Transcript Slide 1

The Scottish Information Literacy Project:
working with partners to create an information literate Scotland
Advocacy - a core function
for Information Literacy:
John Crawford
Project Director
Some basic points
• Advocacy is not a part of information literacy. It
is fundamental to the process
• The term information literacy must be used
• Information literacy is too ghettoised in the
information world
• We must align our aims with the bodies we are
targeting
• We must use the language of the bodies we
target
• Look for pegs to ‘hang’ IL on
• Well intentioned generalisations won’t do
A quote
• ‘Is this not just a case of librarians
finding something new to do [i.e.
information literacy] to fill in the time
between nine and five’
Charlie Gordon
MSP
From the librarian’s point of view
• Australian Library and Information
Association – Information Literacy Forum
Advocacy Toolkit
http://alia.org.au/advocacy/literacy.kit.pdf
• ‘Public libraries will expand their programs
to include information literacy training’ but
• ‘Libraries are part of our lives. They are a
place for education and self help…’
Four Alexandria Proclamation
principles
• Education and Learning,
• Health and Human Services,
• Business and Economic Development,
• Governance and Citizenship.
• http://www.ifla.org/III/wsis/info-lit-forall.htm
Draft CILIP Advocacy Strategy
• Focuses around mobilising CILIP in the
direction of advocacy – internal feel
• It is extremely weak on specific targeting
and this is only mentioned in an appendix
• Could I go out and do something specific
after reading it?
• Can we suggest any key stakeholder
groups for targeting from IL point of view ?
Workplace study
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Contacts should be established with chambers of commerce, Adult Literacies
partners, trade union learning representatives (STUC),CBI Scotland; the Institute of
Directors; the Scottish Council Development and Industry and the planned new super
skills council
Organizations’ information polices which are largely implicit should be made explicit
and should include accessing a wide range of information, of high quality, including
sources outwith the organisation
Preliminary skills audits should be carried out within organizations to determine staff
information literacy skills and the organization’s information literacy policy
The viability of developing information literacy training programmes should be further
researched
Information literacy training programmes should initially target sympathetic
organizations
Advanced Internet training programmes should be offered to all workplace employees
The private sector should be researched further
The provision of information literacy training programmes by public libraries should be
investigated
Developmental work should be undertaken with Adult Literacies agencies
NHS contacts should be expanded to progress the health literacies agenda
Skills Agenda
• ‘Skills are fundamental to achieving our
ambitions, as individuals, for our families and for
our communities. They help businesses create
wealth, and the help people realise their
potential. So they serve the twin goals of social
justice and economic success.’
• But only ICT skills mentioned
• Skills, getting on in business, getting on at work
(Great Britain. Department for Education and
Skills 2005. vol. 1. pp.1,)
Futureskills Scotland
• A recently published report (Futureskills
Scotland 2007, p.26) took a broadly
optimistic view of the training situation in
Scotland but found gaps, mainly in the soft
skills area, among which problem solving
was particularly highlighted
Higher education
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UK universities are engaging with information literacy at a strategic level but
performance is uneven
IL well represented in institutional strategies for information, student skills
and L&T
Less evident in graduate attributes and research strategy documents
‘The resource implications of IL initiatives are rarely elaborated’
The term ‘information literacy’ featured explicitly in documents on 34 sites
‘Information literacy teaching is embedded within 75% of the undergraduate
and postgraduate taught course curricula and the aim is to achieve 100%
penetration by 2008’
‘Learning and teaching strategies now seem the preferred institutional
strategy for practitioners to target’
‘Patchy evidence linking information literacy strategically with research
Corrall (2007)
A few questions
• What about support staff?
• Working with learning and educational
development departments?
