Information literacy: recognising the need - an introduction

Alison Pope    Information Services, Staffordshire University

Geoff Walton    Information Services, Staffordshire University

Context

The Government White Paper, January 2003, states that:

"As well as improving vocational skills, we need to ensure that all graduates, including those who study traditional academic disciplines, have the right skills to equip them for a lifetime in a fast changing work environment.'1

It is our view that, in addition to offering excellent academic courses, higher education institutions should aim to give students the chance to gain grounding in the skills which will support them in the future, both as citizens and employees. Many notably Bruce (1995) and Bundy (2004) argue that of all these skills, the need to be information literate is essential.

What is Information Literacy?

Information professionals throughout the world are familiar with the term information literacy and it has seen wide and varied use since the term was first coined by Paul Zirkowski in 1974 (Andretta, 2005). It has been observed by Owusu-Ansah (2003) that the information profession has, and continues to, put forward the information literacy, cause with a near-missionary zeal although there does exist a minority view which questions the worth of information literacy regarding it as merely a vehicle for librarians to redefine their roles in the digital age (Wilder, 2005).

The 2003 Prague Declaration (resulting form a UNESCO-sponsored conference) added weight to the importance of the concept regarding information literacy not only as an important set of skills to enable information to be gathered and used but also essential for effective participation in the 'information society', a basic human right and an integral part of education for all (USNCLIS, 2003). One of the basic principles within this document states, "The creation of an Information Society is key to social, cultural and economic development of nations and communities, institutions and individuals in the 21st century and beyond."

Building on the work done at Prague, the final report of the High-Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning held at Alexandria in November 2005 has recently been made available on the internet. In her press release announcing this publication Breivik (2006) says,

"The report argues that the existence of information holds little to no value to people who do not even know what information they need, much less whether it exists or not, or how to locate, evaluate and effectively use it." 2

Breivik quotes Abdelaziz Abid, Senior Programme Specialist, Communications and Information Sector of UNESCO,

"Information literacy has become a global issue, and many Information Literacy initiatives are being documented throughout the world. Information Literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments and to all levels of education".

It is generally recognised that information literacy teaching and learning requires a shift from teaching specific resources to a set of critical thinking skills involving the use of information (Kasowitz-Scheer & Pasqualoni, 2002). This is reflected in many current information literacy models and in recent research in information literacy teaching and learning (Bordinaro & Richardson, 2004). The most significant information literacy initiatives have taken place in the United States and Australia/ New Zealand (Virkus, 2003). There are also references to information literacy developments in specific countries such as, China, Japan, Mexico, Namibia, Singapore, South Africa (Virkus, 2003), Canada (Julien & Boon, 2002), Tanzania (Hepworth & Evans, 2006) and Turkey (Kirbanoglu, 2004). IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations) is developing a definition (Lau, 2004) which is intended for application in any national context. Within the European Union (EU) a number of information literacy initiatives have been reported in local EU languages for example, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian and Spanish amongst others (Virkus, 2003).

In the United Kingdom (UK) increased interest and activity in information literacy is reflected in the recent issues of the CILIP journal Update published in 2005 and 2006 which contained many articles entirely devoted to the subject. Within the UK information literacy activity can be found in Higher Education (a recent example is Walton, 2005), Further Education (Arthur et al, 2005), the NHS (Brettle, 2003), schools (Smith & Hepworth, 2005) and the business sector (Lloyd, 2003). In Scotland information literacy has reached the political agenda via Dr John Crawford's petition to the Scottish Parliament (Webber, 2006).

There has been much debate regarding the terms information and literacy and the arguments for and against using these terms, whether they should be used together and what they mean (Owusu-Ansah, 2003). Again Australia and the United States have led the way in embracing and articulating the concept. In its Higher Education Competency Standards for 2000 the US based Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) defined information literacy as,

"an intellectual framework for understanding, finding, evaluating, and using information-activities which may be accomplished in part by fluency with information technology, in part by sound investigative methods, but most important, through critical discernment and reasoning".

According to their definition the information literate person must be,

".able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information"3

Across the world models have developed which characterize the skills and attributes an information literate person should have. In America there is the ACRL model, in Australia and New Zealand the Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy (ANZIlL) model and, closer to home in the United Kingdom, the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) 7 pillars model (SCONUL, 1999), the Big Blue model created by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded "Big Blue" project in 2002 and Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) contributed a new definition in 2005 (Armstrong et al 2005).

Why is Information Literacy important now?

The external impetus

The massive increase in information available world wide is a huge imperative. In Student learning in the information age (1997) Breivik reports that the sum of human knowledge will double every 73 days by 2020. Terms such as 'information overload', 'data smog' and 'information glut' all capture the essence of the problem.

In the UK the gradual shift from a manufacturing industry to an information-based economy makes information literacy essential. The Government's agenda seems clear and later in 2006 the Leitch Review of Skills will report back to the HM Treasury on the optimum skills profile the UK should aim to achieve by 2020 in order to support productivity and economic growth as well as social objectives. The interim report was published in December 2005 and focused sharply on the need for functional numeracy and literacy. The Review is working with a wide range of stakeholders to build an evidence base in order to set ambitions for the second decade of the 21st century: the higher education sector needs to be ready to respond.

The higher education context: e-learning, PDP and the quality agenda

E-learning has become an increasing part of the higher education agenda (Stiles, 1999). Not only in the sense of the formal learning that takes place in classes and through VLEs, but also all the material that students use informally via the Internet, television and other media.

From 2006/7 the higher education sector will need to make provision for Personal Development Planning (QAA, 2000a) and institutions will have to provide an opportunity for students to record their learning experience formally and to show evidence of progression and higher learning. Information literacy skills can provide structure to students' reflective practice and enhance their learning.

The tracking of learning outcomes to match benchmarking statements made by the QAA (2000b) has encouraged higher education institutions to focus on information literacy. Subject benchmark statements for taught undergraduate subjects outline subject specific abilities and general transferable intellectual skills which reinforce the importance of students being information literate on graduation.

Indeed, information literacy lies at the heart of the QAA's definition of "graduateness". The QAA's "Understanding qualifications: the frameworks for higher education qualifications" web page describes honours level degrees in the following way,

"Honours level

Graduates with a bachelor's degree with honours will have developed an understanding of a complex body of...