eliterate or illiterate

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eliterate or illiterate?

• The relationship of Literacy, Information
  Literacy and IT Literacy

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or Ten Axioms of Information Literacy

• Suggested by the work of the
• SCONUL Advisory Committee on Information Literacy

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Axioms?

• that which is thought to be right
• established principle
• a self-evident proposition or truth

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Rationale ISTF to ACIL

• Definition Boundaries
• Linking theory, politics and practice
• An integrated myth
• ISTF to ACIL
• Workload permanency
• Not just skills and training
• Belief in the IL concept?

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Information Literacy
Recognise information need
Distinguish ways of addressing gap
Locate and access
Compare and evaluate
Organise, apply and communicate
Construct strategies for locating
Synthesise and create
Novice Advanced Beginner Competent
Proficient Expert
Basic Library Skills
IT Skills
6
Conceptual Boundary Axioms
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Axiom OneInformation Literacy is an extension
of Literacy
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What is Basic Literacy?

• Using printed and written information to
  function in society in order to achieve ones
  goals, and to develop ones knowledge and
  potential
• OECD (1996)
• National Assessments of Adult Literacy 2003

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from Bernardo, 2000

• Literacy is
• embedded in the activities and practices of a
  community
• Extracting and processing complex meanings from
  text and other printed forms of language
• to sort through information, to think and reason
  beyond the given information

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Conclusions from A1

• Information literacy can be seen as part of the
  requirements for functional literacy
• As basic literacy is about reading and writing
  then information literacy can be seen as being
  about reading and writing in a particular
  social context
• IL is about the creation and formation of meaning

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Information Literacy
Distinguish ways of addressing gap
Recognise information need
Locate and access
Compare and evaluate
Organise, apply and communicate
Construct strategies for locating
Synthesise and create
Novice Advanced Beginner Competent
Proficient Expert
Basic Library Skills
IT Skills
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Information Literacy
Distinguish ways of addressing gap
Recognise information need
Locate and access
Compare and evaluate
Organise, apply and communicate
Construct strategies for locating
Synthesise and create
Novice Advanced Beginner Competent
Proficient Expert
Basic Library Skills
IT Skills
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Axiom TwoInformation Literacy is a combination
of knowledge, skills and practice
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from Savolainen, 2003

• Competence is a combination of
• What to do (Knowledge)
• How to do it (Skills - the technical aspect)
• But also, for a full model in practice
• Outcome expectations
• Perceived self-efficacy
• Perceived competence
• Affects (anxiety, enjoyment)
• Experiences of information seeking

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A2 Conclusions

• If IL is driven by the national skills agenda,
  it may lack knowledge motivational components
• eliteracy focus tends to concentrate on the
  technical rather than content aspects
• More research on practice needed
• Information skills was perhaps an unfortunate
  transition from user education

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Axiom ThreeInformation Literacy is not IT or
ICT Literacy
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Information Literacy IT Literacy?

• Increasingly, information technology skills are
  interwoven with, and support, information
  literacy ACRL, 2000
• ACIL UCISA TLIG
• Joint model?
• ECDL NetCulture matrices
• 7PM with IT ivy
• Distinction in content knowledge vs personal
  skills

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I/ECDL

• Concepts of Information Technology
• Using the Computer and Managing Files
• Word Processing
• Spreadsheets
• Databases
• Presentation
• Information and Communication

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A3 Conclusions

• E-literacy does not equal information literacy
  plus IT literacy
• By talking about e-literacy we separate
  Information Literacy and restrict our concept to
  literacy with electronic and digital objects
• Information Literacy can exist with or without
  IT Literacy and vice versa?
• no serious person believes that resources
  available on the web are superior to the contents
  of a library, but many act as if it were so
• Appleton, 2003 Gorman, 2003

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Use of search engines (Stacey et al)
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Axiom FourInformation Literacy may depend on
other competences, particularly in the digital
world, but it is a distinct entity
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Media Literacy Statement, DCMS, 2001

• Opportunity to learn to understand and
  manipulate multiple digital media understanding
  of power and use
• Critical viewing skills
• Distinguish fact from fiction
• Appreciate different levels of realism
• Awareness of commercial messages
• Awareness of economic imperatives in news
• Justify media preferences
• obvious links to the citizenship agenda

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Social Political Axioms
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Axiom FiveInformation Literacy is a personal
lifelong learning process a through-life need
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ACIL related activities

• CILIP
• Knowledge economy
• Start with the Child
• Social inclusion
• National Forum for the UK?
• New strapline definition
• Broader application of the 7PM
• WSIS

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Axiom SixIL programmes should be embedded and
integrated with other learning programmes
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ACIL Action Lines

• National
• Subject benchmarks
• Research
• HE White Paper
• JISC e-literacy Colloqium
• Institutional
• LT Strategies
• Survey of inclusion and involvement

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Practical Axioms
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Axiom SevenInformation Literacy is contextual
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Literacy and context

• Literacy is a social practice rather than a
  skill that varies in accordance with
  socio-cultural contexts and customs
• research suggests transfer of literacy skills
  across domains is unlikely
• the proponents have effectively underscored the
  power of literacy in allowing individuals to
  master and control various types of information
  encountered in the environment
• Hautecour, Barton Hamilton, Bernardo, 2000

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Axiom EightIL is contextual by local resource
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Information Literacy
Distinguish ways of addressing gap
Recognise information need
Locate and access
Compare and evaluate
Organise, apply and communicate
Construct strategies for locating
Synthesise and create
Novice Advanced Beginner Competent
Proficient Expert
Basic Library Skills
IT Skills
33
Information Literacy
Distinguish ways of addressing gap
Recognise information need
Locate and access
Compare and evaluate
Organise, apply and communicate
Construct strategies for locating
Synthesise and create
Novice Advanced Beginner Competent
Proficient Expert
Basic Library Skills
IT Skills
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Axiom NineInformation Literacy is contextual by
subject
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ACIL Subject Work

• Initially
• Chemistry
• Theology
• Education
• Now expanding to
• Medicine Health
• Concepts of academic tribes (Becher, 2001)

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A9 Conclusions

• Information Literacy in a subject context
  requires assimilation into the relevant
  academic/professional language and customs
• IL requires knowledge of the relevant
  literature (See Axiom 10)
• Consideration of Grid and dataset skills
• The drive for graduate transferable skills may
  lead to oversimplification and may therefore fail
• Where does this leave generic programmes?

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Axiom TenInformation Literacy requires
knowledge of relevant information science
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What is information science?

• Volume, growth, relationships and regularities of
  the literature
• Information retrieval, including citation and
  ranking relationships and issues
• Communication and publishing in the relevant
  field
• Information quality

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Model Conclusions

• The Model to be understood as more than a
  laundry list of qualities
• The Model not to be a framework for simple
  standards
• The Model requires fitting to the relevant
  context and community
• The Model is about knowledge creation as well as
  retrieval

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J. Stephen Town

• Director of Information Services
• Royal Military College of Science
• Defence Academy of the UK
• Deputy University Librarian
• Cranfield University
• j.s.town_at_rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk
• Acknowledgments
• Selena Lock Members of ACIL

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