
o Methodology in brief
 Initial findings
 Detailed findings
 Answering the RQs
 Discussions

Discussion questions
Please use padlets (or post-its).
1.How do you define ‘IL impact’
in your work or practice?
https://bit.ly/LIL01
2.What are the impacts of IL on society?
3.How can we increase the impact of IL?
? ?
?

Project team
Bruce Ryan Marina Milosheva
Peter Cruickshank
Bruce Ryan, Peter Cruickshank, Marina Milosheva 5

Project aims
• Large-scale, systematic literature review of
socially impactful IL research
• Filling research gaps
 in scale
 in policy areas

Research questions
1. What is the core research that investigates
the role IL plays for different user groups
in society?
a) How comprehensive is this core research?
b) Which themes are absent from this core
research?
c) Which factors prevent these themes being
researched?
d) Which themes are overrepresented?
?
?
?
? ?
?

Research questions (cont)
2. According to this core research, what are the
barriers and enablers of shaping
information literate populations?
3. What research methodologies in this core
research are most effective at delivering
impact/societal change, and why are these
methods effective?
?
?
?
? ?
?

Methods
Search terms: assess, benefit, effect, evaluat*, impact,
indicator*, measur*, monitor*, outcome, output, result
Classification Number of items
everyday life 356
citizenship 118
education 2825
- tertiary 1993
- secondary 127
- primary 55
- not specified/more than one 650
workplace 296
health 378
none/out of scope 1131

Initial findings

Initial findings (cont)

Primary education findings
Enablers of information-literate societies
• delivering relevant facts to stimulate government action
and funding
• appropriate IL teaching frameworks and IT systems
• teaching of critical thinking
Barriers to information-literate societies
• inappropriate government action/lack of funding,
leading to loss of librarians teaching IL skills in
formative years
• other unwelcome human actions

Secondary education findings
Enablers of information literate societies
• spurs to undertake IL teaching
• supportive school leaderships
• ‘scaffolded’ teaching methods
• taking advantage of suitable relationships within and
outwith formal education
Barriers to information literate societies
• inappropriate teaching and examination policies and methods
• ‘contrary’ human characteristics

Tertiary education and
‘other’ education findings
• supportive university leadership
• positive actions by university librarians and their colleagues
• education around critical thinking
• provision of suitable resources and staffing for IL teaching
• collaboration between librarians and their teaching
• not teaching the full range of IL skills
• not using IL models
• lack of resources, university support and collaboration

Everyday life findings
• national IL frameworks and other government
actions
• improvements to teaching methods and
programmes
• working around socio-cultural and religious
barriers
• can be manifold
Library instruction and information literacy annual
series:
• geographical spread of IL research is increasing,
but ...

Citizenship findings
• ‘good’ parenting
• national IL frameworks
• co-ordination of support for national policies
• advocacy of examination of new issues stemming from
evolving technology
• lack of relevant government action and polices
• lack of updating IL teaching around modern developments and
social needs

Workplace findings
• workplace or in-work IL training
• context-specific IL frameworks
• relevant communities of practice
• poor presentation of information
• overwhelming other aspects of work roles
• lack of training, immediate resources and support
resources
• various demographic factors
• possibly over-generalised IL frameworks
Many papers covered the impact of already having IL.

Health findings
• service-learning methods including group projects
• ‘scaffolded’ teaching methods
• collaboration between librarians and teaching colleagues
• compulsory undergraduate IL education
• socio-demographic factors
• demonstrating the relevance of IL to practice
• lack of respect for librarians
• lack of university IL education
• lack of government action on misinformation
• socio-demographic factors such as being older or male

Answering RQ1
1. What is the core research that investigates the role IL
plays for different user groups in society?
a) How comprehensive is this core research?
policy and governance, education, digital/IT,
health, some professions, personal/citizenship
topics
b) Which themes are absent from this core research?
citizenship, primary education, public libraries,
mis/disinformation, longitudinal, non-textual

Answering RQ1 (cont)
1. What is the core research that investigates the role
IL plays for different user groups in society?
c) Which factors prevent these themes being
researched?
no robust answers
d) Which themes are overrepresented?
tertiary education

Answering RQ2
2. According to this core research, what are the
barriers and enablers of shaping information
literate populations?
Some barriers
government inaction/underfunding
inappropriate teaching
overwhelming other aspects of work
poor information-presentation
socio-cultural barriers faced by
immigrants
Some enablers
• national IL frameworks
• improvements to teaching
• teacher-librarian collaboration
• overcoming cultural and
demographic barriers
• relevant government and
school leadership action

Answering RQ3
3. What research methodologies in this core research
are most effective at delivering impact/societal
change, and why are these methods effective?
no robust answers, but so IL education ‘how-to’s
IL education/training should be
• structured
• integrated
• collaborative
• take into account learners’ needs and
existing abilities

Discussion questions
2.What are the impacts of IL on society?
3.How can we increase the impact of IL?
? ?
?

Discussion question 1
? ?
?

2. What are the impacts of IL on society?
? ?
?

3. How can we increase the impact of IL?
? ?
?

Thank you!
Bruce Ryan
b.ryan@napier.ac.uk
@bruce_research
Marina Milosheva
m.milosheva@napier.ac.uk
mari-milo.github.io
Peter Cruickshank
p.cruickshank@napier.ac.uk
@spartakan
https://blogs.napier.ac.uk/social-informatics
Report is online: https://bit.ly/ILSoc

Dr Bruce Ryan
Senior Research Fellow
Email: b.ryan@napier.ac.uk
Telephone: withheld
Twitter: @bruce_research
Report is online: https://bit.ly/ILSoc
Read more about what we do:
blogs.napier.ac.uk/social-informatics
Thank you!
Marina Milosheva
PhD student
Email:
m.milosheva@napier.ac.uk
Telephone: withheld
Web: mari-milo.github.io
Dr Peter Cruickshank
Associate Professor
Email:
p.cruickshank@napier.ac.uk
Telephone: withheld
Twitter: @spartakan

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

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