• Are you involved in retention and
progression issues, student experience,
independent learning initiatives, transitions
Government and lifelong learning
• ‘Appropriate national authorities should develop a
National Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning
Strategy and Vision for the country as a whole’
• (Horton p.41)
• Problem over specific targeting
• Don’t let it get confused with ICT policy
• Model Government (National) Information Literacy &
Lifelong Learning Policy Statements
• Lifelong learning strategy for Scotland – mainly ICT
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2003/02/16308/
17750
Finland as an example
• The Information literacy project (2004 - 2006) was
funded by the government and aimed to raise the profile
of IL by:
• Informing decision makers at all levels
• Integrating IL into academic studies
• Testing the implementation of IL with different projects.
the Ministry of Education has recognised that libraries
have a role to play in the development and teaching of
study skills and that IL skills are vital. See
http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/default/OPM/Julkaisut/2
004/liitteet/opm_190_opm08.pdf?lang=fi
Our friends in the North
Health literacy (1)
• ‘the capacity to obtain, interpret, understand,
and use information to promote and maintain
health’
• Health care moving from a paternalist to a
partnership model
• More individual responsibility for prevention,
informed decision making and consent
• Bob Lindsay’s Blog :
http://boblindsay.blogspot.com/2008/01/healthinformation.html
Health literacy (2)
• Target groups include young people, older
adults and those suffering from long term
conditions
• Partnerships between public libraries and health
care professionals :
• East Dunbartonshire healthy reading scheme –
aimed at young people – school/public librarians
and health professionals
• Partnership for Patients – Update July/ Aug
2007
• But – good work not getting reported
Medline Plus Go Local
• Begun in 1998 as a result of the use of Medline by non
specialists and is now the highest scoring US
Government website. It contains information on 740
health topics on conditions, diseases and wellness.
There is also information about drugs and supplements,
a medical encyclopaedia and a dictionary, reports on
clinical trials, interactive tutorials, health information for
senior citizens and even videos of surgical procedures.
Successive redesigns have led to an increase in visuals
over text which is compiled by medical writers and
pitched at a reading age l of 11-13. The text is available
in English or Spanish and the drawings are created by a
medical illustrator. The site is managed by a team of five
supported by 25 contractors who supply content and add
web links. Maintained by National Library of Medicine.
Media Literacy
• The Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA)
http://www.amlainfo.org/history
• AMLA was formed in 2001 to unite the media literacy
field and lead the drive to include the teaching of media
literacy in a wide range of formal and informal
educational settings, including classrooms as well as
after-school programmes and youth organisations like
the Boy Scouts
• Recent policy document – Core Principles of Media
Literacy Education (AMLA 2008)
• Who should we speak to – Ofcom, Association for Media
Education in Scotland
A supporting quote
• Information Age, January 2008 reports on
a Microsoft commissioned survey which
showed that information literacy and ICT
skills which are currently ranked 7th out of
12 in a list of skills needed for business
success are set to jump to 2nd place by
2017.
Petitions and e-government
• A petition can be hosted on the Scottish Parliament's
website for an agreed period
• an opportunity to attract a much wider audience and
gather more names in support of the petition
• Signatures welcomed from outside Scotland
• Each e-petition has its own discussion forum, where
visitors and supporters can discuss and debate the
petition
• After agreed period presented to Petitions Committee in
usual way
• Not many comparators (Bundestag)
What we did
• Submitted petition electronically late
October 2005
• Publicised on elists
• Attracted 710 signatures worldwide
• Wrote to the Scottish press
• Ken Mackintosh (MSP) asked questions in
the Scottish Parliament
• Attended committee to present petition
Outcomes
• Very favourable reaction from the
profession and professional media –
otherwise zilch
• Petitions Committee wrote to the Scottish
Executive, a range of NGOs and unions
• Other interested bodies subsequently
submitted evidence
Some conclusions
• Target groups need to be identified and
pursued
• We must influence the skills agenda
• We must ‘deghettoise’ information literacy
• No quick fix – our experience of the
Curriculum for Excellence as an example
Some sources
• CILIPS Information literacy toolkit. Has a section on
advocacy
http://www.slainte.org.uk/cilips/infoliteracy/ilresources/ind
ex.htm
• Understanding information literacy: a primer . Forest
Woody Horton, Unesco, 2008.
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.phpURL_ID=25956&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION
=201.html
• Information Literacy Resources Directory
http://www.infolitglobal.info/
Contact details
Dr. John Crawford,
Library Research Officer,
Room 302, (3rd floor)
6 Rose Street,
Glasgow, G3 6RB
Tel: 0141-273 -1248
Christine Irving
Research Assistant / Project Officer
Room 302, (3rd floor)
6 Rose Street,
Glasgow, G3 6RB
Tel: 0141-273 -1249
Email [email protected]
Email [email protected]
Project website
www.caledonian.ac.uk/ils/
Questions?