The document discusses the role of media and information literacy (MIL) in society. MIL is defined as the set of skills needed to access, evaluate, and share information and media content in various formats. Cultivating MIL skills in the population is essential for sustainable development. Key stakeholders in developing MIL include ministries of education and ICT, universities, libraries, and private sector representatives. The document also outlines models of information literacy, requirements and competencies, and categories important for creating an enabling MIL environment at the national level such as education policy and access.

1. The role of schools and libraries
in the information society
Varga, Katalin, PhD
University of Pécs, Institute of Library and Information Science,
Pécs, Hungary
Varga.Katalin@feek.pte.hu
Well being in the information society
TÁMOP-4.2.2.C-11/1/KONV-2012-0005

2. Cultivation of a media- and information-literate population
is essential for the sustainable development of any society.

3. MIL is defined as a set of competencies that empowers
citizens to access, retrieve, understand, evaluate and use, to
create as well as share information and media content in all
formats, using various tools, in a critical, ethical and
effective way, in order to participate and engage in
personal, professional and societal activities.

4. Depending on the country, key stakeholders
are likely to be found among the following
• Ministries responsible for information, communication,
education, ICT and Internet, employment and culture;
• Universities, information and communication faculties
or departments, national departments of statistics;
• Library associations;
• Information management institutions;
• Museums and archives;
• Educational institutions, including those training
information and media professionals;
• Private sector representatives including those from IT,
e-commerce, and the information and media sector;
• Information professionals and civil society.

5. • Definition of information need: question formulation in natural language
and with controlled vocabulary, defining keywords, defining descriptors
or subject headings, using a thesaurus.
• Definition of relevant information resources: printed resources, parts of a
book, search engines, thematic websites, library catalogues, electronic,
digital and virtual libraries, reference databases.
• Localisation of information: search strategies, filtering options, Boole
operators etc.
• Finding relevant information: finding relevant information in different
resources, selecting relevant information, finding the fastest way to the
information, eliminating duplicates.
• Investigation of information from different aspects: selection, evaluation,
analysis, organisation, storing, highlighting the most important elements.
• Processing information: reflection, synthetisation, making bibliographies,
citing.
• Management of information: creating new information, applying new
knowledge, presentation of new knowledge, managing information,
saving information.

6. The model of information literacy

7. Requirements and competencies of
information literacy
Requirement Competencies
Recognition of the information need  Self-evaluation
 Problem solving competencies
 Intelligence
 Curiosity
Knowing the world of information  Concept of information
 Information formats
 Measuring quality and quantity of information
 Knowing the significance of information
Knowing the nature of information
resources
 Basic literacy
 Media literacy
 Library literacy
 Internet literacy
 Web 2.0 literacy
Information searching competencies  Text comprehension
 Reading ability
 Searching among library materials
 Digital literacy
 Searching in databases
 Searching on the internet
 Using Boole operators and information retrieval
tools
 Handling the data structures
 Search strategies and tactics
 Evaluating search results

8. Requirements and competencies of
information literacy
Evaluation and selection of
information
 Recognising quality information
 Concept of credibility
 Concept of reliability
 Concept of objectivity
 Critical thinking
 Arguing and discussion skills
Make use of information  Application of research methods
 Creativity
 Innovativity
 Ethical issues
o Citing rules
o Plagiarism
o Copyright
Creating new information  Text composition
 Presentation skills
 Artistic, creative skills

9. Categories important for creating an
enabling MIL environment at national
level
• Media and information in education
o The existence of a mandatory MIL course in the official curriculum (by the
International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED level),
particularly in secondary school and in the teacher training curriculum;
o The existence of training programs to specialize teachers for teaching MIL;
o Specific programs specialized in MIL studies (by ISCED level).
• Media and information literacy policy
• Media and information supply
• Media and information access and use
• Civil society

10. Information literacy in
practice
• In Hungary 11 higher education institutions are
offering BA and MA programs in library and
information science.
• LIS schools in Hungary work with the same core
curriculum, which is supplemented by different
specializations.
• Hungarian LIS students are well trained in digital
literacy and can attend high quality courses on
reference work.

11. Specialization in information
literacy pedagogy (Pécs)
• This program emphasizes the importance of a
critical approach towards information and
information resources, and teaches strategies of
information retrieval, legal and ethical questions
of the use of information.
• The courses’ aim is to develop students’
consciousness of information literacy, and to
prepare them for teaching the competencies
of information literacy in schools and libraries.
• Many of these students choose a topic for their
theses from the field of information literacy.

12. Information literacy skills of
students in Hungary
• The survey was taken in 2014, the number of
answers is more than 2500.
• We got answers from almost all universities and
colleges in Hungary, and also from people who are
already working.
• A quite clear picture about information seeking
behaviour and information literacy of students.

13. Where do you search information
for everyday life?
friends
colleagues
radio
tv
journals
internet search engines
reference databases
borrowed books
own books
library

14. Where do you search information
for your studies
friends
colleagues
radio
tv
journals
internet search engines
reference databases
borrowed books
own books
library

15. What do you use the Internet for?
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
politics,
economy, news
study, work,
research
hobby, games everyday
administration
government
administration
facebook e-mail, skype,
chat

16. How do they search?
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Use Boole
operators
Evaluate the hits Satisfied with the
first 10 hits
yes
no

17. What is difficult in research?
Evaluating the sources Reading through the material
Taking notes Integrating different sources
writing Re-phrasing
Knowing when I should cite a source Knowing how to cite
plagiarism or not Deciding whether "I'm done" or not
Knowing whether I've done a good job

18. The frequency of consulting
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
How often do you consult these
resources for providing information
during your course-related
assignments?
Course readings
Search engines
Library catalogues
Encyclopedias
Governmental Web
sites
Research databases
Gray literature
Blogs
Wikipedia
Facebook
You Tube
Slideshare
Online forums
Your personal
collection
Library shelves
different resources

19. Major findings
• Except for thesis writing, Hungarian students
rarely are required to fulfil tasks that would be
called research, either qualitative or
quantitative.
• There are no difficulties for them in defining a
topic and getting started on an assignment.
• They have no bigger difficulties in defining a
search question and strategy.
• About 20% of the students said they have
problems with identifying relevant hits.
• It is also hard for them to convert the collected
material into new information.

20. Major findings
• For information seeking the majority of the
students uses internet search engines, mainly
Google.
• Hungarian students rarely consult
government sites, and unfortunately they do
not like to use research databases in order
to solve study assignments.
• In the selection process freshness and
reliability are major issues.
• One of the most important aspects is that
the resource should be in Hungarian.

21. Thank you for your
attention!
Varga, Katalin, PhD
University of Pécs, Institute of Library and Information Science,
Pécs, Hungary
Varga.Katalin@feek.pte.hu